Module 7: Nonlinear Finite Element Method Re-Visited

Lectures 31 35:

Concept of Nonlinearity,

Material Nonlinearity,

Geometric Nonlinearity,

Contact Nonlinearity,

Nonlinear Constitutive relations, Incremental formulation, Solution of

Nonlinear Equations
Key-Words: Material Nonlinearity, Geometric
Incremental Formulation, Solution Strategy

Nonlinearity,

Contact

Nonlinearity,

Concept
STRUCTURAL NONLINEARITIES

of

Introduction
Solution of many engineering problems is based on linear approximations. In structural
analyses, these approximations are represented by consideration that

displacements are small and can be neglected in equilibrium equations,

the strain is proportional to the stress (linear Hookean material model),

loads are conservative, independent on displacements,

supports of the structure remain unchanged during loading.

Consequently, in the Finite Element Analysis (FEA), the constitutive equations describing
the structural behavior is then linear

..(1)

where K is the stiffness matrix of the structure, d is the nodal displacements vector and
F is the external nodal force vector. Characteristics of solution of this linear problem is
that

the displacements are proportional to the loads,

the stiffness of the structure is independent on the value of the load level.
In reality, behavior of structures is nonlinear, but divergences from linear response are
usually small and may be neglected in most practical problems.
On other hand, solution for many engineering problems needs abandonment of linear
approximations. For example, displacements of slender structures (like crane towers,
masts etc.) may be so large that changes of the structure shape (or configuration
changes) cannot be neglected. Many materials behave nonlinearly or linear material
model cannot be used if stress exceeds some value. Moreover, loads may change their
orientations according to displacements and supports may change during loading.
Consequently, structure behaves nonlinearly. If these phenomena are included in a FEA,
the set of equilibrium equations becomes nonlinear and instead of set of linear
equations (1) we obtain a set of nonlinear algebraic equations

..(2)

Types of structural nonlinearities

Structural nonlinearities can be specified as

Geometrical nonlinearities: The effect of large displacements on the overall

geometric configuration of the structure.

Material nonlinearities: Material behavior is nonlinear. Possible material

models are:

o
o
o

nonlinear elastic,
elastoplastic,
viscoelastic,

viscoplastic.
Boundary nonlinearities, i.e. displacement dependent boundary conditions.
The most frequent boundary nonlinearities are encountered in contact problems.
Consequences of nonlinear structural behavior that have to be recognized are:

The principle of superposition cannot be applied. Thus, for example, the results of
several load cases cannot be combined. Results of the nonlinear analysis cannot be
scaled.
Only one load case can be handled at a time.
The sequence of application of loads (loading history) may be important.
Especially, plastic deformations depend on a manner of loading. This is a reason for
dividing loads into small increments in nonlinear FE analysis.
The structural behavior can be markedly non-proportional to the applied load.
The initial state of stress (e.g. residual stresses from heat treatment, welding,
cold forming etc.) may be important.
Concept of time curves
For nonlinear static analysis, the loads are applied in incremental steps using time
curves. The time variable represents a pseudo time, which denotes the intensity of
the applied loads at certain step.
For nonlinear dynamic analysis and nonlinear static analysis with time dependent
material properties, time represents the real time associated with the loads
application.
As an example, time curves of forces
and
loading simple beam are displayed
inFigure- 1. Values of forces at any time are defined as

..(3)

where
and
are input values of forces and
functions of time t.

and

are load parameters that are

Figure- 1: Example of time curves

The choice of time step size depends on several factors such as the level of
nonlinearities of the problem and the solution procedure. Generally, sufficiently small
steps are necessary to simulate nonlinear response of a structure with satisfactory
accuracy. On the other hand, large number of too small time steps uselessly increases
consumption of CPU time. Computer programs are usually equipped with an adaptive
automatic stepping algorithm to facilitate the analysis and to reduce the solution time
demands.
NONLINEAR FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS
Geometric Nonlinearity Concept
Large displacement and small strain behavior
To examine geometrically nonlinear behavior we will start with an example. We assume
large displacement, but small rotation and, what is the most important, small strain. The
structure is very simple only one bar truss as is shown in Figure- 2. At the beginning,
when the forceP is zero, the axial force N in the bar is zero too and bar has its initial
length L0.

