On Some Issues in Shakedown Analysis

Abstract

Shakedown analysis, and its more classical special case of limit analysis, basically consists of “direct” (as distinct from time-stepping) methods apt to assess safety factors for variable repeated external actions and procedures which provide upper bounds on history-dependent quantities. The issues reviewed and briefly discussed herein are: some recent engineering-oriented and cost-effective methods resting on Koiter’s kinematic theorem and applied to periodic heterogeneous media; recent extensions (after the earlier ones to dynamics and creep) to another area characterized by time derivatives, namely poroplasticity of fluid-saturated porous media. Links with some classical or more consolidated direct methods are pointed out.