Plasticity

Abstract: The fracture of ductile solids has frequently been observed to result from the large growth and coalescence of microscopic voids, a process enhanced by the superposition of hydrostatic tensile stresses on a plastic deformation field. The ductile growth of voids is treated here as a problem in continuum plasticity. First, a variational principle is established to characterize the flow field in an elastically rigid and incompressible plastic material containing an internal void or voids, and subjected to a remotely uniform stress and strain rate field. Then an approximate Rayleigh-Ritz procedure is developed and applied to the enlargement of an isolated spherical void in a nonhardening material. Growth is studied in some detail for the case of a remote tensile extension field with superposed hydrostatic stresses. The volume changing contribution to void growth is found to overwhelm the shape changing part when the mean remote normal stress is large, so that growth is essentially spherical. Further, it is found that for any remote strain rate field, the void enlargement rate is amplified over the remote strain rate by a factor rising exponentially with the ratio of mean normal stress to yield stress. Some related results are discussed, including the long cylindrical void considered by F.A. McClintock (1968, J. appl. Mech . 35 , 363), and an approximate relation is given to describe growth of a spherical void in a general remote field. The results suggest a rapidly decreasing fracture ductility with increasing hydrostatic tension.

Abstract: Dislocation theory is used to invoke a strain gradient theory of rate independent plasticity. Hardening is assumed to result from the accumulation of both randomly stored and geometrically necessary dislocation. The density of the geometrically necessary dislocations scales with the gradient of plastic strain. A deformation theory of plasticity is introduced to represent in a phenomenological manner the relative roles of strain hardening and strain gradient hardening. The theory is a non-linear generalization of Cosserat couple stress theory. Tension and torsion experiments on thin copper wires confirm the presence of strain gradient hardening. The experiments are interpreted in the light of the new theory.

Abstract: In this paper a constitutive model based on an internal variable-formulation of plasticity theory for the non-linear analysis of concrete is presented. The model uses a new yield criterion which matches experimental data quite well and it accounts for both elastic and plastic stiffness degradations effects. Onset and amount of cracking can be studied by a simple postprocessing of the finite-element plasticity solution. The accuracy of the model is checked with some examples of application.

Abstract: T his paper investigates the hypothesis that localization of deformation into a shear band may be considered a result of an instability in the constitutive description of homogeneous deformation. General conditions for a bifurcation, corresponding to the localization of deformation into a planar band, are derived. Although the analysis is general and applications to other localization phenomena are noted, the constitutive relations which are examined in application of the criterion for localization are intended to model the behavior of brittle rock masses under compressive principal stresses. These relations are strongly pressure-sensitive since inelasticity results from frictional sliding on an array of fissures; the resulting inelastic response is dilatant, owing to uplift in sliding at asperities and to local tensile cracking from fissure tips. The appropriate constitutive descriptions involve non-normality of plastic strain increments to the yield hyper-surface. Also, it is argued that the subsequent yield surfaces will develop a vertex-like structure. Both of these features are shown to be destabilizing and to strongly influence the resulting predictions for localization by comparison to predictions based on classical plasticity idealizations, involving normality and smooth yield surfaces. These results seem widely applicable to discussions of the inception of rupture as a constitutive instability.