Figure- 2: Example of nonlinear structure single bar truss

Using the free body diagram shown in Figure- 2, the
equilibrium equation is

..(4)

And after substituting

..(5)

Assume that material is linearly elastic with Youngs modulus E. The assumption of
small strains means here that changes of the bar cross sectional area A can be
neglected. Then axial force in the bar is

..(6)

where A0 is the initial cross sectional area and is the engineering strain defined as

..(7)

As lengths are given as

..(8)

the expression for strain is getting rather complicated. We can overcame this problem
by
introducing Greens
strain defined
as

..(9)

which

for

our

problem

becomes

..(10)

Use of this new measure of strain is possible because we can define strain arbitrarily.
The only condition is that the strain measure must be objective, which means that is
have to be independent on choice of coordinate system and insensitive to a rigid body
movement. From equations (7) and (9), it follows that

..
(11)

Or

..(12)

Noting that the constitution equation was measured as

..(13)

the same constitutive equation when using Greens strain should be

..(14)

This means that we should use value

..(15)

instead of E in the constitution equation. Fortunately, we can ignore this complication

now because for small engineering strain is the difference between engineering and
Greens strain negligible.
For example, consider that

(e.g. mild steel yields at about this value),

then
. This means that difference is only 0,1%,
i.e. a value that can be usually neglected. Assuming that strain is small, we can
write

and according to equation (10)

..(16)

Substituting equation (16) to equilibrium equation (5) and assuming that for small strain
is

gives the equilibrium equation

..(17)

Obviously, the equation is nonlinear with respect to displacement u. That means that
relation between load P and displacement u is represented not by a straight line as it is
when changes of configuration are neglected but by a curve. This nonlinear
characteristic for
shown in Figure- 3.

MPa,

mm2, a = 200 mm and h = 20 mm is

Figure- 3: Geometrically nonlinear behavior of a single bar truss

There is another possibility to obtain equation of equilibrium (5) or (17). From principle
of virtual displacements, it follows that when the structure is in equilibrium, virtual
works of internal and external forces are equal for every kinematic admissible set of
virtual displacements. For our structure with one degree of freedom, only one virtual
displacement

u
is
possible
and
principle
of
virtual displacements has a form

..(18)

where
is virtual strain corresponding to virtual displacement
can be expressed from equation (10) as

(19)

. The virtual strain

..

It is assumed in principle of virtual displacements that virtual displacement is

infinitesimal and hence the stress
and

remains unchanged. Noting that

are constant over the whole volume V in this case and assuming that changes

of the volume can be neglected due to small strain, i.e.

becomes

, equation (18)

..(20)

and from this equation it follows that

..(21)

This is the same equation as the equation of equilibrium (5). After substituting for N
from (16) the equation (17) will be received again.
Utilization of principle of virtual displacements (PVD) is a convenient way to obtain
conditions of equilibrium for complex structures. For general three dimensional case we
have three components of displacement u, v, w and six components of Greens strain

..(22)

In finite element method, displacements are interpolated within the finite elements as

..(23)

where
are nodal displacements and Ni are shape functions. Substituting these
equations into expressions of Greens strain components, we obtain

..(24)

In matrix equation (24)

..(25)

and d is matrix of nodal displacements. Matrix BLis the usual small displacement matrix
and matrix BN reflects the fact that Greens strain is a nonlinear function of
displacements. Elements of this matrix are linear functions of nodal displacements d. It
might be shown that virtual strain corresponding to the virtual nodal
displacements d is

..(26)

According to the principle of virtual displacements, virtual work of internal forces must
be equal to virtual work of external forces if the structure is in equilibrium. This is
represented by the equation

..(27)

where F is matrix of nodal forces.

We suppose linear relation between stress and strain components, hence

..(28)

where D is matrix of material elastic constants.

Substituting (26) into (27) gives

..(29)

for any kinematic admissible set of virtual displacements d . Then

..(30)

The last equation is a matrix representation of a set of nonlinear algebraic equations for
unknown nodal displacements d.

..(31)

Incremental alterative solutions

We have seen that assumption of large displacements leads to nonlinear equation of
equilibrium (5) or (17) for a simple bar truss example. Generally, in finite element
analysis we have a set of nonlinear equations (31).
Let us start with the bar truss example. The equation of equilibrium (5) or (17) can be
written in a form

..(32)

where

..(33)

represents a component of internal force.

The basic step to solve the nonlinear equation (33) is a linear approximation for small
increment of force and corresponding increment of displacement.
Assume that for a prescribed value of force P we managed to find (e.g. by numerical
method) a displacement u satisfying the equation (23). Internal force
external force

can be approximated by the linear function

..(34)

and approximate condition of equilibrium is

..(35)

Assuming equation (32) gives

..(36)

Or

..(37)

where

..(38)

for new

is called the tangent stiffness. For the particular case of the bar truss, tangent stiffness
can be easily found as

..(39)

Using the equation (16) gives

..(40)

from which

..(41)

where

is the linear stiffness

is the initial displacement stiffness

is the initial stress stiffness.

The linear stiffness, which is independent on displacement, is familiar from small

displacement structural analysis. The initial displacement stiffness reflects the effect of
displacement on stiffness. The initial stress stiffness reflects the fact that there is an
axial force in the bar prior to load increment.
In like manner, we can precede in a general case described by the equation (30) or (31)
and
derive

..(42)

and

..(43)

where

..(44)

is the tangent stiffness matrix. We can also find out that

..(45)

where KT is linear stiffness matrix, K u is initial displacement stiffness matrix and K is

initial stress stiffness matrix.

