Strain gradient effects on cyclic plasticity

Size effects on the cyclic shear response are studied numerically using a recent higher order strain gradient visco-plasticity theory accounting for both dissipative and energetic gradient hardening. Numerical investigations of the response under cyclic pure shear and shear of a finite slab between rigid platens have been carried out, using the finite element method. It is shown for elastic-perfectly plastic solids how dissipative gradient effects lead to increased yield strength, whereas energetic gradient contributions lead to increased hardening as well as a Bauschinger effect. For linearly hardening materials it is quantified how dissipative and energetic gradient effects promote hardening above that of conventional predictions. Usually, increased hardening is attributed to energetic gradient effects, but here it is found that also dissipative gradient effects lead to additional hardening in the presence of conventional material hardening. Furthermore, it is shown that dissipative gradient effects can lead to both an increase and a decrease in the dissipation per load cycle depending on the magnitude of the dissipative length parameter, whereas energetic gradient effects lead to decreasing dissipation for increasing energetic length parameter. For dissipative gradient effects it is found that dissipation has a maximum value for some none zero value of the material length parameter, which depends on the magnitude of the deformation cycles.     

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.     

Strain gradient crystal plasticity effects on flow localization

In metal grains one of the most important failure mechanisms involves shear band localization. As the band width is small, the deformations are affected by material length scales. To study localization in single grains a rate-dependent crystal plasticity formulation for finite strains is presented for metals described by the reformulated Fleck–Hutchinson strain gradient plasticity theory. The theory is implemented numerically within a finite element framework using slip rate increments and displacement increments as state variables. The formulation reduces to the classical crystal plasticity theory in the absence of strain gradients. The model is used to study the effect of an internal material length scale on the localization of plastic flow in shear bands in a single crystal under plane strain tension. It is shown that the mesh sensitivity is removed when using the nonlocal material model considered. Furthermore, it is illustrated how different hardening functions affect the formation of shear bands.     

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.     

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.     

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 crystal plasticity analysis of a single crystal containing a cylindrical void

The effects of void size and hardening in a hexagonal close-packed single crystal containing a cylindrical void loaded by a far-field equibiaxial tensile stress under plane strain conditions are studied. The crystal has three in-plane slip systems oriented at the angle 60° with respect to one another. Finite element simulations are performed using a strain gradient crystal plasticity formulation with an intrinsic length scale parameter in a non-local strain gradient constitutive framework. For a vanishing length scale parameter the non-local formulation reduces to a local crystal plasticity formulation. The stress and deformation fields obtained with a local non-hardening constitutive formulation are compared to those obtained from a local hardening formulation and to those from a non-local formulation. Compared to the case of the non-hardening local constitutive formulation, it is shown that a local theory with hardening has only minor effects on the deformation field around the void, whereas a significant difference is obtained with the non-local constitutive relation. Finally, it is shown that the applied stress state required to activate plastic deformation at the void is up to three times higher for smaller void sizes than for larger void sizes in the non-local material.     

Strain strengthening effects in Witwatersrand quartzite

A series of uniaxial compression specimens were tested over a range of applied ram displacement rates of 8.9 × 10⁻⁴ to 8.9 mm/sec to elucidate the effects of loading rate on the uniaxial compressive fracture stress of Witwatersrand quartzite. It was demonstrated that even within standard loading rate ranges, considerable scatter in the fracture strength (under uniaxial compression) existed in this particular quartzite rock. Nevertheless, a definite trend of increasing fracture resistance with increasing monotonic loading rate was evident inasmuch that increasing the loading rate (strain rate) by four orders of magnitude increase the fracture strength by almost 2.8 times. Prior fatigue loading also produced a significant strain strengthening as the uniaxial compressive fracture stress tended to increase in a sigmoidal fashion with increasing number of fatigue cycles prior to testing. Indeed, the fracture strength of quartzite was almost doubled in value after 10⁻ cycles. Plane strain fracture toughness tests utilising three point bend specimens were conducted and an average of K_lc = 1.7 MPa√m was realized. In both the uniaxial compression tests and the fracture toughness tests, failure occurred by crack extension predominantly by a transgranular flat cleavage-like mode through pure quartzite (silica) regions. However, crack extension was also observed to occur in an intergranular “ductile-like” mode through areas associated with inclusions prevalent in the quartzite.     

