Unconditionally stable mid-point time integration in elastic-plastic dynamics (Q751349)

Summary: The dynamic analysis of elastoplastic systems discretized by finite elements is dealt with. The material behaviour is described by a rather general internal variable model. The unknown fields are modelled in terms of suitable variables, generalized in Prager's sense. Time integrations are carried out by means of a generalized mid-point rule. The resulting nonlinear equations expressing dynamic equilibrium of the finite step problem are solved by means of a Newton-Raphson iterative scheme. The unconditional stability of the adopted integration method is proved according to two nonlinear stability criteria.