Sabet, S.A. and Borst, R. (2019) Structural softening, mesh dependence, and regularisation in non‐associated plastic flow. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, 43 (13). pp. 2170-2183. ISSN 0363-9061
Abstract
A severe dependence of numerical simulations on the mesh density is usually attributed to the presence of strain softening in the constitutive relation. However, other material instabilities, like non‐associated plastic flow, can also cause mesh sensitivity. Indeed, loss of ellipticity in quasi‐static analyses is the fundamental cause of the observed mesh dependence. It has been known since long that non‐associated plastic flow can cause loss of ellipticity, but the consequence for mesh sensitivity, and subsequently, for the difficulty of the equilibrium‐finding iterative procedure to converge have remained largely unnoticed. We first demonstrate at the hand of a biaxial test structural softening and a marked mesh dependence for an ideally plastic material equipped with a non‐associated flow rule. The phenomena are then analysed in depth using an infinitely long shear layer. Finally, it is shown that the mesh effect disappears when the standard continuum model is replaced by a Cosserat continuum, a well‐known regularisation method for strain‐softening constitutive relations.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in the International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Cosserat continuum; ellipticity; mesh dependence; non‐associated plasticity; regularisation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Civil and Structural Engineering (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number European Commission - Horizon 2020 664734 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 24 Jul 2019 15:11 |
Last Modified: | 08 Dec 2021 11:15 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/nag.2973 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:148931 |