ABSTRACT A theoretical analysis is presented for the dynamic plastic behavior of a fully clamped rigid, perfectly plastic circular plate struck transversely by a rigid mass at the center. It is shown that the maximum permanent transverse deformation predicted by a theoretical solution, with combined transverse shear and bending, is similar to that from a bending-only solution when the ratio of shear strength to bending capacity υ is sufficiently large. However, when the strength parameter υ is small, the transverse shear deformation dominates the response and the maximum deformation from a combined shear and bending solution increases sharply with a decrease in υ. It is also found that the transverse shear deformation becomes more important with an increase in the dimensionless mass ratio β and is sensitive to the dimensionless radius ρ0 of the impact area.