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A master's thesis from Aalborg University
Book cover


Numerical Lower Bound Limit Analysis of Static Loaded Plates by Nonlinear Programming

Translated title

Numerisk nedreværdiløsning af statisk belastede skiver via ikke-lineær programmering

Authors

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Term

4. term

Publication year

2016

Submitted on

Abstract

Denne afhandling udvikler og demonstrerer to numeriske programmer til optimering af stålplader og armerede betonplader udsat for statiske, i-planet belastninger ved hjælp af nedre grænse‑grænseanalyse og ikke‑lineær programmering. Metodisk kombineres en spændingsbaseret finitte element‑formulering med plade-, bjælke- og stangelementer og nedre grænse‑teoremet, mens bæreevnen bestemmes via en lastmultiplikator opnået med indre‑punkt‑algoritmer; for at øge effektiviteten omformes de ikke‑lineære flydekriterier til andenordens keglebegrænsninger. For stål udvikles en submodelleringsteknik, understøttet af et egenudviklet ANSYS‑script, til at verificere kritiske spændingspunkter, herunder ved geometriske spændingssingulariteter. For armeret beton muliggør programmet både last‑ og materialeoptimering for forskellige pladegeometrier med koncentreret armering under ikke‑lineære flydekriterier for både plade- og armeringsstangselementer. Eksemplerne viser metodens effektivitet: for en endevæg opnås en 32,5 % højere lastmultiplikator end stringer‑metoden, når lasten introduceres i armeringen, og en 15,9 % højere lastmultiplikator end en reference i litteraturen, når lasten introduceres i betonen; i en materialeoptimering reduceres det samlede armeringsvolumen med 30 % ved grænselasten. Resultaterne indikerer, at den beskrevne numeriske ramme både kan verificere lokale spændingskoncentrationer og give robuste forbedringer i bæreevneestimat og armeringsforbrug.

This thesis develops and demonstrates two numerical programs for optimizing steel plates and reinforced concrete plates subjected to static in‑plane loading using lower‑bound limit analysis and nonlinear programming. Methodologically, a stress‑based finite element formulation with plate, beam, and bar elements is combined with the lower‑bound theorem, and the load‑carrying capacity is obtained as a scalar load multiplier via interior‑point algorithms; to improve efficiency, the nonlinear yield criteria are reformulated as second‑order cone constraints. For steel, a submodeling technique supported by a self‑developed ANSYS script is introduced to verify critical stress hot spots, including cases with geometric stress singularities. For reinforced concrete, the program enables both load and material optimization for different plate geometries with concentrated reinforcement under nonlinear yield criteria for plate and reinforcing bar elements. Case studies demonstrate the approach: for an end wall, a 32.5% higher load multiplier than the stringer method is achieved when loading via reinforcement, and a 15.9% higher load multiplier than a published approach is achieved when loading via concrete; in material optimization, the total reinforcement volume is reduced by 30% at the limit load. These results indicate that the proposed numerical framework can both verify local stress concentrations and deliver robust gains in capacity estimates and reinforcement use.

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