Elastoplastic analysis of skeletal structures by plastic strain method

A method for first-order analysis of nonholonomic elastoplastic skeletal structures is presented. The governing equations are formed by expressing the elastic and the residual stresses as linear functions of the applied loads and the plastic strains, respectively. The yield surface is linearized and the yield constraints and the flow rule are introduced as auxiliary conditions. The load-deformation behaviour is traced along a sequence of phases, each of which is governed by linear equations and terminated by a plastic event. An interactive numerical procedure that implements this method is also presented. A specific feature of the approach is its ability to provide the complete solution whenever nonunique kinematic solutions arise.