Elasto-Plastic Analysis of Reinforced Plates

An extension of the available theories for the analysis of rectangular two-way reinforced metal deck plates into the large deflection, elasto-plastic stress region is described. A procedure is outlined which considers the yielding of the material of the reinforcing ribs caused by the combination of membrane as well as bending stress. Limit load for the procedure is achieved when full plastification of a rib is reached. The procedure uses the method of finite differences to obtain numerical solutions of the governing differential equations and to evaluate stresses. A large capacity, high speed digital computer was used in three numerical studies to test the validity of the analytical method.