Elastoplasticity theory (Q1931700)

Finite plasticity is still the subject of many investigations and controversies. So it is once in a while necessary to give an overview of the latest progress in research, and this book does it. After the preface, this book gives an exhaustive explanation of elastoplasticity, which is intended to be understood easily and clearly not only by researchers but also by beginners in the field of applied mechanics, without reading any other book. So far the intention of the author. It seems to be consequent to start the book with tensor algebra and calculus. The next step is to introduce the reader into the kinematics of finite deformations, and the balance laws. The main topic of the book is clearly the constitutive modeling. The author uses the multiplicative decomposition (with all its deficiencies and ambiguities). Conceptually more sound suggestions are not presented. Elasticity is treated on less than ten pages. The reviewer, however, doubts that this is enough for a basic understanding of plasticity, to which elasticity theory is the key. Some extra topics are then considered, like subloading surface or multisurface models, pressure-dependent plasticity, viscoplasticity, even gradient plasticity. Also, some algorithmic topics are tackled like the tangential stiffness operator, or the return mapping algorithm. On the other hand, important topics like thermoplasticity or crystal plasticity are completely left out. The authors uses a clear and compact direct notation, and simple figures are helpful for understanding. However, the explanations are sometimes awkward and not easy to understand, in particular for beginners. The definition of a tensor (p. 13) is an example, but also the introduction of the objectivity principle (p. 101) will be hardly understood by a beginner.