Potential Plastic Hinges

The Potential Plastic Hinges option allows members to be defined to allow the formation of a plastic hinge at one or both ends. This option is used in conjunction with the Analysis Options, where load cases can be selected to include a plastic analysis.

For details of the use of the Plastic Analysis, refer to the Analysis chapter of the manual.

On selecting the Potential Plastic Hinge option from the Restraint menu, the Plastic Hinge menu pane opens on the right-hand side of the screen. The main screen is shown below.

To select a member end to be included in a plastic analysis, click on the end of the member in the main graphics window. A marker will appear on the nearest end of the member.

In the right-hand pane, two icons are provided which take the user to additional menus.

1.Remove All Plastic Hinges – this changes the Plastic Hinge pane to the Remove Plastic Hinges Pane. Here, click on the ‘Apply’ icon removes all plastic hinges from member ends. To exit this menu, click on the ‘X’ in the top right-hand corner of he Remove Plastic Hinges pane or, alternatively, select another item from the top menu.

2.The Analysis Options icon will open the Analysis Options menu. For details of this menu, see the Analysis chapter of the manual.