Strain gradient plasticity by internal-variable approach with normality structure

This paper presents a constitutive formulation for materials with strain gradient effects by internal-variable approach with normality structure. Specific micro-structural rearrangements are assumed to account for the inelasticity deformations for this class of materials, and enter the constitutive formulations in form of internal variables. It is further assumed that the kinetic evolution of any specific micro-structural rearrangement may be fully determined by the thermodynamic forces associated with that micro-structural rearrangement, by normality relations via a flow potential. Macroscopic gradient-enhanced inelastic behaviours may then be predicted in terms of the microscopic internal variables and their conjugate forces, and thus a micro–macro bridging formulation is available for strain-gradient-characterised materials. The obtained formulations are first applied to crystallographic materials, and a crystal gradient plasticity model is developed to account for the influence of microscopic slip rearrangements on the macroscopic gradient-dependent mechanical behaviour for this class of materials. Micro-cracked geomaterials are also treated with these formulations and a gradient-enhanced damage constitutive model is developed to address the impacts of the evolutions of micro-cracks on the macroscopic inelastic deformations with strain gradient effects for these materials. The available formulations are further compared with other thermodynamic approaches of constitutive developing.     

Strain gradient plasticity solution for an internally pressurized thick-walled spherical shell of an elastic–plastic material

An analytical solution is presented for an internally pressurized thick-walled spherical shell of an elastic strain-hardening plastic material. A strain gradient plasticity theory is used to describe the constitutive behavior of the material undergoing plastic deformations, whereas the generalized Hooke’s law is invoked to represent the material response in the elastic region. The solution gives explicit expressions for the stress, strain and displacement components. The inner radius of the shell enters these expressions not only in non-dimensional forms but also with its own dimensional identity, unlike classical plasticity-based solutions. As a result, the current solution can capture the size effect. The classical plasticity-based solution of the same problem is shown to be a special case of the present solution. Numerical results for the maximum effective stress in the shell wall are also provided to illustrate applications of the newly derived solution. The new solution can be used to construct improved expanding cavity models in indentation mechanics that incorporate both the strain-hardening and indentation size effects.     

On boundary conditions and plastic strain-gradient discontinuity in lower-order gradient plasticity

Through linearized analysis and computation, we show that lower-order gradient plasticity is compatible with boundary conditions, thus expanding its predictive capability. A physically motivated gradient modification of the conventional Voce hardening law is shown to lead to a convective stabilizing effect in 1-D, rate-independent plasticity. The partial differential equation is genuinely nonlinear and does not arise as a conservation law, thus making the task of inferring plausible boundary conditions a delicate matter. Implications of wave-type behavior in rate-independent plastic response (under conditions of static equilibrium) are analyzed with a discussion of an appropriate numerical algorithm. Example problems are solved numerically, showing the robustness and simplicity of physically motivated lower-order gradient plasticity. The 3-D case and rate-dependent constitutive assumptions are also discussed.     

Modeling plastic shocks in periodic laminates with gradient plasticity theories

Steady plastic shocks generated by planar impact on metal-polymer laminate composites are analyzed in the framework of gradient plasticity theories. The laminate material has a periodic structure with a unit cell composed of two layers of different materials. First- and second-order gradient plasticity theories are used to model the structure of steady plastic shocks. In both theories, the effect of the internal structure is accounted for at the macroscopic level by two material parameters that are dependent upon the layer's thickness and the properties of constituents. These two structure parameters are shown to be uniquely determined from experimental data. Theoretical predictions are compared with experiments for different cell sizes and for various shock intensities. In particular, the following experimental features are well-reproduced by the modeling:

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the shock width is proportional to the cell size;

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the magnitude of strain rate is inversely proportional to cell size and increases with the amplitude of applied stress following a power law.

While these results are equally described by both the plasticity theories, the first gradient plasticity approach seems to be favored when comparing the structure of the shock front to the experimental data.     

Strain gradient plasticity modeling of the cyclic behavior of laminate microstructures

Two recently proposed Helmholtz free energy potentials including the full dislocation density tensor as an argument within the framework of strain gradient plasticity are used to predict the cyclic elastoplastic response of periodic laminate microstructures. First, a rank-one defect energy is considered, allowing for a size-effect on the overall yield strength of micro-heterogeneous materials. As a second candidate, a logarithmic defect energy is investigated, which is motivated by the work of Groma et al. (2003). The properties of the back-stress arising from both energies are investigated in the case of a laminate microstructure for which analytical as well as numerical solutions are derived. In this context, a new regularization technique for the numerical treatment of the rank-one potential is presented based on an incremental potential involving Lagrange multipliers. The results illustrate the effect of the two energies on the macroscopic size-dependent stress–strain response in monotonic and cyclic shear loading, as well as the arising pile-up distributions. Under cyclic loading, stress–strain hysteresis loops with inflections are predicted by both models. The logarithmic potential is shown to provide a continuum formulation of Asaro's type III kinematic hardening model. Experimental evidence in the literature of such loops with inflections in two-phased FFC alloys is provided, showing that the proposed strain gradient models reflect the occurrence of reversible plasticity phenomena under reverse loading.     

