Refined explicit integration of elastoplastic models with automatic error control (Q2726097)

Conclusions: We show that the explicit modified Euler method with automatic substepping provides an economical means of integrating a wide range of elastoplastic constitutive laws. Unlike fully implicit methods, the procedure can be implemented in a general way and requires only minor changes to incorporate complex models such as those belonging to the critical state family. Moreover, the substepping mechanism allows the user to control the error in computed stresses which would otherwise be unknown. This is of particular benefit for highly nonlinear problems where, even for small load steps, large strain increments are frequently encountered.