Small deformation plasticity model via the principle of virtual work

Roughly speaking, if u denotes an arbitrary but smooth virtual velocity field defined in a deformed
body (occupying a region P in the three dimensional space; P may also denote a subregion of the
body) and if the body itself is in equilibrium ( u must also be consistent with the applied boundary
conditions; e.g. u = 0 over the Dirichlet part of the boundary), then the following identity is
assumed to hold:

 t(n).uda +  bu. dv =  σ : udv

P P P
(4.1)

The RHS (right hand side) may be thought of as the (internal) virtual power expended by the stress
(Cauchy stress; but, in the small deformation scenarios, one need not distinguish among the
different stresses) within P and the LHS (left hand side) is the (external) virtual power expended on
the boundary P by the traction t (n ) and within P by the generalized body force b g (which is
assumed to include the inertia force with an appropriate sign). Via the arbitrariness of u and the use
of the divergence theorem, one may readily show that equation (1) is equivalent to the classical
balance:

Divσ + b g = 0 (4.2a)

and the traction boundary condition (also called the Neumann condition)

t (n) = σn (4.2b)

Exercise:

Prove that you can arrive at (4.2a) and (4.2b) from (4.1).

This means that, in general, we may hope to obtain the balance laws plus the boundary conditions
just by looking at the way various force-like entities in the model expend power (where the virtual
velocities may pertain to any rate-like kinematic descriptor of the model). We now wish to exploit
this principle to derive the balance laws as well as the other conditions for small deformation,
isotropic plasticity.

In order to achieve this, first note that the relevant rate-like descriptors in plasticity – viz. the
velocity u and the elastic and plastic distortions (denoted by H e and H p respectively) – are not
independent. More specifically, these three quantities are constrained by:

u = H e + H p (4.3)

So it is not apparent at this stage what forms the balance laws must take. It is here that the power of
the principle of virtual work may be realized – they automatically determine the balance laws as we
shall demonstrate now. As we did in the class sometime back, let W (P) and I (P) respectively
denote the external and internal powers expended on or within P . In order to account for plastic
deformation (in addition to elastic deformation), we may further assume the following.

a) H e describes the elastic stretching of the underlying microstructure

b) H p describes the irreversible processes (e.g. dislocation motion which causes plasticity in
metals) leading to plastic deformation
Accordingly, we allow for the following conjugate (force-like) components of these kinematic
descriptors to describe the internal power expenditure.

i) An elastic stress σ e power conjugate to H e

ii) A plastic stress σ p power conjugate to H p

Thus we may now write the internal power I (P) as:

I (P) =  (σe : He +σ p : H p )dv (4.4)

P

We assume the plastic part of the deformation to be incompressible so that H p is deviatoric. This
means that σ p must also be deviatoric (as its non-deviatoric part contributes no power when we
take an inner product with H p - recall the discussion in the class), i.e.

tr(H p ) = tr(σ p ) = 0 (4.5)

The external power W (P) is expended by b g = b − u and the traction t (n ) as:

W (P) =  t (n).uda +  b g .udv (4.6)

P P

Equating the external and internal power balances W (P) = I (P) , we must have:

 t(n).uda +  b
P P
g .udv =  (σ e : H e +σ p : H p )dv
P
(4.7)

Now denote the virtual fields pertaining to the three kinematic fields u , H e and H p respectively as
u , H e and H p . These virtual fields must also satisfy

u = H e + H p and tr( H p ) = 0 (4.8)

Let V = (u, H e , H p ) denote the list these three generalized virtual velocities, so that we will denote
the external and internal virtual powers over P respectively as W (P,V ) and I (P,V ) . These are
specifically given by:

W (P,V ) =  t(n).uda +  b g .udv and I (P,V ) =  (σe : He +σ p : H p )dv (4.9)

P P P

To write the principle of the virtual work (or power), we just need to equate the two for all
admissible generalized virtual velocities V :

 t(n).uda +  b
P P
g .udv =  (σ e : H e +σ p : H p )dv
P
(4.10)

Now, frame indifference, as applied to small deformation, must require that the internal virtual
power be invariant under transformations of the following form (why?):

He* = He + Ω and H p* = H p (4.11)

where Ω is an arbitrary skew symmetric matrix. In other words, we must have:

σ : He*dv =  σ e : He dv
e
(4.12)
P P

But this means that σ e is symmetric, i.e.

