Non-elliptic elastic materials and the modeling of dissipative mechanical behavior: an example

In the context of a special problem, this paper investigates the possibility of modeling dissipative mechanical response in solids on the basis of the equilibrium theory of finite elasticity for materials that may lose ellipticity at large strains. Quasi-static motions for such materials are in general dissipative if the associated equilibrium fields involve discontinuous displacement gradients. For the problem treated, consideration of such deformations is shown to lead naturally to an internal variable formalism similar to those used to describe macroscopic plastic behavior arising from microstructural effects. For quasi-static motions which are maximally dissipative in a specified sense, this formalism leads to a mechanical response which resembles that associated with the pseudo-elastic effect in shape-memory alloys.     

Classical and sequential limit analysis revisited

Classical limit analysis applies to ideal plastic materials, and within a linearized geometrical framework implying small displacements and strains. Sequential limit analysis was proposed as a heuristic extension to materials exhibiting strain hardening, and within a fully general geometrical framework involving large displacements and strains. The purpose of this paper is to study and clearly state the precise conditions permitting such an extension. This is done by comparing the evolution equations of the full elastic–plastic problem, the equations of classical limit analysis, and those of sequential limit analysis. The main conclusion is that, whereas classical limit analysis applies to materials exhibiting elasticity – in the absence of hardening and within a linearized geometrical framework –, sequential limit analysis, to be applicable, strictly prohibits the presence of elasticity – although it tolerates strain hardening and large displacements and strains. For a given mechanical situation, the relevance of sequential limit analysis therefore essentially depends upon the importance of the elastic–plastic coupling in the specific case considered.     

Finite plane and anti-plane elastostatic fields with discontinuous deformation gradients near the tip of a crack

In this paper the fully nonlinear theory of finite deformations of an elastic solid is used to study the elastostatic field near the tip of a crack. The special elastic materials considered are such that the differential equations governing the equilibrium fields may lose ellipticity in the presence of sufficiently severe strains.The first problem considered involves finite anti-plane shear (Mode III) deformations of a cracked incompressible solid. The analysis is based on a direct asymptotic method, in contrast to earlier approaches which have depended on hodograph procedures.The second problem treated is that of plane strain of a compressible solid containing a crack under tensile (Mode I) loading conditions. The materials is characterized by the so-called Blatz-Ko elastic potential. Again, the analysis involves only direct local considerations.for both the Mode III and Mode I problems, the loss of equilibrium ellipticity results in the appearance of curves (elastostatic shocks) issuing from the crack-tip across which displacement gradients and stresses are discontinuous.The results communicated in this paper were obtained in the course of an investigation supported by Contract N00014-75-C-0196 with the Office of Naval Research.     

Interpretation of experimental data for Poisson's ratio of highly nonlinear materials

The Poisson's ratio of a material is strictly defined only for small strain linear elastic behavior. In practice, engineering strains are often used to calculate Poisson's ratio in place of the mathematically correct true strains with only very small differences resulting in the case of many engineering amterials. The engineering strain definition is often used even in the inelastic region, for example, in metals during plastic yielding. However, for highly nonlinear elastic materials, such as many biomaterials, smart materials and microstructured materials, this convenient extension may be misleading, and it becomes advantageous to define a strainvarying Poisson's function. This is analogous to the use of a tangent modulus for stiffness. An important recent application of such a Poisson's function is that of auxetic materials that demonstrate a negative Poisson's ratio and are often highly strain dependent. In this paper, the importance of the use of a Poisson's function in appropriate circumstances is demonstrated. Interpretation methods for coping with error-sensitive data or small strains are also described.     

Description of anisotropy of isotropic materials caused by plastic strain

Many materials are polycrystalline media or hardened mechanical mixtures of complicated structure. For small elastic strains, they behave as isotropic media. But under stresses exceeding the elastic limit, these materials exhibit effects related to strain anisotropy. The problem of quantitatively estimating this phenomenon still remains open. In the present paper, without any assumptions, we reduce the nonlinear Novozhilov equations to a form typical of the constitutive relations for orthotropic media. We obtain expressions for generalized nonlinear elasticity characteristics by choosing a specific expression for the strain potential. We derive working formulas for calculating the elasticity coefficients in the principal directions and of all coefficients of the transverse strains and shear moduli in the principal planes of elastic symmetry. We describe methods for determining them from the results of extension-compression tests. We also analyze several results of tests published on this subject. We show that the effect related to the anomalous behavior of the transverse strain coefficient, which is observed both under compression and under tension, can be explained completely if the fact that the plastic strain is accompanied with strain anisotropy effects is taken into account.     

