Shakedown Analysis of 3-D Structures Using the Boundary Element Method Based on the Static Theorem

The static shakedown theorem was reformulated for the boundary element method (BEM) rather than the finite element method with Melan’s theorem, then used to develop a numerical solution procedure for shakedown analysis. The self-equilibrium stress field was constructed by a linear combination of several basis self-equilibrium stress fields with undetermined parameters. These basis self-equilibrium stress fields were expressed as elastic responses of the body to imposed permanent strains obtained using a 3-D BEM elastic-plastic incremental analysis. The lower bound for the shakedown load was obtained from a series of nonlinear mathematical programming problems solved using the Complex method. Numerical examples verified the precision of the present method.