A Developed Transfer Matrix Method for Analysis of Elastic-Plastic Behavior of Structures

The ductility of structure or component is particularly important when it encounters earthquake or other sudden disasters. It can reduce the damage of structure to a certain extent. The ductility mechanism of structure is closely related to the analysis of elastic-plastic behavior of structure. Therefore, an improved transfer matrix method based on elastic-plastic transfer element is proposed to analyze the elastic-plastic behavior of structures. The elastic-plastic element consists of two parts, elastic region and plastic region. According to the section stress analysis, the ratio of elastic zone to plastic zone can be determined to reflect the elastic-plastic behavior. The analysis process is as follows: firstly, the elastic-plastic part of the structure is determined according to the mechanical behavior of the whole structure, then the elastic-plastic transfer unit is proposed according to the determined proportion of the elastic-plastic zone, and finally the mechanical behavior of the whole structure is analyzed. Through numerical examples, the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified by comparing the analytical model with the theoretical solution. The results show that this method provides a new way for the further study of engineering structure mutation process.