Plastic Limit of Structures and Energy Principles

The plastic limit of deformable solids and structures is considered relying on energy arguments as far as advisable. Essential in this connection, the virtual work principle and Drucker’s plasticity postulate. A concise presentation of the static and the kinematic limit load theorems is followed by the demonstration of their rigorous employment for determining the plastic limit in a number of elementary cases. The significance of the deforming geometry for the load-carrying capacity of the system is discussed. The conventional plastic limit is positioned within a wider statement on stability referring to a discretized representation as by the finite element approach.