Ultimate Carrying Capacity of Elastic-Plastic Plates on a Pasternak Foundation

Abstract

In the present work, the problem of an infinite elastic perfectly plastic plate under axisymmetrical loading conditions resting on a bilateral Pasternak elastic foundation is considered. The plate is assumed thin, thus making it possible to neglect the shear deformation according to the classical Kirchhoff theory. Yielding is governed by the Johansen's yield criterion with associative flow rule. A uniformly distributed load is applied on a circular area on the top of the plate. As the load is increased, a circular elastic-plastic region spreads out starting from the center of the loaded area, whereas the outer unbounded region behaves elastically. Depending on the size of the loaded area, a further increase of the load may originate two or three different elastic-plastic regions, corresponding to different yield loci. A closed form solution of the governing equations for each region is found for a special value of the ratio between Pasternak soil moduli. The performed analysis allows us to estimate the elastic-plastic behavior of the plate up to the onset of collapse, here defined by the formation of a plastic mechanism within the plate. The corresponding collapse load and the sizes of the elastic-plastic regions are thus found by imposing the boundary and continuity conditions between the different regions. The influence of the soil moduli, plate bending stiffness, and size of the loaded area on the ultimate bearing capacity of the plate is then investigated in detail.