A thermodynamical consistent formulation of nonlocal and gradient plasticity (Q1269823)

The paper is aimed at a unified formulation of nonlocal and gradient theory in the framework of small deformation theory, for materials with internal variables in mechanical isothermal processes. The local form of energy balance, as well as the Clausius-Duhem inequality (interpreted as the net intrinsic dissipation energy per unit volume) involve the nonlocal residual to take into account the material nonlocality and to generate the non-negativity of dissipation energy. The scalar internal variable describing the isotropic hardening/softening behaviour is the nonlocal variable. It is supposed that there exists a regularization operator which determines the relation between the rate of scalar variable, and the rate of another local internal variable, defined around a fixed material point. In defining at a given material point the regularization operator two choices are possible, related to the nonlocal plasticity or to the gradient plasticity. In addition, some boundary conditions must be satisfied on the boundary of the finite representative domain, incorporating the material internal length scale. The nonlocal and gradient-dependent plastic flow laws are derived, via the appropriate maximum intrinsic dissipation theorem, when the yield function is assumed to be dependent on the associated thermodynamic forces. Some discrepancies between the existing nonlocal and gradient plasticity theories have also been emphasized in the paper.