Finite Element for Elasto-Plastic Response of Moderately Thick Steel Pipes

摘要

An efficient finite element for the modeling of elasto-plastic behaviour of three-dimensional pipe systems is developed. The formulation is based on a two-node pipe element with twelve degrees of freedom. The element consists of an elastic portion and two potentially plastic 3D hinges of zero-length lumped at both nodes. The behaviour of the plastic hinges is characterized using recently derived and experimentally validated plastic interaction relations for pipe sections. The element captures shear deformation effects both in the elastic and plastic ranges.