An upper-bound limit analysis of Mindlin plates using CS-DSG3 method and second-order cone programming

Abstract

The paper presents a numerical procedure for kinematic limit analysis of Mindlin plate governed by von Mises criterion. The cell-based smoothed discrete shear gap method (CS-DSG3) is combined with a second-order cone optimization programming (SOCP) for determining the upper bound limit load of the Mindlin plates. The limit analysis problem of Mindlin plates is formulated by minimizing the dissipation power subjected to a set of constraints of boundary conditions and unitary external work. This minimization problem is then transformed into an explicit form suitable for the solution using the SOCP. The numerical results of some benchmark problems show that the proposal procedure can provide the reliable upper bound collapse multipliers for the Mindlin plates.