The initiation and growth of adiabatic shear bands

A simple version of thermo/viscoplasticity theory is used to model the formation of adiabatic shear bands in high rate deformation of solids. The one dimensional shearing deformation of a finite slab is considered. For the constitutive assumptions made in this paper, homogeneous shearing produces a stress/strain response curve that always has a maximum when strain and rate hardening, plastic heating, and thermal softening are taken into account. Shear bands form if a perturbation is added to the homogeneous fields just before peak stress is obtained with these new fields being used as initial conditions. The resulting initial/boundary value problem is solved by the finite element method for one set of material parameters. The shear band grows slowly at first, then accelerates sharply, until finally the plastic strain rate in the center reaches a maximum, followed by a slow decline. Stress drops rapidly throughout the slab, and the central temperature increases rapidly as the peak in strain rate develops.