COMPARISON OF ANALYTICAL AND FINITE ELEMENT BASED LIMIT LOADS FOR WIDE PLATES CONTAINING AN EXTENDED SURFACE CRACK UNDER COMBINED BIAXIAL FORCES AND CROSS-THICKNESS BENDING

摘要

This paper compares von Mises based analytical limit loads for a wide plate containing an extended surface crack under combined biaxial forces and cross-thickness bending with limit loads derived using finite element analysis. Differences between the analytical and finite element based limit load solutions are shown to exist as a result of compatibility being enforced in the finite element calculations. These differences are found to be relatively small when the net moment acting on the ligament is reduced to zero. For other loading conditions it is shown that the analytical limit loads can be significantly lower than the associated finite element values. Use of the analytical limit loads in these cases may result in an overly conservative estimate of the proximity of the structure to plastic collapse.