An elastoplasticity model for antiplane shearing with a non-associative flow rule: Genuine nonlinearity of plastic waves (Q1269667)

The paper examines plastic waves described by an elasto-plastic model with antiplane shearing. The equations for plastic deformation are coupled nonlinear hyperbolic partial differential equations. The model includes non-associative flow rule, with degree of non-associativity measured by a non-negative parameter which is kept constant during the deformation process. For the associative model, the plastic waves are genuinely nonlinear in the sense of Lax. The authors prove that the considered system of partial differential equations is genuinely nonlinear for all stress fields, under certain condition on the hardening functions depending on the degree of non-associativity. Hence, in a model satisfying this extra condition, plastic shock waves cannot appear. The authors construct an example of constitutive law for which the genuine nonlinearity does not hold, and consequently, plastic shocks may form. An algorithmic test for genuine nonlinearity is also proposed in the paper.