Large Elastic-Plastic Deformation Analysis of Rectangular Plates

The purpose of this paper is to find a fast and simple solution for the large deformation of rectangular plates considering elastic-plastic behavior. This analysis contains material and geometric nonlinearities. For geometric nonlinearity the concept of load analogy is used. In this method the effect of nonlinear terms of lateral displacement is considered as suitable combination of additional fictitious lateral load, edge moment and in-plane forces acting on the plate. Variable Material Property (V.M.P.) method has been used for analysis of material nonlinearity. In this method, the basic relations maintain the form of stress-strain elastic formula, while material properties are modified to take into account the path-dependency involved in elastic-plastic deformations. Therefore, the solution of a von-Karman plate enduring large elastic-plastic deformations is reduced to that of an equivalent elastic plate undergoing small deformations. The method of solution employed in this study is computationally efficient and can easily be used for various boundary conditions and loadings.