Abstract
It is known from experimental studies, that a segment joint becomes a plastic hinge as load increases, and the relation between bending moment and rotational angle at the joint is given approximately by broken line diagram. The purpose of this paper is to present a method, which enables us to analyse segment rings with staggered joints in both elastic and plastic ranges. Transfer matrix method for grid on elastic foundation is used herein, because the segment rings with staggered joints can be modeled as rounded grid with main girders of no torsional rigidity, in which the effects of transverse beams on main girders are replaced by shear springs in vertical and longitudinal directions. Numerical example is solved by iteration changing alternately the half components of state vector at a boundary cross section which is caused by cutting off segment rings.
