Analysis and Design of Structures using

Plastic Theory
Unit -1
 Unit’s contents

• Elastic vs Plastic Analysis

• Codal statements
• Plastic moment capacity – cross sections – shape factor
• Upper and lower bound theorams
• Portal and Gable frames
• Design principles
 Elastic analysis and design

• Conventional – based on the yield point of material

• Material behaviour in elastic range
• Hooke’s law valid
• No change in microstructure of the steel alloy

• C/S Stress distribution (BM at the section) directly proportional to

load and NO DEPENDENCE on material property as long as stress
• within
  elastic range
• Axially loaded – or
• Flexurally/Transversely loaded - or
• Deflections are generally within serviceability limits – are also easily
calculated with known expressions
• All basic theories of structural analysis and mechanics are based on
elastic assumptions e.g Euler beam theory, even Boussinesq!!
 Elastic analysis and design

• Solid mechanics  Deformable bodies  Elastic (or) Inelastic

behaviour of bodies
• or - of course, material property appears, but it is not a necessary
thing for evaluating stress. However for deflections, it is needed!
• For design using elastic limit, the material property gives the
capacity

• • Axially loaded members - or

• Flexurally/Transversely loaded members -
• Beyond this load value, cannot do capacity calculations, or analysis for
BMs using well known methods and principles – all of which are based
on elastic theory
• Elastic analysis was primary method for design by older codes based
on allowable stresses where limit is applied to stress, instead of
finding ultimate capacity of flexural members
 Plastic analysis

Perfectly elastic
Elastoplastic

Elastic – perfectly plastic

In reality, no metal will be perfectly

elastic or elastic-perfectly plastic. Also
elasto-plastic nature gradual in real
 Plastic analysis

Mild steel High yield strength steel

0.025 - 0.2% Carbon 0.3 - 1.6% Carbon

1. What is the nature of the stress strain graphs of mild and high
strength steels? What is the reason?
2. Where is the elastic limit for both cases?
3. Which exhibits more plastic behaviour?
 Plastic analysis

• The ductility possessed by steel (particularly mild steel) is what offers

benefits in plastic design – infact ductility is crucial in seismic design
of structures
• For high strength steels a proof stress is defined. The stress in the
gradual part with a parallel line from 0.2% strain mark. (Stress which
causes a permanent set of 0.2% strain)
• Large capacity for deformation after yield and before fracture –
ductility ratio
• Mild steel – yield strain/ultimate strain > 30 generally. Lesser for high
strength steels
• Thus use of ultimate strength as design criterion provides major
reserve of ductility to be utilised to raise the target design strength
• Is plastic analysis useful if yield and ultimate stress are close?
 Plastic analysis

• Controlling factors in any structural design

• Yield stress  Elastic analysis and allowable stress based design
• Brittle fracture  Possible with improper connection design
• Instability  Possible with improper cross-section selection
• Deflections  To satisfy the utility of the structure
• Fatigue  Machine rooms/ Bridges etc
• Maximum plastic strength  For design based on ultimate collapse
• Maximum plastic strength is most cases the maximum of those listed
above
 Plastic analysis
• Elastic analysis – can only tell when any member has exceeded yield
• Member/Structure capacity based on yield stress gives no consistent
indication of margin of safety w.r.t their ultimate capacity
• Plastic analysis – analysis to evaluate the strength of the structure in
the plastic range.
• In plastic analysis, the ultimate strength is the central criterion,
•  followed by the shape of the stress strain curve
• Elastic design – target is to restrict stresses ( in IS:800-1984) –
member section selected to achieve this.
• Plastic design – target is to utilize the full strength of the material
(though a partial safety factor still applied)– factor is applied only for
the uncertainty in the load – member section selected such that its
can be utilized to maximum.