Introduction of tangent stiffness matrix is crucial for solution of nonlinear equations

(31). The most widely used methods are briefly introduced in the following text:

Incremental method
The load is divided into a set of small increments Fi. Increments
displacements di are calculated from the set of linear simultaneous equations

of

..(46)

and an updated solution is obtained as

..(47)

Figure- 4: Incremental method

The procedure is shown in Figure- 4. It is obvious that solution error, i.e. difference from
exact solution gradually cumulates. To reduce error, large number of small incremental

steps has to be done that is inefficient. On the other hand, division of loading process
into sufficiently small increments is necessary to model load path dependent behavior
of a structure. Dependence of response on a manner of loading, not only of final values
of loads is typical for problems with plastic deformation and with friction. In these
problems, incremental method is usually combined with one of following methods.
Newton-Raphson method
Suppose that initial displacements d0 are known. The first guess of nodal displacements
for load F is calculated by solving set of linear algebraic equations

..(48)

where

..(49)

is tangent stiffness matrix calculated for initial displacements.

As the displacements d1are most probably not accurate, the equilibrium equation (31)
is not satisfied and

..(50)

that means there are unbalanced (or residual) nodal forces

..(51)

By computing new tangential stiffness matrix

..(52)

and solving new set of algebraic linear equations

..(53)

we will obtain an improved solution

..(54)

If
the procedure is repeated until the sufficiently accurate solution is
obtained. The iterations are schematically shown in Figure- 5.
This method, known as Newton-Raphson method (NR) is often combined with
incremental method as displayed in Figure- 5.

Figure- 5: Standard Newton-Raphson (NR) numerical method

Figure- 6: Combination of Newton-Raphson and incremental methods

Modified Newton-Raphson method

The standard Newton-Raphson method, although effective in many cases, needs the
solution of the set of linear equations (53) which is time demanding for large systems.
Modified Newton-Raphson method (MNR) differs from standard NR algorithm in that the
stiffness matrix is only updated occasionally. In the example shown in Figure- 7, the
tangential stiffness matrix is formed and decomposed at the beginning and used
throughout the iterations. Advantage of the method is in saving computer time, because
factorization of the tangent stiffness matrix is performed only once for the load
increment. On the other hand, number of iterations needed is usually large.

Figure- 7: Modified NewtonRaphson (MNR) method

Quasi-Newton methods
There exist many other methods for solution of the set of nonlinear algebraic equations,
so called quasi-Newton methods. The most popular among them is Broyden Fletcher
Goldfarb Shanno (BFGS) method.
Linear stability analysis
Theoretically, below a certain critical load a structure is in position of stable equilibrium,
whilst above that load the equilibrium may be unstable. Unstable equilibrium means
that though the structure is in equilibrium, any arbitrary small disturbance will cause
loss of this equilibrium. In many practical problems, the displacements are small for load
less than critical and behavior of the structure can be considered as a linear function of
applied load. The typical example is Euler strut buckling, Figure- 8.
For axial force N that is less than critical, the strut is in stabile equilibrium. This
equilibrium is possible if a lateral load P then deflects the strut as well. If the lateral load
is removed, the strut will return to its straight shape.
If the forceN is greater than critical, the strut can remain (theoretically) straight but its
equilibrium is unstable, any small lateral load will cause deflection increasing until the
collapse.

Figure- 8: Buckling of a strut

For load less than critical small longitudinal (in plane) and lateral displacements allow
the initial displacement stiffness matrix
be written as

to be ignored. The equilibrium equation can

..(55)

The elastic critical (buckling) load is given by the lowest value of load parameter for
which d 0 when the lateral load
. Physically this means that equilibrium is
possible with very small lateral displacements in the absence of any lateral load. In
mathematical sense, we have to solve the eigenvalue problem

..(56)

where is
the
eigenvalue
and d is
the
corresponding
eigenvector.
It should be noted that due to assumptions accepted the solution represents itself only
an estimation of the upper bound of the structure load capacity.
Large displacement and large strain behavior
When strain is large, it is inadmissible to neglect shape and volume changes of a
structure. For example, in the simple bar example we have to introduce current cross
sectional A instead of initial A0 and current length L instead of initial length L0 in the
equations (16) and (17).
Accordingly, integration in the equation (27) expressing the principle of virtual
displacements has to be taken over the current volume. This brings problems, as the
current volume is unknown, because it depends on displacements that are unknown too
and must be calculated first. To solve this problem, it is necessary to introduce a
transformation so that integrals are taken over known volume. Two possible ways are

briefly

described

bellow:

Total Lagrangian formulation

In a Total Lagrangian (TL) formulation all integrals are calculated with respect to the
initial undeformed configuration of the structure

..(57)

where

is the initial volume. Due to transformation, new measure for stress so called

second Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor

tensor

has to be introduced with Greens strain

Updated Lagrangian formulation

In an Updated Lagrangian (UL) formulation, a known deformed configuration i is taken
as an initial state for subsequent configuration (i+1) and this is continually updated as
the calculation proceeds

..(58)

In the left side of the equation (2.40),

is Cauchy stress tensor and

is Almansi

strain tensor respectively. Notation

and
means that the strain and stress
are in configuration (i+1). Integration is done over volume Vi that is in current
configuration i.
Use of different measures for stress and strain in TL and UL formulation follows
condition that virtual work of internal forces must be the same irrespective of the
volume over which is integration taken1 (1 That means that stress and strain measures
must be work conjugate )

MATERIAL
NONLINEARITIES
Introduction
Linear elastic FE analysis is based on linear constitutive stress-strain equations

..(59)

in which the terms of material matrix D are expressed as functions of constant values of
modulus of elasticity and Poissons ratio. The constant D matrix leads to a constant
stiffness matrix K, which is for strain-displacement relationship

..(60)

given by

..(61)

Departure from linear elasticity implies that the linear elastic constitutive equations are
no longer valid, as the material matrix is no longer constant. The non-constant material
matrix Drepresents nonlinear constitutive equations corresponding to the adopted
nonlinear material model. Consequently, the conditions of equilibrium derived in FEM
from principle of virtual displacements are nonlinear like equations (30) and (31).
Solution of these equations is based on the same methods as in geometrically nonlinear
case. Usually it is necessary to divide load into increments and perform equilibrium
iterations (e.g. by MNR or NR method) for each increment. Moreover, for each load
increment there must be performed stress iterations, as the material matrix is function
of strain. The strain is unknown a priori and will be computed only.
Material nonlinearities
nonlinearities.

are

often

combined

with

geometrical

and/or

boundary

Nonlinear
elasticity
models
Nonlinear elastic behavior of materials can be formulated in several ways. The simplest
is total formulation, where the stress and strains are defined in terms of the secant
modulus of elasticity Es, see Figure- 9.

..(62)

In hypo-elastic formulation, the relationship between the increments of stress and strain
are defined by the tangential modulus of elasticity

..(63)

The nonlinear elastic material law can also be formulated in terms of hyperelastic
formulation, which assumes the existence of strain energy density function U and the
corresponding complementary energy density function

such

..(64)

The hyperelastic material model is usually used for rubberlike materials.

Figure- 9: Nonlinear elasticity model

Material models for multiaxial states of stress are usually based on generalization of
linear problem concepts. For example, in a hyperelastic formulation components of
stress tensor are computed as

..(65)

that means

..(66)

Figure- 10: Strain energy density functions U and

For any nonlinear elastic material model, it is possible to define relation between stress
and strain increments as

..(66)

where matrix DT is function of strains . Consequently, a set of equilibrium equations

we receive in FEM is nonlinear and must be solved by use of any method (e.g. NR)
described above.

Elastoplastic material model

Yielding criterion
Experiments indicate that linear elastic model is acceptable only within a limited range
of stress. As an example, the stress-strain curve from tension test of steel specimen is
shown in Figure- 11. Until the yield stress represented by point A (in the given
case
MPa) the deformations are elastic and stress-strain relation may be
described as
. When the stress level exceeds the yield stress, an elasto-plastic
constitutive law governs the relationship between increments of stress and strain.
Due to lack of information2, approximate stress-strain curves are usually used in
analysis. Bilinear approximation defined by yield stress, modulus of elasticity
tangential modulus

is shown in Figure- 12. If

and

, material model is elastic-

perfectly plastic. If
material model assumes strain hardening. (2 In a design
process, the real material curve is usually unknown, only basic values like yield stress
etc. are available. Moreover, the material properties slightly differ by different
supplies. )

Figure- 11: Typical stress-strain curve for mild steel

It should be noted that curves in Figure-s 11 and 12 are for tensile behavior. It is usually
assumed that similar curves for compressive behavior are applicable if there has been
no history of plastic deformation.