NONSMOOTH MODEL FOR PLASTIC LIMIT ANALYSIS AND ITS SMOOTHING ALGORITHM

By means of Lagrange duality theory of the convex program, a dual problem of Hill's maximum plastic work principle under Mises' yield condition has been derived and whereby a non-differentiable convex optimization model for the limit analysis is developed. With this model, it is not necessary to linearize the yield condition and its discrete form becomes a minimization problem of the sum of Euclidean norms subject to linear constraints. Aimed at resolving the non-differentiability of Euclidean norms, a smoothing algorithm for the limit analysis of perfect-plastic continuum media is proposed. Its efficiency is demonstrated by computing the limit load factor and the collapse state for some plane stress and plain strain problems.     

Nonlocal and gradient rate plasticity

This paper deals with a formulation of nonlocal and gradient plasticity with internal variables. The constitutive model complies with local internal variables which govern kinematic hardening and isotropic softening and with a nonlocal corrective internal variable defined either as the sum between a new internal variable and its spatial weighted average or as the gradient of a measure of plastic strain. The rate constitutive problem is cast in the framework provided by the convex analysis and the potential theory for monotone multivalued operators which provide the suitable tools to perform a theoretical analysis of such nonlocal and gradient problems. The validity of the maximum dissipation theorem is assessed and constitutive variational formulations of the rate model are provided. The structural rate problem for an assigned load rate is then formulated. The related variational formulation in the complete set of state variable is contributed and the methodology to derive variational formulations, with different combinations of the state variables, is explicitly provided. In particular the generalization to the present nonlocal and gradient model of the principles of Prager–Hodge, Greenberg and Capurso–Maier is presented. Finally nonlocal variational formulations provided in the literature are derived as special cases of the proposed model.     

Interfacial energy effects within the framework of strain gradient plasticity

In the framework of strain gradient plasticity, a solid body with boundary surface playing the role of a dissipative boundary layer endowed with surface tension and surface energy, is addressed. Using the so-called residual-based gradient plasticity theory, the state equations and the higher order boundary conditions are derived quite naturally for both the bulk material and the boundary layer. A phenomenological constitutive model is envisioned, in which the bulk material and the boundary layer obey (rate independent associative) coupled plasticity evolution laws, with kinematic hardening laws of differential nature for the bulk material, but of nondifferential nature for the layer. A combined global maximum dissipation principle is shown to hold. The higher order boundary conditions are discussed in details and categorized in relation to some peculiar features of the boundary surface, and their basic role in the coupling of the bulk/layer plasticity evolution laws is pointed out. The case of an internal interface is also studied. An illustrative example relating to a shear model exhibiting energetic size effects is presented. The theory provides a unified view on gradient plasticity with interfacial energy effects.     

Discontinuous bifurcation analysis in fracture energy-based gradient plasticity for concrete

Conditions for discontinuous bifurcation in limit states of selective non-local thermodynamically consistent gradient theory for quasi-brittle materials like concrete are evaluated by means of both geometrical and analytical procedures. This constitutive formulation includes two internal lengths, one related to the strain gradient field that considers the degradation of the continuum in the vicinity of the considered material point. The other characteristic length takes into account the material degradation in the form of energy release in the cracks during failure process evolution.The variation from ductile to brittle failure in quasi-brittle materials is accomplished by means of the pressure dependent formulation of both characteristic lengths as described by Vrech and Etse (2009).In this paper the formulation of the localization ellipse for constitutive theories based on gradient plasticity and fracture energy plasticity is proposed as well as the explicit solutions for brittle failure conditions in the form of discontinuous bifurcation. The geometrical, analytical and numerical analysis of discontinuous bifurcation condition in this paper are comparatively evaluated in different stress states and loading conditions.The included results illustrate the capabilities of the thermodynamically consistent selective non-local gradient constitutive theory to reproduce the transition from ductile to brittle and localized failure modes in the low confinement regime of concrete and quasi-brittle materials.     

Suppressed plastic deformation at blunt crack-tips due to strain gradient effects

Large deformation gradients occur near a crack-tip and strain gradient dependent crack-tip deformation and stress fields are expected. Nevertheless, for material length scales much smaller than the scale of the deformation gradients, a conventional elastic–plastic solution is obtained. On the other hand, for significant large material length scales, a conventional elastic solution is obtained. This transition in behaviour is investigated based on a finite strain version of the Fleck–Hutchinson strain gradient plasticity model from 2001. The predictions show that for a wide range of material parameters, the transition from the conventional elastic–plastic to the elastic solution occurs for length scales ranging from 0.001 times the size of the plastic zone to a length scale of the same order of magnitude as the plastic zone.