Elastic design
• Minimum strength – said to fail
when one member starts to
yield
• Uneconomical in large
construction
• Structural analysis
independent of material
• Conventional analysis methods
can be used
Elastic vs Plastic design
Plastic design
• Ultimate strength – yield of
one member does not mean
structure failure or collapse
(details later)
• More economical since
ultimate strength utilised
• Structural analysis dependent
on material curve
• Conventional analysis methods
need to be used with
modifications atleast.
 Codal statements
• The material properties of various steels are given in Table 1 of the
code. They are:
• IS 513 –Cold reduced low carbon steel sheet and strip
• IS 814 – Covered electrodes for manual metal arc welding of carbon and carbon
manganese steel
• IS 1079 – Hot rolled carbon steel sheet and strip – specification
• IS 1367 (part 3) – Technical supply conditions for threaded steel fasteners
• IS 1875 – Carbon steel billets, blooms, slabs and bars for forging – specification
• IS 2062 – Hot rolled medium and high tensile structural steel – specification
• IS 3039 – Structural steel for construction of hulls of ships
• IS 6240 – Hot rolled steel plate (upto 6mm) sheet and strip for the manufacture of
low pressure liquefiable gas cylinders
• IS 7557 – Specification for steel wire (upto 20mm) for the manufacture of cold-
forged rivets
• IS 10748 – Hot rolled steel strip for welded tubes and pipes - specification
 Codal statements
• The ductility of the selected steel grade can be judged from the
ultimate tensile strength (shown for structural steel only)
 Codal statements
• The code lists various methods of analysis can be used which are:
• First order elastic analysis – analysis in the undeformed geometry – no effect of
axial forces on bending moments – mainly non sway frames
• Second order elastic analysis – effects of loads in deformed geometry –
moment amplification factors – mainly sway frames –

• Plastic analysis – the analysis is done at the stage after the yielding of members
has occured
 Codal statements

• Requirements for plastic analysis – these ensure adequate ductility of

the structure and plastic rotation capacity of its members and
connections
• Yield stress not greater than 450 Mpa.
• Ultimate tensile/yield stress atleast 1.2
• Elongation not less than 15% (IS 2062 steel)
• Atleast compact sections (coming later)
• Other assumptions
• Connections of sufficient strength than members to allow formation of
plastic hinges
• Plastic hinge rotation does not exceed full rotation capacity of any
plastified cross section
 Codal statements
• Some definitions
• Ductility – property indicating the extent of deformation beyond yield
deformation and before fracture
• Elastic limit – Stress below which original size and shape regained
• Plastic collapse – stage at which sufficient plastic hinges have formed
leading to failure mechanism
• Plastic design – design for limit state of plastic collapse
• Plastic hinge - a zone in the member with significant inelastic rotation
formed when plastic moment reached at cross section
• Plastic moment – Moment at a cross section when entirely yielded
• Rotation – change in angle between two members after loading
• Strain hardening – Slower increase in stress beyond the yield point
• Ultimate limit state – state which causes collapse of whole structure
 Codal statements

What are the reasons for the differences

between the curves A, B,.. etc above?
Plastic hinge formation, rotation
capacity, ductility, strength of
connection and member.
 Codal statements
• Cross section classifications – bridge between stability limit and
plastic limit of members – whether a cross section adequate to
develop full plastic capacity
• Plastic section - Can develop plastic hinge and undergo sufficient rotation till
fracture
• Compact section – Plastic hinge develops but cannot undergo rotation till
fracture – element local buckling occurs by then
• Semi-compact – Outer fiber yields but cannot reach plastic moment or form
plastic hinge – local buckling occurs after first yield itself
• Slender – Local buckling prevents even load for first yield from being reached
Codal statements
 Codal statements
• Connections play a key role in assuring that structures reach the
computed ultimate load – point of maximum BM in fixed end beams
• Requirements - strength, stiffness, rotation capacity, economy
(making rigid connections is expensive)
• Criteria – prevent yielding of web due to shear – corresponding
moment should be greater than plastic moment – if not, diagonal
web stiffeners may be provided
• Criteria – sufficient material in the connection
zone to transmit desired moment from beam to
beam or beam to column
– flange or web stiffeners
 Plastic moment

