Theoretical concepts of plasticity

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 deform plastically 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.
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 failure1.
The second type of problem involves very large strains and deformations, so large that the elastic
strains can be disregarded. In these latter-type problems, a simplified model known as perfect
plasticity is usually employed.
Plastic deformations are normally rate independent, that is, the stresses induced are independent
of the rate of deformation (or rate of loading). Plastic deformation is a non reversible process
where Hooke’s law is no longer valid.
One aspect of plasticity in the viewpoint of structural design is that it is concerned with
predicting the maximum load, which can be applied to a body without causing excessive
yielding.
Why is there a dip in the stress strain curve for mild steel after the ultimate point?
Nominal stress – Strain OR Conventional Stress – Strain diagrams:
Stresses are usually computed on the basis of the original area of the specimen; such stresses are
often referred to as conventional or nominal stresses.
True stress – Strain Diagram:
Since when a material is subjected to a uniaxial load, some contraction or expansion always
takes place. Thus, dividing the applied force by the corresponding actual area of the specimen at
the same instant gives the so called true stress.
The maximum load which the specimen can with stand without failure is called the load at the
ultimate strength.
Beyond point E, the cross-sectional area of the specimen begins to reduce rapidly over a
relatively small length of bar and the bar is said to form a neck. This necking takes place whilst
the load reduces, and fracture of the bar finally occurs at point F.
In a stress/strain diagram the increase in stress (pressure or load) is assumed to continue at a set
rate.
Strain (deflection of the material under the stress) increases in a linear relationship until the
stress reaches the yield strength of the material and it "gives".
This is the end of "elastic" deflection, where the material would return to its unstressed form
when the stress is removed.
Beyond that point the strain is "plastic" deflection where the material will remain mostly in the
deflected (bent) position.
Plastic deformation represents the initial breakdown of the material and for pliable (easily bent)
materials such as mild steel, increased stress has a much larger effect on strain until it reaches the
ultimate strength of the material. Thus the line levels out as the strain is increasing at a much
faster rate vs the still constant increase of stress.
The end of the stress strain line dips indicating the final breakdown of the material just before
failure. At that point the material it is yielding to stress faster than the stress is increasing so the
net level of stress drops.
The end of the line is the point at which the material fails and breaks apart.
This is because materials sterngth to resist the applied load decrease and for the same load
material stretches so strain increases without increase in the stresss. It loses its strength as there
is significant reduction in its cross sectional area.
Why the lower yield point stress value of mild steel is consider as a strength of material instead
of upper yield point stress?
As you increase the applied load beyond elastic limit (point B), material starts elongate
plastically i.e. it does not regain its original shape after removing the load. Mild steel has
dislocations pinned by carbon particles. So as you move further, the energy required to unpin
these dislocations increases till Point C which is ‘Upper Yield Point’. As soon as dislocations get
free, the stress induced drops to a lower value at Point C’ known as ‘Lower Yield Point’.
When the upper yield point is achieved, dislocations get free causing the stress lower down. This
phenomenon is momentary i.e. UYP is unstable. The lower yield point is more stable as it is the
effect of this phenomenon. Hence, we take the Lower Yield Point (point C’) into consideration
while designing the components.
PS: Dislocations are defects present in crystal areas where atoms are out of position (irregular
alignment).
Basically there are three types of failure in case of mechanical component i.e
1) Failure due to elastic deformation
2) Failure due to plastic deformation
3) Failure due to fracture
When component deforms elastically it's dimensions changes and it fails. And this failure is
known as failure due to elastic deformation
When component undergoes plastic deformation it's dimension changes permanently and failure
takes place this is know as failure due to plastic deformation. For ductile metals elastic failure is
criteria of failure because ductile metals undergo elastic deformation before failure. And elastic
deformation starts at lower yield point.
Plastic deformation is a state in which a material doesn't, take back its original shape or stay
deformed. Materials have some elasticity in it so when a stress is applied on it ( suppose a tensile
stress) it changes its shape know as strain . So in elastic deformation it regains its shape after the
applied stress is removed like a rubber but above a certain limit plastic deformation happen and
