Elastic-plastic and limit-state analyses of frames with softening plastic-hinge models by mathematical programming (Q1434678)

The authors show that piecewise-linear rigid-plastic and elastic-plastic mathematical models can be formulated in terms of linear complementarity problem (LCP). Quasi-static overall analyses of frames modelled as an aggregate of linear-elastic beam finite elements and piecewise-linear critical sections, turn out to be centred on LCP or equivalent quadratic programming problems, which generally become nonconvex in the presence of softening behaviours in the hinges. The overall frame analyses include: ``exact'' time-stepping computation as a sequence of LCPs in rates; stepwise holonomic analysis with preselected loading steps; fully holonomic, single step analyses. The authors show that possible bifurcations and instability thresholds due to softening can be captured by special computational provisions concerning LCP in rates, specifically enumerative methods and copositiveness tests on a matrix.