Large-Displacement Analysis of Elastoplastic Thin-Walled Frames. II: Verification and Application

Abstract

The companion paper presents a new Eulerian formulation for the large-displacement analysis of thin-walled frames, accounting for the elastoplastic material response. This paper aims at verifying the proposed formulation and providing several examples of its application to thin-walled members and frames. In this regard, it is demonstrated that such a relatively simple formulation enables the accurate modeling of initial imperfections, residual stresses, the Wagner effect, the beam-column effect, lateral-torsional instability, and large displacements using a small number of elements and a coarse cross-sectional discretization. Moreover, it is shown that the formulation can be used in the assessment of the ultimate and postultimate response of thin-walled structures for which the design codes are either inaccurate or inapplicable. Such structures include continuous beams, simply supported beams with intermediate lateral restraints, as well as frames for which the ultimate limit state involves considerable interaction between the structural members.