Instability prevention at the modeling of large elasto-plastic strains under cyclic loading

The cyclic instability phenomenon is investigated at the modeling of large elasto-plastic strains. The possible causes of the cyclic instability and conditions ensuring cyclical stability of elasto-plastic models are analyzed for the case of large strains. Among the possible causes of the cyclic instability the following are considered: the method of strain decomposition on elastic and plastic parts; the constitutive law for the elastic deformation (hypo- and hyper-elasticity); the constitutive equation for the plastic deformation; the constitutive relation for the plastic spin; kinematic hardening law, in particular, the type of the objective rate in the generalized Prager's law. Predictions of 50 various models of the elasto-plastic material have been compared in order to find the causes of the cyclic instability. Two test problems are considered: cyclic simple shear, combined cyclic simple shear and tension-compression. Results of numerical experiments for the various material models are presented and discussed. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)