the material stays in deformed state even after removing the source of stress.
 What is strain hardening region in stress strain curve? Why it is called so?
When a metal is stressed beyond its elastic limit it enters the plastic region (The region in which
residual strain remains upon unloading). When the load is increased further (a kind of
rearrangement occurs at atom level and the mobility of the dislocation decreases) , ‘dislocation
density’ increases that in turn makes the metal harder and stronger through the resulting plastic
deformation.
It means, it’s more difficult to deform the metal as the strain increases and hence it’s called
“strain hardening”. This tends to increase the strength of the metal and decrease its ductility.
When you are conducting a tensile test on a material, after the elastic limit the material starts
getting plastically deformed. During the plastic deformation, because of the process of
dislocations interactions within the material, the tensile strength increases as the material is
getting deformed. This increase in the tensile strength of the material continues till it reaches a
maximum in the stress ~strain curve.
This increase in the tensile strength of the material is due to strain hardening which is due to the
increased dislocations interactions during the deformation of the tensile test. This is called Strain
-hardening.
After reaching the maximum, instability sets in due to some inhomogeneity in the material, and
the tensile specimen under deformation starts necking (reduction in the cross section of the
tensile specimen). This necking continues until the specimen breaks at the end of the tensile test.
It is called hardening because stress rate increases with respect to strain so it means that the
material becomes stiffer and stiffer as strain increases thus is called strain hardening. It is going
to be concave up. second derivative of stress with respect to strain is positive. slope increase =
hardening if slope decreases it is called softening.
At strain hardening region , with the increasing stresses(pressure), stacking up of atoms
happens .This provides resistance to the dislocation travel thereby decreasing the the deformation
and increasing the strength of material.
Strain hardening region is the region between yield point to ultimate tensile strength.
It is called strain hardening because in this region the curve shape depends on the strain rate.
In laymen we can say strength is directly proportional to strain rate.
In the same way the region between ultimate tensile strength to breaking point is called strain
softening region.
It is the region between yield limit and Ultimate strength. The various dislocations present move
become tangled or intertwine with other dislocations giving rise to a situation where further
movement of dislocations becomes tough. This leads to hardening of the material and resists
further deformation.
It is also called cold working as if this process is done in low temperatures, it would prevent the
atoms frm coming back to their positions. At higher temperatures, the atoms acquire enough
kinetic energy to be able to move easily.
Thus, the material strengthening gained might be lost or becomes lesser at higher temperatures.
On the application of load on given material, after yield point is reached, recrystallization is not
possible.
Atoms get dislocated. ( Length of the test specimen increases and width decreases, phenomena of
necking occurs. As atom to atom distance decreases due to above reason, it offers higher and
higher resistance so we need to apply gradually more load/force to further deform the specimen.
This phenomena is known as strain hardening (increase in strengh due to strain occured as a
result of load applied initially )
Criteria for yielding or Theories of failure or yield criteria
Yield point under simplified condition of uniaxial tension is widely known and documented. But
such simplified conditions [1 – Pure uniaxial tension 2 – Pure shear] are rare in reality. In many
situations complex and multiaxial stresses are present and in this situation it is necessary to know
when a material will yield. Mathematically and empirically, the relationships between the yield
point under uniaxial tensile test and yield strength under complex situations have been found out.
These relationships are known as yield criteria. Thus yield criterion is defined as mathematical
and empirically derived relationship between yield strength under uniaxial tensile load and
yielding under multiaxial complex stress situation.
 What is the meaning about yield criterion?
In the case the stress is un-axial and that stress will cause yielding so this stress can readily be
determined. But what if there are several stress acting at a point in different direction ？ The
criteria for deciding which combination of multi-axial stress will cause yielding are called
criteria.
A yield criterion, often expressed as yield surface, or yield locus, is an hypothesis concerning the
limit of elasticity under any combination of stresses.
Theory of yield criterion
1. Tresa criterion (Maximum shearing stress theory)
Yielding will occur when the maximum shear stress reaches the values of the maximum shear
stress occurring under uniaxial tension (or compression) test.
The maximum shear stress in multi-axial stress = the maximum shear stress in simple tension

