Finite element incremental analysis of elastoplastic plate bending

The paper discusses the numerical solution of the elastoplastic bending of plates with any polygonal boundary subject to a generic load and to distributed dislocations. For the discretization of the plate Herrmann's and Hellan's constant moment triangular equilibrium model has been chosen. Compatibility is imposed through a minimum principle, proposed by Capurso and Maier, which can be considered a generalization of the minimum complementary energy principle for elastoplastic workhardening continua allowing for distributed dislocations. By means of a completely automatic computation program, the cases of simply supported and clamped square plate under uniformly distributed load and under central concentrated load are solved. Present results are partly compared with existing solutions.