A modified swift law for prestrained materials

A modified Swift law to describe the evolution of the mechanical behaviour in reloading of prestrained materials is proposed in this work. This equation is deduced from the original Swift law by including a parameter that accounts for the effect of strain path change. This parameter depends on the value of the yield stress and the subsequent work-hardening behaviour in reloading. The new equation predicts well the general mechanical behaviour in the second path for copper and steel. In particular, it predicts accurately the strain value for which necking occurs during reloading and fits experimental stress-strain curves well. The flow equation formulated remains sufficiently simple to be applied in finite element modelling of prestrained materials. However, since the parameter, which is needed for the modified Swift law, must be previously known, the strain path change itself cannot be part of the simulation.