An advanced PSC-based framework for enhancing CSR ultimate compressive strength predictions considering structural member location

Paper in proceeding, 2026

This study proposes a new correction framework based on the plate stiffener combination (PSC) model, accounting for structural memberlocations and initial distortions within a 2 bay-2 span flat-bar stiffened panel. The Common Structural Rules (CSR) formula has limitations in accurately capturing the location-dependent local strength variations in PSC models caused by welding-induced initial distortions. For this, nonlinear finite element analyses were performed for 64reliable scenarios based on the ISSC (2012) report. The finite element (FE) analysis method was validated through comparison with ISSC benchmark 6 cases, showing an average error of 0.6%. Through analysis of the selected scenarios, the interdependent effects of stiffener size and number (aspect ratio) on the ultimate compressive strength (ULS) were quantitatively identified. The main outcome of this study was the explicitcorrection-factor (Cf) formulas, derived using symbolic regression. The proposed empirical formulations showed a good agreement with numerical results (R²=0.99). It is expected to enhance the reliability of strength assessment and structural design of ship structures.