A thermodynamical theory of gradient elastoplasticity with dislocation density tensor. I: Fundamentals (Q1970530)

The authors develop a thermodynamical theory of elastoplasticity at finite strain by using the concept of dislocation density. Kinematics are built based on a multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient into three factors: an appropriate orthogonal transformation, the so-called pure elastic stretch which is not symmetric but the rate composed of its inverse tensor has symmetric part only, and the plastic part of deformation. By deriving the relationships between different strain rates and the deformation rate for each configuration, the authors assume that the pure elastic stretch is approximately identity. The dislocaton drift rate in the initial configuration is defined as a material derivative of dislocation density and, by neglecting (without any motivation) nonlinear terms, the authors obtain the corresponding approximate forms. Appropriate thermodynamic forces are introduced by employing the constitutive functional of total free energy in the intermediate configuration. The mechanical balance equations are derived using a form of the principle of virtual power, assuming that the virtual powers caused by the boundary traction and internal forces respectively, contain also the microstress associated with dislocation. The energy conservation law, with the internal power of microstress produced by the dislocation drift rate, and the entropy inequality are also added. When the heat conduction term is neglected, the authors derive an elastic-type constitutive equation and plastic constitutive equations obeying also the principle of maximal entropy production due to Ziegler. The dissipation function is considered to be dependent on the temperature, on the Kirchhoff and on the effective stresses respectively, as well as on the microstress associated with dislocations. All the basical equations are obtained in actual configuration, being of the corotational type with plastic spin. The authors also give constitutive equations for back stress (via microstress) and for plastic spin. A comparison with other gradient theories concludes the paper.