Analysis of adiabatic shear bands in thermo-elasto-viscoplastic materials by using piece-wise discontinuous basis functions

An adiabatic shear band (ASB) is a narrow region of intense plastic deformation that forms when some metallic alloys and some polymers are deformed at high strain rates and there is not enough time for the heat generated by plastic deformations to diffuse away. The study of ASBs is important because an ASB is a precursor to shear/ductile fractures. Initial-boundary-value problems simulating the initiation and propagation of an ASB have been analyzed usually using the finite element method (FEM). Because of the large plastic strains involved, the FE mesh needs to be refined several times to delineate the ASB width. Each refinement requires, in turn, interpolation of data from the previous mesh to the new one which causes a smoothening of the sharp gradients of the deformation fields, and affects characteristics of the ASB. In this paper, we propose the application of the finite element method with piecewise discontinuous basis functions for studying the occurrence of ASBs in simple shearing deformations of a body composed of an isotropic and homogeneous thermo-elastoviscoplastic material. The mathematical model of the problem is defined by a system of coupled nonlinear partial differential equations and an inequality constraint associated with the plastic strain rates admissibility.