Figure- 12: Elastoplastic model with linear strain hardening

The indication of yielding under multi-axial (more than three axes) conditions in metals
is obtained from experiments usually conducted on cylindrical samples subjected to
combined axial load and torque. Experiments suggest that there is no significant
difference in behavior of metals in tension or compression and no volume change
associated with yielding and no effect of mean stress level on yielding can be assumed.
In a mathematical description, onset of yielding may be represented by a scalar function
termed the yield function F. The yield function is written in a form, which leads to the
conditions

for elastic and

for plastic deformation

..(67)

In engineering practice, two following conditions for yielding are most frequently used:

Von Mises yield criterion

..(68)

where 1, 2 and 3 are principal stresses. Thus, yield occurs when the effective
stress

reaches the yield stress value y

..(69)

Tresca yield criterion

..(70)

The largest difference between these two classical yield criteria is about 15% for the
pure shear stress state. For other stress states is the difference less. Hence, both
criteria are frequently considered as equivalent in engineering practice.
Any yield condition that is function of stress tensor components and material
parameters

..(71)

defines a yield surface in principal stress space, see Figure- 13. Stress points that lie
inside the yield surface are associated with elastic stress states whereas those that lie
on the surface represent plastic stress states. No stress point can be outside the yield
surface.

Figure- 13: Yield surface

Post yielding behavior

The fundamental assumption in describing post-yielding behavior is the decomposition

of the total strain increment into an elastic (recoverable) part and a plastic (irreversible)
part. For uniaxial stress state is, according to Figure- 14.

..(72)

and plastic strain increment is then

..(73)

Figure- 14: Decomposition of the total strain increment

By analogy, in multi-axial (other than isotropic cases) stress state the total strains we
decompose into elastic and plastic parts too

..(74)

In multi-axial (other than isotropic cases) cases, subsequent loading after first yield
produces further plastic deformation that can result in a modification of the shape
and/or position of the yield surface.

For a perfectly plastic material, the yield surface remains unchanged during plastic
deformation. For a strain hardening material, plastic deformation produces a change in
shape and position of the yield surface. This means that initial yield surface is gradually
replaced by the subsequent yield surfaces. A modified yield function is adopted which
has a form such as

..(75)

This yield function depends on the stresses but also the plastic strains and a hardening
parameter K. The way in which the plastic strains modify the yield function is defined
byhardening rules:

An isotropic hardening law implies that the yield surface increases in size but
maintains its original shape under loading conditions. Schematic representation of
isotropic hardening for uniaxial and biaxial stress state is shown in Figure- 15.

In kinematic hardening, the original yield surface is translated to a new position

in stress space with no change of its shape and size as shown in Figure- 16. Kinematic
hardening has paramount importance in modelling cyclic behavior.

The combination of the two principal hardening laws leads to a mixed hardening
law, where the initial yield surface both expands and translates as a consequence of
plastic flow.

Figure- 15: Isotropic hardening

Figure- 16: Kinematic hardening.

Constitutional equations of elasto-plastic material

The yield criterion says whether plastic deformation will occur but says nothing about
the plastic behavior of a material after onset of plastic deformations. This is defined by
socalled flow rule in which is the rate and the direction of plastic strains is related to the
stress state and the stress rate. This relation can be expressed as

..(76)

or in matrix form as

..(77)

where d is a scalar value (to be determined) and Q is a scalar valued function of stress
components called plastic potential.
For metals, the called associated flow rule, in which the plastic potential surface
coincides
with
the
yield
surface,
i.e.

..(78)

can be adapted to model plastic flow. For some other materials, non-associated flow rule
in which
has to be used to model plastic flow adequately. In the following text we
will deal with associated flow rule

..(79)

Consider a uniaxial stress state first. The plastic behavior of material is described as

..(80)

where

is constant for a bilinear material as obvious from the equations (72) and (73).

In a multi-axial (other than isotropic cases) stress state, we can formulate a similar
constitutive equation

..(81)

where tangential material matrix DT can be derived from known stress tensor , strain
tensor and constitutive matrix D from equation (59) in following way:
The first step is strain decomposition into elastic

and plastic part

..(82)

From constitutive law it follows that

..(83)

hence

..(83)

From associated plastic flow rule, it follows that

..(84)

where

..(85)

Using equations (83) and (84) we obtain

..(86)

The stress point must lie in yield surface and hence

the following consistency conditions must be fulfilled

..(87)

or with respect to equations (83) and (84)

..(88)

After substituting from equation (86) we obtain

..(89)

Or

..(90)

where scalar quantity A is defined as

..(91)

Now, we can derive parameter d from equation (88)

..(92)

and substituting this expression for d into equation (87) we finally obtain

..(93)

When compare the last equation with equation (81) we can see that

..(94)

Note that material matrix D is symmetric, i.e. DT = D, hence matrix DT is symmetric as

well.
Integration of constitutive equations
We have derived that for infinitesimal increments of stress and strain it holds

..(95)

In FE analysis we need to work with finite increments and for which is the relation
above approximate only, so if we use relation

..(96)

for large increments of stress and strain, an error occurs as stress

in
subsequent step will not satisfy constitutive law and consistency condition. Hence, we
need to integrate over the increment of pseudo-time

..(97)

where, according to equation (83)

..(98)

It is important to note that if plastic flow is present, the DT changes during

increment t and as a result, the ratio between total and plastic strain changes too.

