Upper-Bound Solutions for Rigid-Plastic Plates and Slabs on Elastic Foundation by the Principle of Stationary Total Energy

This note discusses applications of the well-known principle of stationary total energy as an effective approach for upper-bound solutions of bending problems for plate and slabs on elastic foundation. Material is assumed to be perfectly rigid plastic. The presented solutions demonstrate that this approach is similar to that in upper-bound solutions of limit analysis. For this purpose several simple problems are considered for plates of different forms with different support conditions. The obtained solutions show transformations of the form of deflections when the external load increases.