Plasticity, inelastic

It is important to differentiate between brittie and plastic deformations within materials. With brittie materials, the behavior is predominantiy elastic until the yield point is reached, at which breakage occurs. When fracture occurs as a result of a time-dependent strain, the material behaves in an inelastic manner. Most materials tend to be inelastic. Figure 1 shows a typical stress—strain diagram. The section A—B is the elastic region where the material obeys Hooke s law, and the slope of the line is Young s modulus. C is the yield point, where plastic deformation begins. The difference in strain between the yield point C and the ultimate yield point D gives a measure of the brittieness of the material, ie, the less difference in strain, the more brittie the material. 

Perfectly Plastic. When A = Q then / = 0. The elastie limit surfaee in stress space is stationary, and the material is said to be perfectly inelastic. 

The normality conditions (5.56) and (5.57) have essentially the same forms as those derived by Casey and Naghdi [1], [2], [3], but the interpretation is very different. In the present theory, it is clear that the inelastic strain rate e is always normal to the elastic limit surface in stress space. When applied to plasticity, e is the plastic strain rate, which may now be denoted e", and this is always normal to the elastic limit surface, which may now be called the yield surface. Naghdi et al. by contrast, took the internal state variables k to be comprised of the plastic strain e and a scalar hardening parameter k. In their theory, consequently, the plastic strain rate e , being contained in k in (5.57), is not itself normal to the yield surface. This confusion produces quite different results. 

In this section, the general inelastic theory of Section 5.2 will be specialized to a simple phenomenological theory of plasticity. The inelastic strain rate tensor e may be identified with the plastic strain rate tensor e . In order to include isotropic and kinematic hardening, the set of internal state variables, denoted collectively by k in the previous theory, is reduced to the set (k, a) where k is a scalar representing isotropic hardening and a is a symmetric second-order tensor representing kinematic hardening. The elastic limit condition in stress space (5.25), now called a yield condition, becomes... 

A ubiquitous feature accompanying large deformations in inelastic materials is the appearance of various instabilities. For example, plastic deformation may lead to shear banding, and the development of damage frequently leads to the formation of fault zones. As remarked in Section 5.2.7, normality conditions derived from the work assumption may imply stability which is too strong for such cases. Physical instabilities are likely to be associated with loss of normality and violation of the work assumption. 

The referential constitutive equations for an inelastic material may be set into spatial terms. Casey and Naghdi [14] did so for their special case of finite deformation rigid plasticity discussed by Casey [15], Using the spatial (Almansi) strain tensor e and the relationships of the Appendix, it is possible to do so for the full inelastic referential constitutive equations of Section 5.4.2. 

A formal theory of inelastic compression is presented in one of the chapters, which rigorously lays out the theoretical foundations and provides a rational mechanics framework for describing the plastic compression prop-... 

In metals, inelastic deformation occurs at the crack tip, yielding a plastic zone. Smith [34] has argued that the elastic stress intensity factor is adequate to describe the crack tip field condition if the inelastic zone is limited in size compared with the near crack tip field, which is then assumed to dominate the crack tip inelastic response. He suggested that the inelastic zone be 1/5 of the size of the near crack tip elastic field (a/10). This restriction is in accordance with the generally accepted limitation on the maximum size of the plastic zone allowed in a valid fracture toughness test [35,36]. For the case of crack propagation, the minimum crack size for which continuum considerations hold should be at least 50 x (r ,J. 

The utility of K or any elastic plastic fracture mechanics (EPFM) parameter to describe the mechanical driving force for crack growth is based on the ability of that parameter to characterize the stress-strain conditions at the crack tip in a maimer which accounts for a variety of crack lengths, component geometries and loading conditions. Equal values of K should correspond to equal crack tip stress-strain conditions and, consequently, to equivalent crack growth behavior. In such a case we have mechanical similitude. Mechanical similitude implies equivalent crack tip inelastic zones and equivalent elastic stress fields. Fracture mechanics is... 

The second physical quantity of interest is, r t = 90 pm, the critical crack tip stress field dimension. Irwin s analysis of the crack tip process zone dimension for an elastic-perfectly plastic material began with the perfectly elastic crack tip stress field solution of Eq. 1 and allowed for stress redistribution to account for the fact that the near crack tip field would be limited to Oj . The net result of this analysis is that the crack tip inelastic zone was nearly twice that predicted by Eq. 3, such that... 

Wave profiles in the elastic-plastic region are often idealized as two distinct shock fronts separated by a region of constant elastic strain. Such an idealized behavior is seldom, if ever, observed. Near the leading elastic wave, relaxations are typical and the profile in front of the inelastic wave typically shows significant changes in stress with time. 

Inelastic deformation can cause product failure arising out of a massive realignment of the plastic s molecular structure. A product undergoing inelastic deformation does not return to its original state when its load is removed. It should be remembered that there are plastics that are sensitive to this situation and others that are not. 

Yielding is a manifestation of the possibility that some of the atoms (or molecules) in the stressed material may slip to new equilibrium positions due to the distortion produced by the applied tensile force. The displaced atoms can form new bonds in their newly acquired equilibrium positions. This permits an elongation over and above that produced by a simple elastic separation of atoms. The material does not get weakened due to the displacement of the atoms since they form new bonds. However, these atoms do not have any tendency to return to their original positions. The elongation, therefore, is inelastic, or irrecoverable or irreversible. This type of deformation is known as plastic deformation and materials that can undergo significant plastic deformation are termed ductile. 

Some of the important inelastic properties of a material undergoing plastic deformation are yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, ductility and toughness. 

Fig. 8.4 Plots of relative change in electrical resistance against tensile deformation of a CNT/epoxy composite (a) shows the various characteristics of the piezoresistivity of nanocarbon networks linear resistance change in the elastic regime, nonlinear region after inelastic deformation and the permanent electrical resistance drop due to plastic deformation (image adapted from [30]) ...

Tensile and tear strengths were determined using ASTM standards D412 and D1004, respectively, at a crosshead speed of 0.42 mm/s (1 In/mln) values reported are the average for 3 specimens. The elastic and Inelastic (plastic) components of the total elongation... 

We seek to nnderstand the response of a material to an applied stress. In Chapter 4, we saw how a flnid responds to a shearing stress through the application of Newton s Law of Viscosity [Eq. (4.3)]. In this chapter, we examine other types of stresses, snch as tensile and compressive, and describe the response of solids (primarily) to these stresses. That response usually takes on one of several forms elastic, inelastic, viscoelastic, plastic (ductile), fracture, or time-dependent creep. We will see that Newton s Law will be useful in describing some of these responses and that the concepts of stress (applied force per unit area) and strain (change in dimensions) are universal to these topics. 

---