To obtain correct results, various stress increment integration schemes that differ in the
degree of approximation have been developed. Frequently used are the following
schemes:
Generalized trapezoidal rule
Consider that we know stress
Then at step n+1

, total strain

and plastic strain

at time step n.

..(99)

..(100)

..(101)

Generalized mid point rule

..(102)

..(103)

..(104)

In both rules, is a parameter ranging from 0 to 1.

For
we obtain explicit forward Euler integration scheme. Advantage of this
algorithm is in its simplicity; disadvantage is that it is conditionally stable only. That
means that step increment has to be smaller than some critical value to avoid instability
of the solution.

For

we obtain implicit backward Euler integration scheme

..(105)

..(106)

..(107)

It is obvious that in difference with forward scheme, we deal with values defined at the
end of the increment, which are unknown at start of it. Hence, the procedure is of an
iterative nature. This means that at beginning of the increment, the trial stress is
estimated by assuming elastic deformation and computed values are then checked
whether consistency condition and constitutional equation are satisfied. If not, the
process is repeated with improved values until the conditions are satisfied.
Numerical procedures
The tangential material matrix DT is used to form a tangential stiffness matrix KT. When
the tangential stiffness matrix is defined, the displacement increment is obtained for a
known
load
increment

..(108)

As load and displacement increments are final, not infinitesimal, displacements

obtained by solution of this set of linear algebraic equation will be approximate only.
That means, conditions of equilibrium of internal and external nodal forces will not be
satisfied and iterative process is necessary. Any of methods mentioned above may be
used.
The problem that arises now is the fundamental problem in computational
elastoplasticity not only equilibrium equations but also constitutive equations of
material must be satisfied. That means that within the each equilibrium iteration step
check of stress state and iterations to find elastic and plastic part of strains at every

integration point must be included. The iteration process continues until both,
equilibrium conditions and constitutive equations are satisfied simultaneously. The
converged solution at the end of load increment is then used at the start of new load
increment.

Hyperlinks for further detail:

Hyperlink-1

Hyperlink-2

Hyperlink-3

Hyperlink-4

odule 4: Review of Plasticity Concepts

Lectures 15 - 20

General Concept of Plasticity, Concept of Yielding and Elastic

Failure,

Yield Functions, Axioms and Postulates in Phenomenological

Theory of Plasticity,

Stress-Space Plasticity, Normality, Consistency conditions and

Flow-rules, Associated and Non-Associated Plasticity,

Perfect-Plasticity, Concept of hardening, Isotropic and

Kinematic hardening,

Constitutive relations for Elastoplasticity with hardening and

perfect plasticity,
Key-words: Plasticity, Yield-surface, Normality, Flow-rule, Associated and
Non-associated plasticity, Hardening, isotropic and kinematic hardening,
constitutive-equations
Introduction

The theory of linear elasticity is useful for modelling materials which undergo
small deformations and which return to their original configuration upon
removal of load. Almost all real materials will undergo
some permanent deformation, which remains after removal of load. With
metals, significant permanent deformations will usually occur when the
stress reaches some critical value, called the yield stress, a material
property.
Elastic deformations are termed reversible; the energy expended in
deformation is stored as elastic strain energy and is completely recovered
upon load removal. Permanent deformations involve the dissipation of
energy; such processes are termed irreversible, in the sense that the
original state can be achieved only by the expenditure of more energy.
The classical theory of plasticity grew out of the study of metals in the
late nineteenth century. It is concerned with materials which initially deform
elastically, but which deformplastically upon reaching a yield stress. In
metals and other crystalline materials the occurrence of plastic deformations
at the micro-scale level is due to the motion of dislocations and the migration
of grain boundaries on the micro-level. In sands and other granular
materials plastic flow is due both to the irreversible rearrangement of
individual particles and to the irreversible crushing of individual particles.
Similarly, compression of bone to high stress levels will lead to particle
crushing. The deformation of micro-voids and the development of microcracks is also an important cause of plastic deformations in materials such as
rocks.
A good part of the discussion in what follows is concerned with the plasticity
of metals; this is the simplest type of plasticity and it serves as a good
background and introduction to the modeling of plasticity in other materialtypes. There are two broad groups of metal plasticity problem which are of
interest to the engineer and analyst. The first involves relatively small
plastic strains, often of the same order as the elastic strains which occur.
Analysis of problems involving small plastic strains allows one to design
structures optimally, so that they will not fail when in service, but at the
same time are not stronger than they really need to be. In this sense,
plasticity is seen as a material failure.
The second type of problem involves very large strains and deformations, so
large that the elastic strains can be disregarded. These problems occur in
the analysis of metals manufacturing and forming processes, which can
involve extrusion, drawing, forging, rolling and so on. In these latter-type
problems, a simplified model known as perfect plasticity is usually
employed (see below), and use is made of special limit theorems which
hold for such models.
Plastic deformations are normally rate independent, that is, the stresses

