Structural Engineering & Statics
where the load goes
Concept

Plastic hinge — where it appears

2 essays name this object, across 2 fields. What follows is each of them, and the objects they name alongside it.
sagging hinge at 4.69hinge at the fixed endlowest upper bound: 7.29every hinge position gives an upper bound on the collapse loadassumed position of the sagging hingecoefficient 11.66 Mp ÷ L²

After the first yield, which is not the end

A steel beam whose extreme fibre has reached yield has not failed. It has started forming a hinge, and collapse waits until there are enough hinges to make a mechanism.

internal-forces · plastic hinge 00.5%1%2%2%050100150200250300350strainstress, N/mm²mild steelcast iron

The property that appears in none of the equations

Ductility is in no design formula on this site. Every method on this site depends on it — and a brittle structure does not merely fail early, it makes the analysis wrong.

materials · ductility

Named alongside it

The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.

Moment redistributionBrittle fractureCollapse mechanismDuctilityLoad pathLower boundLower bound theoremPlastic momentRobustnessRotation capacityStress strainUpper bound

All concepts