Incremental Collapse Due to Thermal Stress: A Paper presented at The College of Aeronautics Symposium on Structural Problems of High Speed Flight

WHEN a structure is subjected to a recurrent cycle of loading a number of different types of deformation may be set up. The structure may remain elastic throughout, returning to its original configuration at the end of each cycle. It may shake down to an elastic configuration which differs from the initial one, but which, once established, is the same at the end of each cycle. The structure may suffer inelastic deformation in each cycle of loading, with net value zero, so that again the configuration is the same at the end of each cycle: this condition is usually known as alternate plasticity and may lead to strain fatigue. Finally, the structure may suffer inelastic deformation in each cycle which has a non‐zero net value, so that the deformation changes progressively with each cycle of loading: this is known as incremental collapse.