On uniqueness and strain localization in plane strain and plane stress elastoplasticity (Q920660)

In this paper associative plasticity with smooth yield surface allowing for hardening and/or softening is addressed under the assumption of small displacement gradients. Moreover, the restriction is imposed on current stress magnitude which is required to be significantly less than the current elasticity modulus. The latter restriction is usually satisfied in moderately brittle materials, in which the elasticity does not drop significantly due to damage. On the other hand, such a drop necessarily leads to a non-associativity due to elastic-plastic coupling and is dealt with separately. The above approximations are of undubious practical significance for the analysis of bifurcation in brittle and frictional materials, such as rock, concrete and soil and are widely accepted in this context. By specializing the known criterion for localization to the conditions of plane strain and plane stress, explicit expressions for the critical hardening modulus for localization and for the inclination of the band are found. This is a numerically much more amenable form of the coupled condition for localization given by \textit{J. R. Rice} and \textit{J. W. Rudnicki} [Int. J. Solids Struct. 16, 597-605 (1980; Zbl 0433.73032)]. It is also concluded that in plane stress, the critical modulus is always null. On the other hand, developing the criterion for the positiveness of the second order work density for plane strain and plane stress, it is seen that this criterion coincides in the above cases with the localization criterion. Consequences of this coincidence are then discussed in terms of uniqueness of the rate problem. Non-associative plasticity is dealt with elsewhere.