On the Conditions to Prevent Plastic Shakedown of Structures: Part II—The Plastic Shakedown Limit Load

Following the results of a companion paper, the concept of plastic shakedown limit load is introduced for an elastic-perfectly plastic material structure subjected to combined cyclic (mechanical and/or kinematical) loads and steady (mechanical) load. Static and kinematic approaches are available for the computation of this load, in perfect analogy with the classic (elastic) shakedown limit load. The plastic shakedown limit state of the structure being in an impending alternating plasticity collapse is studied and a number of interesting features of it are pointed out.