Importance of strain hardening in plastic response of rectangular beams subjected to bending loads

Abstract

The object of this thesis is to investigate the influence of linear strain hardening on plastic flexure of rectangular beams for various boundary conditions. This is one step towards understanding post yield plastic behavior of ship frames. Solutions for six different boundary conditions have been obtained: for simply supported beams centrally or uniformly loaded, cantilever beams with a point load at the end or uniformly loaded and fixed beams centrally or uniformly loaded. These solutions give deflection for any load level. Finite element analyses are used to verify these analytical solutions. In general there is high level of agreement between theoretical and ANSYS solution. The experimental work gave qualitative validation of post yield plastic behavior of ship frames. Load deflection curves showed obvious transition from linear to non-linear behavior and rise of the curve in plastic domain.