The plastic zone and limit load of centre-cracked plate by the weighted residual method and elasto-viscoplastic theory

A combination of the weighted residual method and elasto-viscoplastic theory is used to study the plastic zone and the limit load of centre-cracked plate. A new set of displacement functions has been assumed, and a series of governing equations for elasto-plastic analysis are derived. Numerical examples show that this method offers good accuracy but requires very little computer time.