Discontinuous bifurcation analysis of thermodynamically consistent gradient poroplastic materials

In this work, analytical and numerical solutions of the condition for discontinuous bifurcation of thermodynamically consistent gradient-based poroplastic materials are obtained and evaluated. The main aim is the analysis of the potentials for localized failure modes in the form of discontinuous bifurcation in partially saturated gradient-based poroplastic materials as well as the dependence of these potentials on the current hydraulic and stress conditions. Also the main differences with the localization conditions of the related local theory for poroplastic materials are evaluated to perfectly understand the regularization capabilities of the non-local gradient-based one. Firstly, the condition for discontinuous bifurcation is formulated from wave propagation analyses in poroplastic media. The material formulation employed in this work for the spectral properties evaluation of the discontinuous bifurcation condition is the thermodynamically consistent, gradient-based modified Cam Clay model for partially saturated porous media previously proposed by the authors. The main and novel feature of this constitutive theory is the inclusion of a gradient internal length of the porous phase which, together with the characteristic length of the solid skeleton, comprehensively defined the non-local characteristics of the represented porous material. After presenting the fundamental equations of the thermodynamically consistent gradient based poroplastic constitutive model, the analytical expressions of the critical hardening/softening modulus for discontinuous bifurcation under both drained and undrained conditions are obtained. As a particular case, the related local constitutive model is also evaluated from the discontinuous bifurcation condition stand point. Then, the localization analysis of the thermodynamically consistent non-local and local poroplastic Cam Clay theories is performed. The results demonstrate, on the one hand and related to the local poroplastic material, the decisive role of the pore pressure and of the volumetric non-associativity degree on the location of the transition point between ductile and brittle failure regimes in the stress space. On the other hand, the results demonstrate as well the regularization capabilities of the non-local gradient-based poroplastic theory, with exception of a particular stress condition which is also evaluated in this work. Finally, it is also shown that, due to dependence of the characteristic lengths for the pore and skeleton phases on the hydraulic and stress conditions, the non-local theory is able to reproduce the strong reduction of failure diffusion that takes place under both, low confinement and low pore pressure of partially saturated porous materials, without loosing, however, the ellipticity of the related differential equations.     

Discontinuous crack-bridging model for fracture toughness analysis of nacre

Studying the structure–property relation of biological materials can not only provide insight into the physical mechanisms underlying their superior properties and functions but also benefit the design and fabrication of advanced biomimetic materials. In this paper, we present a microstructure-based fracture mechanics model to investigate the toughening effect due to the crack-bridging mechanism of platelets. Our theoretical analysis demonstrates the crucial contribution of this mechanism to the high toughness of nacre. It is found that the fracture toughness of nacre exhibits distinct dependence on the sizes of platelets, and the optimized ranges for the thickness and length of platelets required to achieve higher fracture toughness are given. In addition, the effects of such factors as the mechanical properties of the organic phase (or interfaces), the effective elastic modulus of nacre, and the stacking pattern of platelets are also examined. Finally, some guidelines for the biomimetic design of novel materials are proposed based on our theoretical analysis.     

Strain gradient plasticity analysis of transformation induced plasticity in multiphase steels

“To what extent do plastic strain gradients affect the strengthening resulting from the transformation of small metastable inclusions into hard inclusions within a plastically deforming matrix?” is the central question addressed here. Though general in the approach, the focus is on the behavior of TRIP-assisted multiphase steels. A two-dimensional embedded cell model of a simplified microstructure composed of a single metastable austenitic inclusion surrounded by a soft ferritic matrix is considered. The cell is inserted in a large homogenized medium. The transformation of a fraction of the austenite into a hard martensite plate is simulated, accounting for a transformation strain, and leading to complex elastic and plastic accommodation. The size of a transforming plate in real multiphase steels is typically between 0.1 and 2 μm, a range of size in which plastic strain gradient effects are expected to play a major role. The single parameter version of the Fleck–Hutchinson strain gradient plasticity theory is used to describe the plasticity in the austenite, ferrite and martensite phases. The higher order boundary conditions imposed on the plastic flow have a large impact on the predicted strengthening. Using realistic values of the intrinsic length parameter setting the scale at which the gradients effects have an influence leads to a noticeable increase of the strengthening on top of the increase due to the transformation of a volume fraction of the retained austenite. The geometrical parameters such as the volume fraction of retained austenite and of the transforming zone also bring significant strengthening. Strain gradient effects also significantly affect the stress state inside the martensite plate during and after transformation with a potential impact on the damage resistance of these steels.     