Restrictions on dynamically propagating surfaces of strong discontinuity in elastic-plastic solids

For dynamic three-dimensional deformations of elastic-plastic materials, we elicit conditions necessary for the existence of propagating surfaces of strong discontinuity (across which components of stress, strain or material velocity jump). This is accomplished within a small-displacement-gradient formulation of standard weak continuum-mechanical assumptions of momentum conservation and geometrical compatibility, and skeletal constitutive assumptions which permit very general elastic and plastic anisotropy including yield surface vertices and anisotropic hardening. In addition to deriving very explicit restrictions on propagating strong discontinuities in general deformations, we prove that for anti-plane strain and incompressible plane strain deformations, such strong discontinuities can exist only at elastic wave speeds in generally anisotropic elastic-ideally plastic materials unless a material's yield locus in stress space contains a linear segment. The results derived seem essential for correct and complete construction of solutions to dynamic elastic-plastic boundary-value problems.     

An Element Free Galerkin analysis of steady dynamic growth of a mode i crack in elastic–plastic materials

An Element Free Galerkin (EFG) method based formulation for steady dynamic crack growth in elastic–plastic materials is developed. A domain convecting parallel to the steadily moving crack tip is employed. The EFG methodology eliminates the stringent mesh requirements of the Finite Element Method (FEM) for such problems. Both rate-independent materials and rate-dependent materials are considered. The material is characterized by von Mises yielding condition and an associated flow rule. For rate-independent materials, both the influence of crack speeds and that of strain hardening on the mechanics of steady dynamic crack growth are investigated. For rate-dependent materials, only a non-hardening material is considered with emphasis on determining the influence of viscous properties of materials and crack speeds. The influence of strain hardening on steady dynamic crack growth shows the same trends as for steady quasi-static crack growth. The simplifications used in the literature in deriving analytical solutions for high strain-rate crack growth have been examined thoroughly using the numerical results.     

A Plane-Strain Formulation of Elastic-Plastic Constitutive Laws

ABSTRACT

Constitutive laws for elastic-plastic materials are derived by eliminating the transverse stress component on the basis of the plane-strain constraint. This leads to a fictitious hardening and temperature dependence of the loading function. For standard elastic-plastic materials the resulting laws are associated; however, the plastic strain state is represented by equivalent plastic-strain measures, which also account for transverse yielding. The new constitutive laws, together with the standard reduced form of the equilibrium and compatibility equations, permit the formulation of the plane-strain elastic-plastic analysis problem in terms of the in-plane stress components only. In the case of perfectly plastic materials, the subsequent plane-strain yield surfaces are contained within a domain bounded by a limit surface which represents the yield condition normally adopted in plane-strain limit analysis.     

The appropriate corotational rate, exact formula for the plastic spin and constitutive model for finite elastoplasticity

The exact formulae for the plastic and the elastic spin referred to the deformed configuration are derived, where the plastic spin is a function of the plastic strain rate and the elastic spin a function of the elastic strain rate. With these exact formulae we determine the macroscopic substructure spin that allows us to define the appropriate corotational rate for finite elastoplasticity.Plastic, elastic and substructure spin are considered and simplified for various sub-classes of restricted elastic-plastic strains. It is shown that for the special cases of rigid-plasticity and hypoelasticity the proposed corotational rate is identical with the Green-Naghdi rate, while the ZarembaJaumann rate yields a good approximation for moderately large strains.To compare our exact plastic spin formula with the constitutive assumption for the plastic spin introduced by Dafalias and others, we simplify our result for small elastic-moderate plastic strains and introduce a simplest evolution law for kinematic hardening leading to the Dafalias formula and to an exact determination of its unknown coefficient. It is also shown that contrary to statements in the literature the plastic spin is not zero for vanishing kinematic hardening.For isotropic-elastic material with induced plastic flow undergoing isotropic and kinematic hardening constitutive and evolution laws are proposed. Elastic and plastic Lagrangean and Eulerian logarithmic strain measures are introduced and their material time derivatives and corotational rates, respectively, are considered. Finally, the elastic-plastic tangent operator is derived.The presented theory is implemented in a solution algorithm and numerically applied to the simple shear problem for finite elastic-finite plastic strains as well as for sub-classes of restricted strains. The results are compared with those of the literature and with those obtained by using other corotational rates.     

