Plastic Analysis

(Structural & Stress Analysis 3)

Dr P. Mandal
School of MACE
Hambly’s Paradox (1985)

The figures on the right show two

milking stools, one with three legs
and one with four legs. Imagine that
each must support a milkmaid who
weighs 60 kg, and who always sits
with her centre of gravity directly
over the middle of the stool.
The problem is to determine how many kg of her weight
each leg in the both stools must carry.
Hambly, E. C., Oil Rigs Dance to Newton’s Tune, Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain,
57, 79-104
Kazinczy (1914)

z Tested 2 steel beams (about 6 m

long), embedded at their ends in
substantial abutments.
z After unloading permanent kinks
formed at the two ends and at the
centre; he called them hinges.
z Fixed end beam cannot collapse until
three hinges have formed.
z Degree of clamping is irrelevant
provided the embedment is strong
enough to allow the hinges to develop.
Maier-Leibnitz

z Three tests on two-span beams (4.8 m).

– Three supports were level.
– The central support was lowered to a point when the bending
stress at the support reached the yield value.
– The central support was raised by the same amount, causing
yield at the support.
z Actual collapse loads were 13.1, 13.0 & 13.45 tonnes
respectively.
z Collapse load is unaffected by initial imperfections, such as
sinking of supports.
J. F. Baker &
Michael Horne

z Technical officer to the Steel Structures Research Committee

(SSRC) set up in 1929.
z Experimental work (1930) on a nine-storey hotel block, an office
building & a block of residential flats. For the first time the
stresses were measured in real structures.
z Real stresses did not match with the stresses calculated by the
elastic methods. Initial imperfections, lack of fit were identified as
the discrepancy factors. It raised a paradox whether a trivial
defect can really affect the strength.
z Calculation of elastic stress is not relevant to the strength (1936).
z In 1948, a clause permitting plastic design was incorporated in
BS 449 (The use of structural steel in building).
Example

Compare the load

carrying capacity
of the two trusses.

(a) Failure is deemed to take place

when the yield stress is first
reached.
(b) Yielding is allowed in the
members.
Hambly’s Paradox (1985)

The figures on the right show two

milking stools, one with three legs
and one with four legs. Imagine that
each must support a milkmaid who
weighs 60 kg, and who always sits
with her centre of gravity directly
over the middle of the stool.
The problem is to determine how many kg of her weight
each leg in the both stools must carry.
Hambly, E. C., Oil Rigs Dance to Newton’s Tune, Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain,
57, 79-104
Simulated Tensile Test
Ductility
z The increase in strain from A
to B before strain hardening is
a measure of the Ductility of
the material.
z For cold bending of curved
beams, good ductility is
required.
z Note the values of strain at
first yield and at failure