Fractal analysis of fracture in concrete

Experimental results indicate that propagation paths of cracks in concrete are often irregular, producing rough fracture surfaces which are fractal. Based on dynamic analysis of microcrack coalescence, this paper presents a statistical fractal model to describe the damage evolution of concrete. The model demonstrates that the mechanism of fracture surfaces formed in concrete is closely related to the dynamic processes of the cascade coalescence of microcracks. A unimodal relation between the fractal dimension and the coalescence threshold can qualitatively explain the relation between fractal dimension and fracture energy.     

Discontinuous solutions in the theory of plasticity

Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 32, No. 7, pp. 65–68, July, 1996.     

Bifurcation and post-bifurcation analysis in plasticity and brittle fracture

A mathematical model for the bifurcation and post-bifurcation behaviour of rate independent systems governed by normality laws is presented. The considered framework encompasses a large class of phenomena, including simple models of brittle fracture, brittle damage and metal plasticity. An associated method of asymptotic development of the bifurcated solution by integer series is discussed and illustrated by simple examples in plastic stability and fracture, i.e. the buckling of some simple elastic-plastic structures and the bifurcation of systems of interacting cracks. The proposed method furnishes a rigorous framework for the study of the bifurcation problem in the context of rate-independent dissipative systems obeying normality laws, using a different approach than the one adopted so far.     

Strain gradient plasticity analysis of elasto-plastic contact between rough surfaces

From a microscopic point of view, the real contact area between two rough surfaces is the sum of the areas of contact between facing asperities. Since the real contact area is a fraction of the nominal contact area, the real contact pressure is much higher than the nominal contact pressure, which results in plastic deformation of asperities. As plasticity is size dependent at size scales below tens of micrometers, with the general trend of smaller being harder, macroscopic plasticity is not suitable to describe plastic deformation of small asperities and thus fails to capture the real contact area and pressure accurately. Here we adopt conventional mechanism-based strain gradient plasticity (CMSGP) to analyze the contact between a rigid platen and an elasto-plastic solid with a rough surface. Flattening of a single sinusoidal asperity is analyzed first to highlight the difference between CMSGP and J₂ isotropic plasticity. For the rough surface contact, besides CMSGP, pure elastic and J₂ isotropic plasticity analysis is also carried out for comparison. In all cases, the contact area A rises linearly with the applied load, but with a different slope which implies that the mean contact pressures are different. CMSGP produces qualitative changes in the distributions of local contact pressures compared with pure elastic and J₂ isotropic plasticity analysis, furthermore, bounded by the two.     

Strain gradient plasticity,strengthening effects and plastic limit analysis

Within the framework of isotropic strain gradient plasticity, a rate-independent constitutive model exhibiting size dependent hardening is formulated and discussed with particular concern to its strengthening behavior. The latter is modelled as a (fictitious) isotropic hardening featured by a potential which is a positively degree-one homogeneous function of the effective plastic strain and its gradient. This potential leads to a strengthening law in which the strengthening stress, i.e. the increase of the plastically undeformed material initial yield stress, is related to the effective plastic strain through a second order PDE and related higher order boundary conditions. The plasticity flow laws, with the role there played by the strengthening stress, are addressed and shown to admit a maximum dissipation principle. For an idealized elastic perfectly plastic material with strengthening effects, the plastic collapse load problem of a micro/nano scale structure is addressed and its basic features under the light of classical plastic limit analysis are pointed out. It is found that the conceptual framework of classical limit analysis, including the notion of rigid-plastic behavior, remains valid. The lower bound and upper bound theorems of classical limit analysis are extended to strengthening materials. A static-type maximum principle and a kinematic-type minimum principle, consequences of the lower and upper bound theorems, respectively, are each independently shown to solve the collapse load problem. These principles coincide with their respective classical counterparts in the case of simple material. Comparisons with existing theories are provided. An application of this nonclassical plastic limit analysis to a simple shear model is also presented, in which the plastic collapse load is shown to increase with the decreasing sample size (Hall–Petch size effects).     

