A Plastic Design Method of Grillages under a Lateral Point Load

The plastic collapse equations are obtained for regular grids under a central point load with two types of boundaries, i.e. simply-supported ends and fixed ends. General plastic collapse mechanisms are derived by applying upper bound theorem for assumed collapse mechanisms. The possible collapse mechanisms are divided into three types which allows to examine all possible collapse mechanisms systematically. Then, those formulae are applied to the pontoon deck problem to find the minimum weight design.