• Elastic moment (the usual bending moment) – simply a function of

the loading, length and maybe connection stiffness – i.e it varies with
the loading
• Plastic moment – a function of cross-section shape and material
rather than load– i.e it is constant for a given member or frame
• It is the moment required to cause full plastification of a cross-
section. It depends on
• The support conditions
• Depth of the cross section
• Possible locations of plastic hinge formation and number of such
locations before collapse
• The mechanism of collapse (coming later)
 Plastic moment
• Consider the segment of the beam subjected to bending
The segment magnified to depict
the internal moment. First let us
proceed to find the first yield
moment when only the outer fibres

•  ρ
dA
σy
d/2 yield.
M M If σ is the stress at the level of dA
y

N.A.

For rectangular C/S

 Plastic moment
• But as stated before, the purpose of plastic analysis is to go beyond
the first yield
• To utilize the C/S fully, it is necessary that fibres closer and closer to
the NA also reach the yield stress.
• So let the loading continue and the internal moments increase more
• Remember that the stress distributions (partially yielded) are if
• idealised
  stress-strain curves are used. If hardening is considered, the
extreme fibre stresses can increase marginally beyond .
3 fy σ>fy σ>fy
2 fy fy
fy 1 1 2 3

σ
2 3
1 fy fy
σ>fy σ>fy
ε fy
 Plastic moment
• Let the yielding continue fibre by fibre till the neutral axis level also
yielded. Then for the bilinear idealization (curve 1 in figure)
fy
The stress block is two rectangles
1
fy At any level, the force is and so
fy dA d
1
integrating for rectangles, simply
and the moment is
•since
  fy b
the distance of each rectangle from NA is half of . So for whole
stress block of 2 rectangles
which is the full plastic moment
This means the plastic moment is times the moment at first yield for
rectangular sections. Utilising this means one gets that much economy
in the structural design, weight savings etc
 Plastic moment
• For sections of other shapes the first yield and plastic moments can
be computed similarly. For I-section with same thickness of flange
and web. For , , ,
fy b

1
t
fy h d
1 t

• f y
 Shape factor
• This ratio between and is called as shape factor, S. It tells the amount of
ductility in a compact or plastic section of a given shape.
• The greater the shape factor, the more load and moment the section can
take after first yield before ultimate failure.
• In IS:800-2007, the value β in beam capacity calculation accounts for this.
That is why β is equal to 1.0 for plastic and compact sections.
• In general S ranges from 1.10 to 1.18 for hot rolled I-sections. Here 1.21 was
•  
obtained since uniform thickness assumed, while in the I-sections, usually
web has lesser thickness
• Some shape factors for cross sections commonly used are:
• Rectangle – 1.5
• I section – 1.1 to 1.18
• Circular tube – 1.27
• Rectangular tube – 1.12
 Moment - curvature
• Fundamental quantity in plastic analysis – the rotation 2θ is at the joint
where plastic hinge first forms i.e location of maximum BM
1. A deflecting beam with rotation
and curvature
2. Linear till is attained
3. Increasing rate of rotation and
•  curvature beyond as inner fibre
start yielding
4. Indefinite curvature at
Note that, this gradual M-Φ is
θ θ
2θ
obtained for bilinear material curve
 Moment - curvature
• The rotation (formation of plastic hinges) may also occur at joints or
supports that are capable of transmitting moments.
• In this case, the rotation is the change in the original angle between
the joining members.
• Plastic hinges cannot form at joints/supports that do not transmit
moment. Simple supports (at which BM is zero) cannot get plastic
hinges
• They already are free to rotate i.e already act as joints
• In other words, a plastic hinge simulates a normal hinge except that it
already has taken considerable moment in it before rotation