An upper-bound limit analysis of Mindlin plates using CS-DSG3 method and second-order cone programming

- CS-DSG3 is combined with SOCP for determining upper bound limit load of Mindlin plates.
- Limit analysis problem is transformed into an explicit form suitable for solution using SOCP and CS-DSG3.
- Numerical results show that CS-DSG3 is free of shear locking and can provide reliable upper bound collapse multipliers for Mindlin plates.

The paper presents a numerical procedure for kinematic limit analysis of Mindlin plate governed by von Mises criterion. The cell-based smoothed discrete shear gap method (CS-DSG3) is combined with a second-order cone optimization programming (SOCP) for determining the upper bound limit load of the Mindlin plates. The limit analysis problem of Mindlin plates is formulated by minimizing the dissipation power subjected to a set of constraints of boundary conditions and unitary external work. This minimization problem is then transformed into an explicit form suitable for the solution using the SOCP. The numerical results of some benchmark problems show that the proposal procedure can provide the reliable upper bound collapse multipliers for the Mindlin plates.