induced are independent of the rate of deformation (or rate of loading). This
is in marked contrast to classical Newtonian fluids for example, where the
stress levels are governed by the rate of deformation through the viscosity of
the fluid.
Materials commonly known as plastics are not plastic in the sense
described here. They, like other polymeric materials,
exhibit viscoelastic behaviour where, as the name suggests, the material
response has both elastic and viscous components. Due to their viscosity,
their response is, unlike the plastic materials, rate-dependent. Further,
although the viscoelastic materials can suffer irrecoverable deformation,
they do not have any critical yield or threshold stress, which is the
characteristic property of plastic behaviour. When a material undergoes
plastic deformations, i.e. irrecoverable and at a critical yield stress, and
these effects are rate dependent, the material is referred to as
being viscoplastic.
Plasticity theory began with Tresca in 1864, when he undertook an
experimental program into the extrusion of metals and published his famous
yield criterion discussed later on. Further advances with yield criteria and
plastic flow rules were made in the years which followed by Saint-Venant,
Levy, Von Mises, Hencky and Prandtl. The 1940s saw the advent of the
classical theory; Prager, Hill, Drucker and Koiter amongst others brought
together many fundamental aspects of the theory into a single framework.
The arrival of powerful computers in the 1980s and 1990s provided the
impetus to develop the theory further, giving it a more rigorous foundation
based on thermodynamics principles, and brought with it the need to
consider many numerical and computational aspects to the plasticity
problem.
Observations from Standard Tests
In this section, a number of phenomena observed in the material testing of
metals will be noted. Some of these phenomena are simplified or ignored in
some of the standard plasticity models discussed later on.
At issue here is the fact that any model of a component with complex
geometry, loaded in a complex way and undergoing plastic deformation,
must involve material parameters which can be obtained in a straight
forward manner from simple laboratory tests, such as the tension test
described next.
The Tension Test
Consider the following key experiment, the tensile test, in which a small,
usually cylindrical, specimen is gripped and stretched, usually at some given
rate of stretching. The force required to hold the specimen at a given stretch
is recorded, Fig. 8.1.1. If the material is a metal, the deformation remains
elastic up to a certain force level, the yield point of the material. Beyond this
point, permanent plastic deformations are induced. On unloading only the
elastic deformation is recovered and the specimen will have undergone a

permanent elongation (and consequent lateral contraction).

In the elastic range the force-displacement behaviour for most engineering
materials (metals, rocks, plastics, but not soils) is linear. After passing the
elastic limit (point A in Figure 1), and load applied in plastic region is usually
required to maintain an increase in displacement; this phenomenon is known
as work-hardening or strain-hardening. In some cases the forcedisplacement curve decreases, as in some soils; the material is said to
be softening. If the specimen is unloaded from a plastic state (B) it will
return along the path BC shown, parallel to the original elastic line. This
is elastic recovery. What remains is the permanent plastic deformation. If
the material is now loaded again, the force-displacement curve will re-trace
the unloading path CB until it again reaches the plastic state. Further
increases in stress will cause the curve to follow BD.
Two important observations concerning the above tension test are the
following:

after the onset of plastic deformation, the material will be seen to

undergo negligible volume change, that is, it is incompressible.

the force-displacement curve is more or less the same regardless of

the rate at which the specimen is stretched (at least at moderate
temperatures).

Figure 1: force/displacement curve for the tension test

Nominal and True Stress and Strain

There are two different ways of describing the force F which acts in a tension
test. First, normalising with respect to the original cross sectional area of the

tension test specimen A0 , one has the nominal stress or engineering

stress,

..(1)

Alternatively, one can normalise with respect to the current cross-sectional

area A, leading to thetrue stress,

..(2)

in which F and A are both changing with time. For very small elongations,
within the elastic range say, the cross-sectional area of the material
undergoes negligible change and both definitions of stress are more or less
equivalent.
Similarly, one can describe the deformation in two alternative ways.
Denoting the original specimen length by l0 and the current length by l, one
has the engineering strain

..(3)

Alternatively, the true strain accounts for the fact that the original length is
continually changing; a small change in length dl leads to a strain
increment d= dl / l and the total strain is defined as the accumulation of
these increments:

..
(4)

The true strain is also called the logarithmic strain or Hencky strain.
Again, at small deformations, the difference between these two strain

measures is negligible. The true strain and engineering strain are related
through

..(5)

Using the assumption of constant volume for plastic deformation and

ignoring the very small elastic volume changes, one has also

..(6)