On the plastic wave speeds in rate-independent elastic–plastic materials with anisotropic elasticity

This paper presents a theoretical study of the speeds of plastic waves in rate-independent elastic–plastic materials with anisotropic elasticity. It is shown that for a given propagation direction the plastic wave speeds are equal to or lower than the corresponding elastic speeds, and a simple expression is provided for the bound on the difference between the elastic and the plastic wave speeds. The bound is given as a function of the plastic modulus and the magnitude of a vector defined by the current stress state and the propagation direction. For elastic–plastic materials with cubic symmetry and with tetragonal symmetry, the upper and lower bounds on the plastic wave speeds are obtained without numerically solving an eigenvalue problem. Numerical examples of materials with cubic symmetry (copper) and with tetragonal symmetry (tin) are presented as a validation of the proposed bounds. The lower bound proposed here on the minimum plastic wave speed may also be used as an efficient alternative to the bifurcation analysis at early stages of plastic deformation for the determination of the loss of ellipticity.     

A generalized anisotropic hardening rule based on the Mroz multi-yield-surface model for pressure insensitive and sensitive materials

In this paper, a generalized anisotropic hardening rule based on the Mroz multi-yield-surface model for pressure insensitive and sensitive materials is derived. The evolution equation for the active yield surface with reference to the memory yield surface is obtained by considering the continuous expansion of the active yield surface during the unloading/reloading process. The incremental constitutive relation based on the associated flow rule is then derived for a general yield function for pressure insensitive and sensitive materials. Detailed incremental constitutive relations for materials based on the Mises yield function, the Hill quadratic anisotropic yield function and the Drucker–Prager yield function are derived as the special cases. The closed-form solutions for one-dimensional stress–plastic strain curves are also derived and plotted for materials under cyclic loading conditions based on the three yield functions. In addition, the closed-form solutions for one-dimensional stress–plastic strain curves for materials based on the isotropic Cazacu–Barlat yield function under cyclic loading conditions are summarized and presented. For materials based on the Mises and the Hill anisotropic yield functions, the stress–plastic strain curves show closed hysteresis loops under uniaxial cyclic loading conditions and the Masing hypothesis is applicable. For materials based on the Drucker–Prager and Cazacu–Barlat yield functions, the stress–plastic strain curves do not close and show the ratcheting effect under uniaxial cyclic loading conditions. The ratcheting effect is due to different strain ranges for a given stress range for the unloading and reloading processes. With these closed-form solutions, the important effects of the yield surface geometry on the cyclic plastic behavior due to the pressure-sensitive yielding or the unsymmetric behavior in tension and compression can be shown unambiguously. The closed form solutions for the Drucker–Prager and Cazacu–Barlat yield functions with the associated flow rule also suggest that a more general anisotropic hardening theory needs to be developed to address the ratcheting effects for a given stress range.     

A new formulation of the effective elastic–plastic response of two-phase particulate composite materials

In this paper the double-inclusion model, originally developed to determine effective linear elastic properties of composite materials, is reformulated and extended to predict the effective nonlinear elastic–plastic response of two-phase particulate composites reinforced with spherical particles. The resulting problem of elastic–plastic deformation of a double-inclusion embedded in an infinite reference medium subjected to an incrementally applied far-field strain is solved by the finite element method. The proposed double-inclusion model is evaluated by comparison of the model predictions to the available exact results obtained by the direct approach using representative volume elements containing many particles. It is found that the double-inclusion formulation is capable of providing accurate prediction of the effective elastic–plastic response of two-phase particulate composites at moderate particle volume fractions.     

Contact laws between solid particles

This paper presents a comprehensive study for the contact laws between solid particles taking into account the effects of plasticity, strain hardening and very large deformation. The study takes advantage of the development of a so-called material point method (MPM) which requires neither remeshing for large deformation problems, nor iterative schemes to satisfy the contact boundary conditions. The numerical results show that the contact law is sensitive to impact velocity and material properties. The contact laws currently used in the discrete element simulations often ignore these factors and are therefore over-simplistic. For spherical particles made of elastic perfectly plastic material, the study shows that the contact law can be fully determined by knowing the relative impact velocity and the ratio between the effective elastic modulus and yield stress. For particles with strain hardening, the study shows that it is difficult to develop an analytical contact law. The same difficulty exists when dealing with particles of irregular shapes or made of heterogeneous materials. The problem can be overcome by using numerical contact laws which can be easily obtained using the material point method.     

