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CVEN 844: FAILURE THEORIES PRESENTATION ON LIMIT STATE ANALYSIS OF

PERFECTLY PLASTIC MATERIALS

BY

BELLO, Aliyu Muhammad

P21EGCV8006

SUBMITTED TO

DR ADAMU LAWAN

SEPTEMBER, 2023
LIMIT STATE ANALYSIS OF PERFECTLY PLASTIC MATERIALS

Introduction

Loads applied to materials that lie within the elastic limits are used in the analysis of both statically
determinate and indeterminate structures. The deflections of such materials due to the applied
loads are considered to be very small. Carrying out design based on the elastic behaviour of a
material ensures that the greatest stress in a structure does not exceed the yield stress divided by
an approximate factor of safety. These factors of safety ensure that structures are designed to have
enough reserve strength over and above the elastic limit until they reach their ultimate strength.
The factors used to derive the material reserve strength include structural redundancy and the
ability of the material to deform inelastically without major loss of strength.

Another possible approach that has gained support for the past 30 years or so is plastic analysis.
The work at Cambridge University by the late Lord Baker, Professors Horne, Heyman, and others
provided the basis for this method. This approach involves calculating the loads required to cause
the structure to collapse. Put another way, it is based on determining the least load that causes a
structure to collapse. Collapse does occur when sufficient plastic hinges have formed to convert
the structure into a mechanism.

The major impetus for using this plastic theory is that in the majority of steel structures, especially
redundant ones, the loads required to cause structural failure are rather larger than the ones that
cause yielding. Based on this method, design computes the loading needed to result in complete
failure and then ensures that this load exceeds the applied loading. The ratio of the collapse to the
maximum applied load is known as the load factor. Basically, employing plastic, or ultimate load
design, results in economical structural sections.

Advantages of Plastic Design

I. Uniform and realistic factor of safety for all parts

II. Provides more economic sections over elastic methods
III. Plastic design produces a balanced section in a single attempt
IV. No effect due to temperature change, settlement of supports, imperfections, etc. However
instability and elastic deflections should be checked

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LIMIT STATE ANALYSIS OF PERFECTLY PLASTIC MATERIALS

Disadvantages of Plastic Design

I. For plastic design all cross sections must be able to sustain the plastic moment, MP without
showing any sign of local buckling. In order to achieve this, the sections must be compact
i.e either class 1 or class 2 cross sections to EC 3
II. Lateral bracing requirements are more stringent.
III. The material must be ductile enough to undergo plastic rotation without failure. This
ductility is provided by most design codes.

Perfectly Plastic Materials

Ideal or perfectly plastic materials are a simplification used in structural engineering to model the
behaviour of materials that undergo plastic deformation without hardening. In reality, very few
materials exhibit such behaviour. In such materials, once a certain stress level is reached, they
continue to deform plastically without a significant increase in stress. Examples of such materials
are: rubber materials in their elastomeric range; soft metals (e.g., aluminium, which, especially at
high temperatures, can exhibit perfect plasticity); lead due to its high ductility under relatively low
stress without significant hardening; etc.

Mild steel is considered an almost perfect material for plastic analysis. When a specimen of the
material is loaded beyond its elastic limit, the stress remains constant as the strain increases, as
shown in figure 1.0. This phenomenon is known as plastic flow. This results in the formation of a
plastic hinge, where a section rotates at the plastic moment capacity for a beam section subjected
to an increasing moment.

The stress-strain curve of structural steel in figure 1.0 is divided into elastic, plastic, and strain-
hardening regions. It is customary in structural design to neglect the strain hardening of the
material and utilise mainly the elastic and plastic parts of the stress-strain relationship.
Also, careful tests have shown that the stress-strain curve for mild steel in compression is identical
to the one in tension up to the point of maximum stress. Thus, the complete graph, assuming a
perfect elastic-plastic behaviour is depicted in figure 1.1. Mild steel is made to fit this behaviour
by neglecting strain hardening and other effects.