2. The von-Mises yield criterion (Octahedral shearing stress theory) or distortion energy
criterion.
Yielding begin when the octahedral shear stress reaches the octahedral shear stress at yield in
simple tension.

Advantages of Von Mises criterion and Limitations of Tresca

1. It overcomes major deficiency of Tresca criterion. Von Mises criterion implies that yielding is
not dependent on any particular normal stress but instead, depends on all three principal shearing
stresses.
2. Von Mises criterion conforms the experimental data better than Tresca and therefore more
realistic.
3. Since it involves squared terms, the result is independent of sign of individual stresses. This is
an important since it is not necessary to know which is the largest and the smallest principal
stress in order to use this criterion.
Tresca criterion ignores the effect of intermediate principal stress and this is a major drawback of
this. Von Mises criterion take into consideration the intermediate principal stress and hence
move realistic. The predications offered by Von Mises criterion conforms empirical data.
The application of Von Mises yield criterion holds good for both ductile and brittle materials.
Tresca criterion do not yield good results for brittle materials.
The yield stress predicted by Von Mises criterion is 15. 5% greater than the yield stress predicted
by Tresca criterion.

Tresca criterion is preferred in analysis for simplicity. Von Mises criterion is preferred where
more accuracy is desired.

 True elastic limit

The lowest stress at which dislocations move. This definition is rarely used, since dislocations
move at very low stresses, and detecting such movement is very difficult.

 Proportionality limit
Up to this amount of stress, stress is proportional to strain (Hooke's law), so the stress-strain
graph is a straight line, and the gradient will be equal to the elastic modulus of the material.
 Elastic limit (yield strength)
Beyond the elastic limit, permanent deformation will occur. The lowest stress at which
permanent deformation can be measured. This requires a manual load-unload procedure, and the
accuracy is critically dependent on equipment and operator skill. For elastomers, such as rubber,
the elastic limit is much larger than the proportionality limit. Also, precise strain measurements
have shown that plastic strain begins at low stresses.
Bauschinger effect
For most ductile metals that are isotropic, the following assumptions are invoked: There is no
Bauschinger effect, thus the yield strengths in tension and compression are equivalent.
The lowering of yield stress for a material when deformation in one direction is followed by
deformation in the opposite direction, is called Bauschinger effect.

General Theory of Plasticity defines -

1. Yield criteria : predicts material yield under multi-axial state of stress
2. Flow rule : relation between plastic strain increment and stress increment. A flow rule
which relates increments of plastic deformation to the stress components
3. Hardening rule: Evolution of yield surface with strain

Theories of Failure or Yield criteria

Some Yield criteria developed over the years are:
1. Maximum Principal Stress Criterion:- used for brittle materials
2. Maximum Principal Strain Criterion:- sometimes used for brittle materials
3. Strain energy density criterion:- ellipse in the principal stress plane
4. Maximum shear stress criterion (a.k.a Tresca):- popularly used for ductile materials
 5. Von Mises or Distortional energy criterion:- most popular for ductile materials

Isotropic – Isotropic materials have elastic properties that are independent of direction. Most
common structural materials are isotropic.
Anisotropic – Materials whose properties depend upon direction. An important class of
anisotropic materials is fiber-reinforced composites.
Homogeneous – A material is homogeneous if it has the same composition at every point in the
body. A homogeneous material may or may not be isotropic.
Effective stress and effective strain:
Effective stress is defined as that stress which when reaches critical value, yielding can
commence.
True Stress-True Strain Curve Also known as the flow curve.

Plastic Deformation
After a material has reached its elastic limit, or yielded, further straining will result in permanent
deformation. After yielding not all of the strain will be recovered when the load is removed.
Plastic deformation is defined as permanent, non-recoverable deformation. Plastic deformation is
not linear with applied stress. Recall if a material experiences only elastic deformation, when the
stress is removed the elastic strain will be recovered. If a material is loaded beyond its yield point
it experiences both elastic and plastic strain. After yielding the rate of straining is no longer
linear as the applied stress increases. When the stress is removed, only the elastic strain is
recovered; the plastic strain is permanent.
Elastic deformation occurs as the interatomic bonds stretch, but the atoms retain their original
nearest neighbors and they "spring back" to their original positions when the load is removed.
Clearly in order to have permanent deformation there must be permanent movement in the
interatomic structure of the material. Although some of the atoms move away from their original
nearest neighbors not all of the interatomic bonds are broken (this is evident because we can
achieve permanent deformation without fracture of the material). The mechanism for permanent
deformation is called slip. Slip occurs when planes of densely packed atoms slide over one
another: individual bonds are broken and reformed with new atoms in a step-wise fashion until
the desired deformation is achieved.
total strain = elastic strain + plastic strain
The recovery (or "unload") curve that is produced when the load is removed from a specimen is
parallel to E. The amount of strain recovered during the unloading process is the elastic strain;
the amount of strain that remains in the specimen after unloading is the plastic strain.

