A unified framework for compressible plasticity (Q1341860)

The author presented a unified framework for compressible plasticity to characterize various loading states of an isotropic solid undergoing a full range of deformation, including both hardening and softening behavior. By employing Legendre dual transformation, the author showed that Drucker's path independence in the small and the linearity of the rate change between stress and strain are characteristics of the additive decomposition of strain rates. The normality property of the plastic strain rate to a loading function is established on the basis of path independence in the small of the potential functions used in the dual transformation. The work hardening is shown to be a sufficient but not a necessary condition for ensuring stability in the small. Within this framework, a compressible elastoplasticity theory is generalized to cover the behavior of softening and elastoplastic coupling. The results of the analysis indicate that plastic instability for a void-contained aggregate is independent of the hydrostatic component of the stress tensor. This work is quite interesting and may be very useful for researchers working in the area of compressible plasticity.