Abstract:A direct method for three-dimensional structures under cyclic loading has been established based on elastic-linear-kinematic-hardening materials. An incremental loading method has been adopted to construct loading space, and the range of back stress is bounded based on some research results. The direct method consists of an operator split technique, which transforms the elastic-plastic problem into a purely elastic problem and a residual problem with prescribed eigenstrains. The eigenstrains are determined using an incremental projection method. The shakedown limited, the residual stress and residual strain of structures under shakedown conditions are obtained. The direct method is applied to rolling-sliding contact and three-dimensional holed plate, and the computing results are in agreement with reference’s results.