Accurate numerical integration of Drucker-Prager's constitutive equations (Q1342169)

The authors presented an accurate numerical integration of Drucker- Prager's constitutive equations. The paper illustrates the application of a general two-step integration scheme for the rate plasticity equations to the case of Drucker-Prager's model with linear mixed hardening and the associated flow rule. The integration scheme coincides, for the case of the von Mises equations, with a ``tangent predictor-radial return'' method with automatic sub-incrementation. However, in contrast with the integration methods commonly adopted in several codes, the return step is here based on a precisely formulated rate problem, and, in general, it is not necessarily to consider the radial one. Thus, the accuracy characteristics of the method should carry over to every constitutive model tackled. The application of the integration scheme to Drucker- Prager's equations shows that the accuracy is in fact comparable to that obtained in the von Mises case, for similar values of the tolerance parameter; at the same time some peculiarities of Drucker-Prager's field condition, most notably the presence of a singular point in the stress space, highlight the flexibility and generality of the proposed method. Its theoretical basis, in fact, holds for vector-valued yield functions, thus automatically incorporating the treatment of the cases in which the stress points reach a corner in the yield surface. This work is quite interesting and may find several readers working in the area of integrating the equations of plasticity.