Yield Surface
The yield criteria can be represented geometrically by a cylinder oriented at equal angles to the
axes.
•A state of stress which gives a point inside the cylinder represents elastic behavior.
•Yielding begins when the state of stress reaches the surface of the cylinder.
•MN, the cylinder radius is the deviatoric stress.
The cylinder axis, OM, which makes equal angles with the principal axes represents the
hydrostatic component of the stress tensor.
• The generator of the yield surface is the line parallel to OM. If stress state characterized by
lies on the yield surface, so does
• Von Mises criterion is represented by a right circular cylinder whereas the Tresca criterion is
represented by a regular hexagonal prism.
Principle of Normality
The total plastic strain vector, must be normal to the yield surface.
Network has to be expended during the plastic deformation of a body. So the rate of energy
dissipation is nonnegative
Plastic Stress-strain relations
In elastic regime, the stress-strain relations are uniquely determined by the Hooke’s law. In
plastic deformation, the strains also depend on the history of loading. It is necessary to determine
the differentials or increments of plastic strains throughout the loading path and then obtain the
total strain by integration.
Plastic strains are independent of the loading path.
Example
• A rod, 50 mm long, is extended to 60 mm and then compressed back to 50 mm.
On the basis of total deformation:

On an incremental basis:

Two general categories of plastic stress-strain relationships.

• Incremental or flow theories relate stresses to plastic strain increments.
• Deformation or total strain theories relate the stresses to total plastic strains. Simpler
mathematically.
Stress vs. strain relationship in plasticity called the flow rule. Some solid materials show this
behavior. As pressure is appplied the material resists the deformation. So greater and greater
force is needed to continue the deformation up to a point when the material begins to lose
coherence (no longer elastic) and the deformation becomes permanent and the resistance to
deformation decreases, so less force is required. The behavior of the material past that maximum
point is then described by the “plastic flow rule”. As if applying pressure to a plastic. Flow rule
is roughly the relation between “plastic strain” ( not the total strain ) and stress, it gives a
description of how a material flows beyond initial yield.
Isotropic Hardening
A hardening rule, which prescribes the work hardening of the material and the change in yield
condition with the progression of plastic deformation.
Most materials exhibit some degree of hardening as an accompaniment to plastic straining. In
general this means that the shape and size of the yield surface changes during plastic loading.
This change may be rather arbitrary and extremely difficult to describe accurately. Therefore,
hardening is often described by a combination of two specific types of hardening, namely
isotropic hardening and kinematic hardening
Isotropic hardening is irreversible; once the material has experienced a certain degree of
hardening the yield limit is shifted permanently
Isotropic hardening rule states that the yield surface expands proportionally in all directions
when yield stress is exceeded.
Kinematic hardening rule states that the yield surface does not exceed, but translates in the
direction of the stress rising and stays in the same area and shape.
Isotropic hardening is where the yield surface remains the same shape but expands with
increasing stress
if you plastically deform a solid, then unload it, and then try to re-load it so as to induce further
plastic flow, its resistance to plastic flow will have increased i.e. its yield point/elastic limit
increases (meaning plastic flow begins at a higher stress than in the preceeding cycle- so we say
the resistance to plastic flow increases]. This is known as 'strain hardening'
There are different ways of modelling strain hardening for a finite element material model.
Discussed below are the two simplest approaches:
1. Isotropic hardening.
2. Kinematic hardening.
For isotropic hardening, if you plastically deform a solid, then unload it, then try to reload it
again, you will find that its yield stress (or elastic limit) would have increased compared to what
it was in the first cycle.
Again, when the solid is unloaded and reloaded, yield stress (or elastic limit) further increases.
[as long as it is reloaded past its previously reached maximum stress]. This continues until a
stage (or a cycle) is reached that the solid deforms elastically throughout [that is, if the cycles of
load are always to the same level, then after just one cycle your specimen on subsequent cycles
will just be loading and unloading along the elastic line of the stress strain curve].This is
isotropic hardening.
Essentially, isotropic hardening just means if you load something in tension past yield, when you
unload it, then load it in compression, it will not yield in compression until it reaches the level
past yield that you reached when loading it in tension. In other words if the yield stress in tension
increases due to hardening the compression yield stress grows the same amount even though you
might not have been loading the speciment in compression. It is a type of hardening used in
mathematical models for finite element analysis to describe plasticity. though it is not absolutely
correct for real materials.
Isotropic hardening is not useful in situations where components are subjected to cyclic loading.
[real metals exhibit some isotropic hardening AND some kinematic hardening.
Isotropic hardening does not account for Bauschinger effect and predicts that after a few cycles,
the material (solid) just hardens until it responds elastically.
To fix this, alternative laws i.e. kinematic hardening laws have been introduced. As per these
hardening laws, the material softens in compression and thus can correctly model cyclic
behaviour and Bauschinger effect.
Principle of Normality and Plastic Potential
Flow plasticity is a solid mechanics theory that is used to describe the plastic behavior of
materials.Flow plasticity theories are characterized by the assumption that a flow rule exists that
can be used to determine the amount of plastic deformation in the material. In flow plasticity
theories it is assumed that the total strain in a body can be decomposed additively (or
multiplicatively) into an elastic part and a plastic part. The elastic part of the strain can be
computed from a linear elastic or hyperelastic constitutive model. However, determination of the
plastic part of the strain requires a flow rule and a hardening model.
Typical flow plasticity theories for unidirectional loading (for small deformation perfect
plasticity or hardening plasticity) are developed on the basis of the following requirements:
1. The material has a linear elastic range.
2. The material has an elastic limit defined as the stress at which plastic deformation first
takes place, i.e., .
3. Beyond the elastic limit the stress state always remains on the yield surface, i.e., .
4. Loading is defined as the situation under which increments of stress are greater than zero,
i.e., . If loading takes the stress state to the plastic domain then the increment of
plastic strain is always greater than zero, i.e., .
5. Unloading is defined as the situation under which increments of stress are less than zero,
i.e., . The material is elastic during unloading and no additional plastic strain is
accumulated.
6. The total strain is a linear combination of the elastic and plastic parts, i.e.,
The plastic part cannot be recovered while the elastic part is fully
recoverable.
7. The work done of a loading-unloading cycle is positive or zero, i.e.,
This is also called the Drucker stability postulate and
eliminates the possibility of strain softening behavior.
The above requirements can be expressed in three dimensional states of stress and
multidirectional loading as follows.
Elasticity (Hooke's law). In the linear elastic regime the stresses and strains in the material are
related by
where the stiffness matrix D is constant.
Elastic limit (Yield surface). The elastic limit is defined by a yield surface that does not depend