Some extremum properties of finite-step solutions inelastoplasticity

For the nonholonomic elastic–plastic problem under a given external action history overa time interval, an extremal formulation is given in terms of the complete solution over the wholeinterval. The assumed elastic–plastic behaviour is of the associated type with piecewiselinearized yield surface and linear hardening.When the loading history is reduced to an infinitesimal increment of the external actions(incremental problem) or when the material behaviour is assumed to be of the holonomic type (finite holonomic step) problem, the functional of the extremal formulation may be split into thesum of two other simpler functionals (previously introduced) whose minimum, for both of them,gives the problem solution under less constraints than in the original problem.For general non-holonomic loading histories the above splitting is shown to be still possiblewhen a particular change of the complementarity condition of the constitutive law is considered,which leads to a new class of holonomic problems.It is shown that some problems of this new class, together with a suitable time discretization,represent the schematization of the original problem corresponding to well known numericalintegration schemes.     

On real and ideal materials

Various plasticity theories are discussed as models for the behavior of real materials. The simple rigid/perfectly plastic model is shown to be a reasonable first approximation. Once the theory for this model has been developed, it is easily modified to account for strain hardening and elastic effects. It is shown in various examples that, for loads less than the rigid/perfectly plastic limit load, strain hardening has a negligible effect, whereas for greater loads elastic strains can reasonably be neglected.     

Classes of flow rules for finite viscoplasticity

Classes of flow rules for finite viscoplasticity are defined by assuming that certain measures for plastic strain rate and plastic spin depend on the state variables but not on the plastic deformation. It is shown that three of these classes are mutually exclusive for finite elastic strains. For small elastic shear strains, two of the three classes are approximately equivalent. A number of exact and approximate kinematic relations between the various measures for plastic strain rate and plastic spin are derived. Some inconsistent flow rules encountered in the literature are also discussed. Throughout the paper, arbitrarily anisotropic materials are considered, and some of the simplifications resulting from the assumption of isotropy are noted.     

A note on divergence and flutter instabilities in elastic–plastic materials

Dynamic stability of uniform straining of a nonlinear elastic solid is known to require that all eigenvalues of the acoustic tensor associated with the tangent elastic moduli be real and nonnegative. The focus of this note is to what extent this conclusion applies to time-independent, elastoplastic materials. Nonlinearity of the elastic–plastic constitutive law imposes limits on validity of a solution to the linear problem for which the acoustic tensor is determined. The effect of those limits on the conclusions about instability is examined.     

Rate sensitivity of mixed mode interface toughness of dissimilar metallic materials: Studied at steady state

Crack propagation in metallic materials produces plastic dissipation when material in front for the crack tip enters the active plastic zone traveling with the tip, and later ends up being part of the residual plastic strain wake. Thus, the macroscopic work required to advance the crack is typically much larger than the work needed in the near tip fracture process. For rate sensitive materials, the amount of plastic dissipation typically depends on the rate at which the material is deformed. A dependency on the crack velocity should therefore be expected. The objective of this paper is to study the macroscopic toughness of crack advance along an interface joining two dissimilar rate dependent materials, characterized by an elastic-viscoplastic material model that approaches the response of a J₂-flow material in the rate independent limit. The emphasis here is on the rate sensitivity of the macroscopic fracture toughness under mixed Mode I/II loading. Moreover, special cases of joined similar rate dependent materials, as well as dissimilar materials where one substrate remains either elastic or approaches the rate independent limit is also included. The numerical analysis is carried out using the SSV model [Suo, Z., Shih, C., Varias, A., 1993. A theory for cleavage cracking in the presence of plastic flow. Acta Metall. Mater. 41, 1551–1557] embedded in a steady state finite element formulation, here assuming plane strain conditions and small-scale yielding. Results are presented for a wide range of material parameters, including noteworthy observations of a characteristic crack velocity at which the macroscopic toughness becomes independent of the material rate sensitivity. The potential of this phenomenon is elaborated on from a modeling point of view.