The stress-strain diagram for a tension test can now be described using the
true stress/strain or nominal stress/strain definitions, as in Figure 2. The
shape of the nominal stress/strain diagram,Figure 2(a), is of course the same
as the graph of force versus displacement (change in length) in Figure
1. A here denotes the point at which the maximum force the specimen can
withstand has been reached. The nominal stress at A is called the Ultimate
Tensile Strength (UTS) of the material. After this point, the specimen
necks, with a very rapid reduction in cross-sectional area somewhere about
the centre of the specimen until the specimen ruptures, as indicated by the
asterisk.
Note that, during loading into the plastic region, the yield stress increases.
For example, if one unloads and re-loads (as in Figure 1), the material stays
elastic up until a stress higher than the original yield stress Y. In this respect,
the stress-strain curve can be regarded as a yield stress versus strain curve.

Figure 2: Typical stress-strain curve: (a) Engineering stress-strain curve, (b)

True stress-strain curve
Compression Test
A compression test will lead to similar results as the tensile stress. The yield
stress in compression will be approximately the same as (the negative of)
the yield stress in tension. If one plots the true stress versus true strain curve
for both tension and compression (absolute values for the compression), the
two curves will more or less coincide. This would indicate that the behaviour
of the material under compression is broadly similar to that under tension. If
one were to use the nominal stress and strain, then the two curves would not
coincide; this is one of a number of good reasons for using
the true definitions.
The Bauschinger Effect
If one takes a virgin sample and loads it in tension into the plastic range,
and then unloads it and continues on into compression, one finds that the
yield stress in compression is not the same as the yield strength in tension,
as it would have been if the specimen had not first been loaded in tension.
In fact the yield point in this case will be significantly less than the
corresponding yield stress in tension. This reduction in yield stress is known
as theBauschinger effect. The effect is illustrated in Fig. 8.1.3. The solid
line depicts the response of a real material. The dotted lines are two
extreme cases which are used in plasticity models; the first is the isotropic
hardening model, in which the yield stress in tension and compression are
maintained equal, the second being kinematic hardening, in which the
total elastic range is maintained constant throughout the deformation.

Figure 3: The Bauschinger Effect

The presence of the Bauschinger effect complicates any plasticity theory.
However, it is not an issue provided there are no reversals of stress in the
problem under study.
Hydrostatic Pressure
Careful experiments show that, for metals, the yield behaviour is
independent of hydrostatic pressure. That is, a stress
state
has negligible effect on the yield stress of a material,
right up to very high pressures. Note however that this is not true for soils or
rocks.
Assumptions of Plasticity Theory
Regarding the above test results then, in formulating a basic plasticity theory
with which to begin, the following assumptions are usually made:

the response is independent of rate effects

the material is incompressible in the plastic range

there is no Bauschinger effect

the yield stress is independent of hydrostatic pressure

the material is isotropic

The first two of these will usually be very good approximations, the other
three may or may not be, depending on the material and circumstances. For

example, most metals can be regarded as isotropic. After large plastic

deformation however, for example in rolling, the material will have become
anisotropic: there will be distinct material directions and asymmetries.
Together with these, assumptions can be made on the type of hardening and
on whether elastic deformations are significant. For example, consider the
hierarchy of models illustrated in Figure-4 below, commonly used in
theoretical analyses. In (a) both the elastic and plastic curves are assumed
linear. In (b) work-hardening is neglected and the yield stress is constant
after initial yield. Such perfectly-plastic models are particularly appropriate
for studying processes where the metal is worked at a high temperature
such as hot rolling where work hardening is small. In many areas of
applications the strains involved are large, e.g. in metal working processes
such as extrusion, rolling or drawing, where up to 50% reduction ratios are
common. In such cases the elastic strains can be neglected altogether as in
the two models (c) and (d). The rigid/perfectly-plastic model (d) is the
crudest of all and hence in many ways the most useful. It is widely used in
analysing metal forming processes, in the design of steel and concrete
structures and in the analysis of soil and rock stability.

Figure-4: Simple models of elastic and plastic deformations

The Tangent and Plastic Modulus

Stress and strain are related through

in the elastic region, E being the
Youngs modulus, Figure-5. The tangent modulus K is the slope of the
stress-strain curve in the plastic region and will in general change during a
deformation. At any instant of strain, the incrementin stress d is related to
the increment in strain
through

Figure-5: The tangent modulus

After yield, the strain increment consists of both elastic,
strains:

, and plastic,

..(7)

The stress and plastic strain increments are related by the plastic
modulus H:

..(8)

and it follows that

..(9)

Hyperlinks further detail:

Hyperlink-1

Hyperlink-2

Hyperlink-3

Hyperlink-4

Hyperlink-5

Hyperlink-6

Hyperlink-7

Hyperlink-8

Hyperlink-9

Hyperlink-10

Hyperlink-11

Hyperlink-12