Shakedown limit of elastic-plastic offshore structures under cyclic wave loading

This paper uses theorem of shakedown to assess the shakedown limit of elastic-plastic offshore structures. For this aim, an envelope of elastic response of the structure to cyclic loading cases is required. The shakedown limit is basically a valid collapse mechanism and can be quantified using yield line analysis. In this work, Melan theorem of shakedown (lower bound) is employed. Requiring simple elastic envelope and the domain defining yield lines only are the advantages of the Melan theorem. The shakedown analysis can be conducted by the finite element method (FEM), which is the main body of this paper. In order to evaluate the method of this paper, which is in fact combining the Melan theorem and the FEM, two steel offshore frames are analyzed using the proposed method and the results obtained are compared with the results of classical non-linear analysis method. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.