Elasto-Plastic Plate Analysis by Finite Differences

Finite-difference techniques are used to solve problems of plate bending. The small deflection theory is used and elasto-plastic deformations are investigated. For the elasto-plastic case, the equilibrium equation is applied throughout the plate region and elastic relationships are utilized in elastic regions. Various yield criteria are investigated to arrive at lower bounds on the collapse load. Computer programs are developed and applied to some specific problems and the solutions compared with some existing results.