Direct calculations of material parameters for gradient plasticity

Length scale parameters introduced in gradient theories of plasticity are calculated in closed form with a continuum dislocation based theory. The similarity of the governing equations in both models for the evolution of plastic deformation of a constrained thin film makes it possible to identify parameters of the gradient plasticity theory with the dislocation based model. A one-to-one identification is not possible given that gradient plasticity does not account for individual dislocations. However, by comparing the mean plastic deformation across the film thickness we find that the length scale parameter, l, introduced in the gradient plasticity theory depends on the geometry as well as material constants.     

Shakedown analysis for a class of strengthening materials within the framework of gradient plasticity

The classical shakedown theory is extended to a class of perfectly plastic materials with strengthening effects (Hall–Petch effects). To this aim, a strain gradient plasticity model previously advanced by Polizzotto (2010) is used, whereby a featuring strengthening law provides the strengthening stress, i.e. the increase of the yield strength produced by plastic deformation, as a degree-zero homogeneous second-order differential form in the accumulated plastic strain with associated higher order boundary conditions. The extended static (Melan) and kinematic (Koiter) shakedown theorems are proved together with the related lower bound and upper bound theorems. The shakedown limit load problem is addressed and discussed in the present context, and its solution uniqueness shown out. A simple micro-scale structural system is considered as an illustrative example. The shakedown limit load is shown to increase with decreasing the structural size, which is a manifestation of the classical Hall–Petch effects in a context of cyclic loading.     

Strain gradient plasticity effects in whisker-reinforced metals

A metal reinforced by fibers in the micron range is studied using the strain gradient plasticity theory of Fleck and Hutchinson (J. Mech. Phys. Solids 49 (2001) 2245). Cell-model analyses are used to study the influence of the material length parameters numerically, for both a single parameter version and the multiparameter theory, and significant differences between the predictions of the two models are reported. It is shown that modeling fiber elasticity is important when using the present theories. A significant stiffening effect when compared to conventional models is predicted, which is a result of a significant decrease in the level of plastic strain. Moreover, it is shown that the relative stiffening effect increases with fiber volume fraction. The higher-order nature of the theories allows for different higher-order boundary conditions at the fiber-matrix interface, and these boundary conditions are found to be of importance. Furthermore, the influence of the material length parameters on the stresses along the interface between the fiber and the matrix material is discussed, as well as the stresses within the elastic fiber which are of importance for fiber breakage.     

Randomness and slip avalanches in gradient plasticity

While localization of deformation at macroscopic scales has been documented and carefully characterized long ago, it is only recently that systematic experimental investigations have demonstrated that plastic flow of crystalline solids on mesoscopic scales proceeds in a strongly heterogenous and intermittent manner. In fact, deformation is characterized by intermittent bursts (‘slip avalanches’) the sizes of which obey power-law statistics. In the spatial domain, these avalanches produce characteristic deformation patterns in the form of slip lines and slip bands. Unlike to the case of macroscopic localization where gradient plasticity can capture the width and spacing of shear bands in the softening regime of the stress–strain graph, this type of mesoscopically jerky like localized plastic flow is observed in spite of a globally convex stress–strain relationship and may not be captured by standard deterministic continuum modelling. We thus propose a generalized constitutive model which includes both second-order strain gradients and randomness in the local stress–strain relationship. These features are related to the internal stresses which govern dislocation motion on microscopic scales. It is shown that the model can successfully describe experimental observations on slip avalanches as well as the associated surface morphology characteristics.     

An energy-based crack growth criterion for modelling elastic–plastic ductile fracture

A crack growth criterion is derived based on the Griffith energy concept and the cohesive zone model for modelling fracture in elastic–plastic ductile materials. The criterion is implemented in the finite element context by a virtual crack extension technique. An automatic modelling of the ductile fracture process is realised by combining a local remeshing procedure and the criterion. The validity of the derived criterion is examined by modelling a compact tension specimen.     

Confinement-sensitive plasticity constitutive model for concrete in triaxial compression

In this paper, a confinement-sensitive plasticity constitutive model for concrete in triaxial compression is presented, aiming to describe the strength and deformational behaviour of both normal and high-strength concrete under multiaxial compression. It incorporates a three-parameter loading surface, uncoupled hardening and softening functions following the accumulation of plastic volumetric strain and a nonlinear Lode-angle dependent plastic potential function. The various model parameters are calibrated mainly on the basis of a large experimental database and are expressed in terms of only the uniaxial compressive concrete strength, leading to a single-parameter model, suitable for practical applications. The model’s performance is evaluated against experimental results and it is found that both the increased strength and deformation capacity of confined concrete are properly captured.     

