F5C-UI8 Sit -1368 Sep toed jaajor openings [4] where compensation did not reduce the stress concentration factor adequately. For minor and medium sized openings, the more common way of reinforcing the opening is to weld a flat bar around the ‘opening or a reinforcing ring tothe top and or bottom of the opening as shown in Figure 31 [3] . doubler 9.100% j Siem pte tn Peinforcement = (2aiA) x 100 re Bt~'fo te as Ao Gssssectonassct (meet 55.60% ieesme 2a= Cross sectional area 1 ©) Ureinforced | of reterial removed "plate with — Opering a 4) Opening reinforced by an insert plate [ (Section D-D) ot 4) Opering reinforced by a single doubler plate (ection B-B) 2 a a ZA, (7 ©) Opening reinforced by a face bar eeorco [| $I} a a = | Figure 31: Typical Types of Reinforcements. Figure 31 illustrates how stress concentrations that are caused by minor and medium sized openings can often be partially alleviated by replacing the material that was removed. Careful consideration of how to do this will allow the designer to gain an equivalent stiffness in the material such that the primary structure will respond to loads as though the opening were not present. Despite this, the local mismatch between stiffness of the reinforcement and the plate constituting the primary structural element will cause stress concentrations. The goal is to ensure that these stress concentrations are substantially lower than the stress 2concentrations present before reinforcement. Another problem occurs when the depth of the reinforcement is large compared with the surrounding plate. This is often the case for reinforcements in the form of flat bars welded around the boundary of the hole. If the flat bar is too deep, the material farthest from the surrounding plate will not be effective in alleviating stress. Using the formula for percentage reinforcement from Figure 31, it is theoretically possible to reinforce a hole to 100% of the cross sectional area by the methods. described. It has been determined through experimentation, however that the ‘optimum amount of reinforcement for the typical methods described in Figure 31 can be considerably less than 100%. These values are presented in Figure 32. Type of Reinforcement ‘Optimum eccarteaa of Reinforcement ‘Single Doubler Plate, Figure 31 (d) 90% = 100% J Face Bar, Figure 31 (e) 34% - 40% Insert Plate, Figure 31 (f) 30% - 60% Figure 3; ptimum Percentage of Reinforcement. The method of reinforcement depends on several factors. Amongst these factors are the type of construction used, degree of workmanship required, cost and weight. Figure 32 illustrates the relative effectiveness of the different types of reinforcement. To achieve adequate reinforcement using a single doubler plate will require 90 ~ 100% of the sectional area of the removed material. The other two methods require substantially less material. The single doubler plate method is usually only employed where the cost of material and labor exceeds the need for weight savings. Given these two methods for lowering the stress concentration factors from openings, it is of primary interest to any designer to determine how much the ‘stress consentration factors have been lowered after application of the methods. There are limited theoretical means of determining this. The best means of determining the improvement is to perform a finite element analysis for the reinforced and or compensated opening. Despite this, a theoretical approach will be presented here for rectangular openings with rounded corners in an infinite plate [5]. This is especially applicable to minor and medium sized openings. 3