Residual stresses and shakedown in cohesive-frictional half-space under moving surface loads

Abstract

‘Shakedown’ is used to refer to a state of structures under repeated loading conditions at which the material behaviour becomes purely elastic after some initial plastic deformation. Residual stresses developed in a structure due to the initially occurred plastic deformation play an important role in helping the structure to reach the shakedown state. A better understanding of residual stresses in cohesive-frictional half-space under moving surface loads is urgently needed if shakedown theory is applied to solve pavement or railway problems. This paper is focused on residual stresses in cohesive frictional materials by using finite element analysis to investigate the development of residual stresses in a cohesive-frictional half-space under repeated moving surface loads. These numerical results illustrate how residual stresses affect the behaviour of cohesive frictional materials under repeated loading conditions.

Keywords:

• shakedown
• residual stresses
• cohesive frictional materials
• moving loads

Acknowledgements

The work reported in this paper forms part of an ongoing research programme at the Nottingham Centre for Geomechanics (NCG) on shakedown theory and its application to the design of pavement and railway foundations. The first author would like to thank the China Scholarship Council (CSC) and the University of Nottingham for funding her PhD study.