THE ELASTIC MODULUS REDUCTION METHOD FOR LOAD CARRYING CAPACITY EVALUATION OF FRAME, PLATE AND SHELL STRUCTURES

The Elastic Modulus Reduction Method for elastic modulus adjustment is proposed for load carrying capacity evaluation of frame, plate and shell structures based on the element bearing ratio (EBR) in this paper. The EBR is defined based on the generalized yield criterion, then the reference EBR are determined by introducing the extremums and the degree of uniformity of EBR in structure. The elastic modulus in the element with an EBR greater than the reference one is reduced based on the equilibrium of strain energy. The lower-bound ultimate loads are analyzed for structures by the proposed method and the results yielded are compared with those by the Elasto-plastic incremental method, which demonstrates the flexibility, accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method.