A nonlocal strain gradient plasticity theory for finite deformations

Strain gradient plasticity for finite deformations is addressed within the framework of nonlocal continuum thermodynamics, featured by the concepts of (nonlocality) energy residual and globally simple material. The plastic strain gradient is assumed to be physically meaningful in the domain of particle isoclinic configurations (with the director vector triad constant both in space and time), whereas the objective notion of corotational gradient makes it possible to compute the plastic strain gradient in any domain of particle intermediate configurations. A phenomenological elastic–plastic constitutive model is presented, with mixed kinematic/isotropic hardening laws in the form of PDEs and related higher order boundary conditions (including those associated with the moving elastic/plastic boundary). Two fourth-order projection tensor operators, functions of the elastic and plastic strain states, are shown to relate the skew-symmetric parts of the Mandel stress and back stress to the related symmetric parts. Consistent with the thermodynamic restrictions therein derived, the flow laws for rate-independent associative plasticity are formulated in a six-dimensional tensor space in terms of symmetric parts of Mandel stresses and related work-conjugate generalized plastic strain rates. A simple shear problem application is presented for illustrative purposes.     

Over-nonlocal gradient enhanced plastic-damage model for concrete

Classical continuum models exhibit strong mesh dependency during softening. One method to regularize the problem is to introduce a length scale parameter via the nonlocal formulation. However, standard nonlocal enhancement (either by integral or gradient formulation) may serve only as a partial localization limiter for many material models. The “over-nonlocal” formulation, where the weight for the nonlocal value is greater than unity and the excesses compensated by assigning a negative weight to the local value, is able to fully regularize certain material models when standard nonlocal enhancement fails to do so. A plastic-damage model for concrete is formulated with this over-nonlocal enhancement via the gradient approach and the full regularizing capabilities demonstrated.     

Nonlinear energy-based relations and numerical procedure for multiaxial local analysis

In this paper, two sets of nonlinear energy-based approximate models are formulated and used to predict the local parameters in a two-phase composite system. A numerical procedure using Newton–Raphson method is developed to solve each system of nonlinear equations in small time steps. The procedure allows the estimation of the local parameters through various loading and unloading steps and therefore, is independent of a yield criterion. The local strain results obtained using the procedure are compared with experimental results obtained at the depth of circumferentially notched particulate metal matrix composite subjected to variable amplitude loads. The numerical results are in good agreement with corresponding experimental results for the geometry and load paths considered.     

Numerical methods for bifurcation analysis in geomechanics

Summary A numerical approach to bifurcation problems in soil plasticity is outlined. While previously published results have been obtained using non-associated plasticity models, results are now presented for strain-softening plasticity. Attention is focused on a biaxial test, for which results have been obtained starting from a perfectly homogeneous sample and for a sample that contains imperfections. It is shown that the mere introduction of an imperfection not always transfers a bifurcation problem into a limit problem. This observation illustrates the need for an option in a finite element program that carries out a bifurcation analysis.

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Numerische Methoden zur Verzweigungsanalyse in der Bodenmechanik

übersicht Skizziert wird eine numerische Behandlung von Verzweigungsproblemen in der PlastizitÄt von Böden. WÄhrend frühere Ergebnisse für nicht-assoziiertes plastisches Verhalten gewonnen wurden, werden hier solche für entfestigendes Verhalten dargestellt. Das Hauptaugenmerk ist auf einen zweiachsigen Versuch gerichtet. Für ihn werden Ergebnisse beschrieben in den FÄllen, da\ von einer vollstÄndig homogenen Probe bzw. einer Probe mit Imperfektionen ausgegangen wird. Es wird gezeigt, da\ die alleinige Einführung von Imperfektionen nicht immer ein Verzweigungsproblem in ein Grenzlastproblem überführt. Diese Beobachtung zeigt die Notwendigkeit, da\ Finite-Element-Programme eine Option zur Durchführung von Verzweigungsanalysen enthalten sollten.

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Presented at the workshop on Limit Analysis and Bifurcation Theory, held at the University of Karlsruhe (FRG), February 22–25, 1988