An efficient method for elastic-plastic analysis of destructive structures

In this paper, a method called the equivalent addition force method (EAFM) is presented for the problem of elastic-plastic analysis of destructive structures. When the destruction takes place, the structural rigidity will be changed. We transform this kind of change from stiffness into external force, the variation of quantities is the value of equivalent addition force (EAF). Therefore, the finite element stiffness matrix stays unchanged and the computing program is stil conventional. The formulation for the EAF of an elastic-plastic problem is also given. Numerical results of the EAFM compare with those achieved by finite element method (FEM) to demonstrate the utility of the present method.