Materials with elastic range: A theory with a view toward applications. II (Q1812926)

This reviewer, commenting on Part I of the paper [\textit{M. Lucchesi} and \textit{P. Podio-Guidugli}, Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 102, No. 1, 23-43 (1988; Zbl 0659.73037)] stressed the terse approach, the careful choice of axioms and the rigorous derivation of properties, perhaps causing unwillingly in the reader of the review a feeling of aridity. Here the patient groundwork of Part I is exploited to obtain a wealth of results. The virtues of terseness and rigour are still there, and may even discourage some readers (notice that, terseness not-withstanding, a dozen pages are required for preliminaries and commented recapitulation of Part I); those virtues are indispensable if one wants to render explicit and precise the very many assumptions implied in the usual cavalier treatment of the foundations of plasticity. Particularly critical and interesting is the definition of stress range (and yield surface) appropriate in a theory of materials with elastic range; it seems obvious that the stress range should be something like the image of the elastic range under the so-called `structural mapping'. However, the connection is not so trivial and requires the notions of `unloaded history', of `reduced' elastic range and involves the Kirchhoff stress. That the proposed definition of stress range is appropriate becomes clear when describing the dissipative nature of plastic flow. Here the authors adapt a postulate of Il'yushin on the work done in cyclic deformations and put in evidence a crucial condition absent in an earlier use, by \textit{A. C. Pipkin} and \textit{R. S. Rivlin} [Z. Angew. Math. Phys. 16, 313-326 (1965)] of that postulate. They deduce a differential inequality, which can be regarded as an appropriate differential version of Drucker's postulate. Finally, the last section of the paper is devoted to a detailed study of ideally plastic materials. The reviewer feels that anybody interested in the foundations of the theory of plasticity or in large plastic deformations should take note of this paper.