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LIMIT STATE ANALYSIS OF PERFECTLY PLASTIC MATERIALS

Fig 1.0: Stress-strain curve for plastic design

Fig 1.1: Idealised stress-strain curve for mild steel

Plastic Bending of Beams

Consider a length of beam subjected to a positive bending moment, M, and possessing a

symmetrical cross section as shown in figure 1.2. If M is very small, the beam bends elastically,
producing a linear stress-strain distribution. In this situation, the elastic neutral axis passes through
the centroid of the beam.

If the bending moment M is increased, a stage is reached where the direct maximum stress in the
section, at a point further away from the elastic neutral axis, is equal to the yield stress. The
corresponding value of M is called the yield moment, MY , and is given as:

𝜎𝑌 𝐼
𝑀𝑌 =
𝑦1

Further increase in bending moment will result in the reduction of the central portion of the beam
and the section becomes rather completely plastic. When this occurs, the beam has reached its
ultimate moment resisting capacity; the value of which at this stage is known as plastic moment,
MP, of the beam. The stress-strain curve of the beam may be idealised into two rectangular portions
as shown in fig 1.3

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LIMIT STATE ANALYSIS OF PERFECTLY PLASTIC MATERIALS

Fig 1.2: Direct stress due to bending in a single symmetrical section beam

Fig 1.3: Yielding of a beam section due to bending

Figure 1.4: Position of neutral axis considering perfectly plastic section

From figure 1.4, the plastic moment, MP is obtained using the following equations:

𝑀𝑃 = 𝜎𝑌 𝐴1 ̅̅̅
𝑦1 + 𝜎𝑌 𝐴2 ̅̅̅
𝑦2

𝐴
𝑀𝑃 = 𝜎𝑌 (𝑦
̅̅̅ + ̅̅̅)
𝑦2
2 1

𝑀𝑃 = 𝜎𝑌 𝑍𝑝

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LIMIT STATE ANALYSIS OF PERFECTLY PLASTIC MATERIALS

Where

𝐴
𝑍𝑝 = (𝑦
̅̅̅ + ̅̅̅)
𝑦2
2 1

Shape Factor

The shape factor, f, is defined as the ratio of the plastic moment of a beam to its yield moment.
Thus:

𝑀𝑃 𝜎𝑌 𝑍𝑝 𝑍𝑃
𝑓= = =
𝑀𝑌 𝜎𝑌 𝑍𝐶 𝑍𝐶

Where

ZC = Minimum elastic modulus of the section, given as I / y1

Example 1: Determine the yield moment, the plastic moment and the shape factor for a rectangular
section of breadth, b and depth, d.

Plastic Hinges

The presence of unrestricted plastic flow at a section of a beam under results in the formation of
plastic hinges in beams and other structures. Plastic hinges are likely to occur at; the point of
application of load, a section of sudden change in geometry, at a fixed end, and a point of zero
shear.

Plastic Analysis of Beams

Concept of plastic hinge can be used to determine the ultimate or collapse load of beams in terms
of their individual plastic moment, MP.

Example 2: Determine the theoretical maximum load that a simply supported beam carrying a
point load, W at the centre

Example 3: Determine the theoretical maximum load that a simply supported beam carrying a
UDL load, w at the centre.

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LIMIT STATE ANALYSIS OF PERFECTLY PLASTIC MATERIALS

Bibliography

G. Megson, T. H. (2014, February 12). Structural and Stress Analysis. Butterworth-Heinemann.

Heyman, J. (2011, November 5). Plastic Design of Frames: Applications.

https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139106740https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139106740

J. Moy, S. S. (1996, August 1). Plastic Methods for Steel and Concrete Structures.

Nageim, H. A. (2016, November 3). Steel Structures: Practical Design Studies, Fourth Edition.
CRC Press.

Plastic Versus Elastic Design of Steel Structures | PDF. (n.d.). Scribd.

https://www.scribd.com/doc/133561023/Plastic-Versus-Elastic-Design-of-Steel-Structures

Wong, M. B. (2011, January 1). Plastic Analysis and Design of Steel Structures. Butterworth-
Heinemann.

Leelataviwat, S., Goel, S. C., & Chao, S. H. (2020). Plastic versus elastic design of steel
structures. Structural Engineering and Geomechanics-Volume 1, 169.