on the plastic strain and has the form .

Beyond the elastic limit. For strain hardening materials, the yield surface evolves with increasing
plastic strain and the elastic limit changes. The evolving yield surface has the form

Loading. For general states of stress, plastic loading is indicated if the state of stress is on the
yield surface and the stress increment is directed toward the outside of the yield surface; this
occurs if the inner product of the stress increment and the outward normal of the yield surface is

positive, i.e.,
The above equation, when it is equal to zero, indicates a state of neutral loading where the stress
state moves along the yield surface.
Unloading: A similar argument is made for unloading for which situation f <0 , the material is in
the elastic domain, and

Strain decomposition: The additive decomposition of the strain into elastic and plastic parts can
be written as

Flow rule
In metal plasticity, the assumption that the plastic strain increment and deviatoric stress tensor
have the same principal directions is encapsulated in a relation called the flow rule. Rock
plasticity theories also use a similar concept except that the requirement of pressure-dependence
of the yield surface requires a relaxation of the above assumption. Instead, it is typically assumed
that the plastic strain increment and the normal to the pressure-dependent yield surface have the
same direction, i.e.,
where dλ > 0 is a hardening parameter. This form of the flow rule is called an associated flow
rule and the assumption of co-directionality is called the normality condition. The function f is
also called a plastic potential.
The above flow rule is easily justified for perfectly plastic deformations for which dσ = 0 when
i.e., the yield surface remains constant under increasing plastic deformation. This
implies that the increment of elastic strain is also zero, , because of Hooke's law.
Therefore,

Hence, both the normal to the yield surface and the plastic
strain tensor are perpendicular to the stress tensor and must have the same direction.