The equivalence of stress- and strain-based plasticity theories (Q1376133)

Strain space plasticity theory has been advocated by a number of researchers as a viable alternative to its stress space counterpart. However, there appears to be a certain level of uncertainty about the equivalence of stress- and strain-based plasticity theories. This paper attempts to clarify some issues concerning the equivalence of theses two theories. By providing the alternative conjugate expressions for the loading criteria, it will be shown that the two formulations are indeed equivalent in substance and produce equivalent expressions for the plastic strain rate, provided that the material laws used are identical in both approaches.