HOOP TENSION ANALYSIS OF A STEEL CELL USING OPTIMIZATION METHOD FOR PSEUDO-VISCOPLASTIC PARAMETERS

Abstract

This paper proposes a simple technique for minimizing computational effort when modelling practical problems which typically involve several non-linear soil materials with different plasticity parameters and joint elements. The technique is applicable to analyses performed using the pseudo-viscoplastic algorithm for solving non-linear problems. The applicability of the analysis is then evaluated by comparing the authors' calculated results with published field observations. The paper demonstrates that significant computational savings can be achieved by optimizing the viscoplasticity parameters. It is also demonstrated that the method of analysis adopted provides encouraging agreement with observed field behaviour.