On the concept of an intermediate configuration and its application to a representation of viscoelastic-plastic material behavior (Q1095713)

The author, on a purely kinematic basis, considers that the plastic rotation from the multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient into its elastic and plastic parts can be taken to be equal to the identity tensor or in other words, the plastic rotation is not related to the history of the mechanical process by a constitutive functional. As a consequence the author states that the constitutive equations must be frame-indifferent as well as invariant with respect to any superimposed plastic rotation. From phenomenological point of view it results that the constitutive assumption is acceptable only in the particular case of certain structural isotropic materials. On the other hand the model presented in the paper becomes elastically isotropic when the material is not plastically deformed.