(σ e )T = σ e (4.13)

and hence

σ : He dv =  σ e : Ee dv
e
(4.14)
P P

where Ee is the symmetric part of H e .

In order to determine the local force balances, we must bear in mind the fact that we are allowed to
choose any admissible virtual velocity. Specifically, if we choose

H e = u and H p = 0 (4.15)

then the virtual power balance in equation (4.10) reduces to:

 t(n).uda +  b
P P
g .udv =  (σ e : u)dv
P
(4.16)

Since the nonzero virtual velocities in this case are all expressible in terms of the standard virtual
velocity u (which is related to the displacement u - an experimentally verifiable kinematic quantity
for small deformation problems), we refer to V as macroscopic in this case. Now, by divergence
theorem, we have:

σ : udv = −  Divσ e .udv +  (σ en).uda

e
(4.17)
P P P

Hence the balance in (4.16) may be written as:

 (t(n) − σ n).uda +  (Divσ + b g ).udv = 0

e e
(4.18)
P P

Since u and P are both arbitrary, we immediately see that the local force balance

Divσ e + b g = 0 (4.19)

and the boundary condition

t (n) = σ en (4.20)

are both satisfied. The two equations above plus the condition (4.13) that σ e is symmetric clearly
reveal that one may identify σ e with the Cauchy stress σ . Equation (4.19) is often called the
macroscopic force balance, as it essentially determines the macroscopically observable displacement
u . By splitting the generalized body force, we may write the same equation as:
Divσ + b =  u (4.21)
We now demonstrate that there is an additional force balance associated with the plastic stress σ p .
In order to obtain this balance, we let u = 0 so that u = 0 , which pertains to a perfectly valid
variational field u . So we have:

H e = −H p (4.22)

The generalized virtual velocity of this type is called microscopic, as it reveals the irreversible
microstructural response leading to plasticity. Using this in (4.10), we have:

 (σ − σ) : H p dv = 0
p
(4.23)
P

If we take H p = W p as purely skew, then σ : H p = 0 (as σ is symmetric). Thus σ p : H p = 0 , which

implies that σ p is symmetric too. Moreover, since we are talking of incompressible plasticity, both
σ p and the admissible variation H p are deviatoric. Hence σ may be replaced by its deviatoric part
so that we have the microscopic force balance:

σ p = σ0 (4.24)

As a consequence of all these facts, we rewrite the power balance (4.7) as (make sure that you
understand this):

 t(n).uda +  b
P P
g .udv =  (σ : Ee +σ p : E p )dv
P
(4.25)

Codirectionality constraint

This means that we must use

σ0 Ep Ep
= N p where N p = p = p (4.26)
| σ0 | |E | e

We can thus write:

H p = e p N p + W p where W p = skw H p

W p is typically called the plastic spin. Hence we may write:

u = H e + e p N p + W p (4.27)

We may write the power balance as:

 t(n).uda +  b
P P
g .udv =  (σ : Ee + p e p + (skw σ p ) : W p )dv
P
(4.28)

where  p = σ p : N p is the resolved shear in the direction of plastic flow. Recall that we have already
shown that skw σ p = 0 ; but it may again be proved in an alternative way as follows. Once more
consider the generalized virtual velocities – now consistent with the codirectionality hypothesis, i.e.
E p = e p N p , e p  0 . We also have tr H p = 0 . Thus the generalized velocity is given by:

V = (u, H e , e p , W p ) (4.29)

So the virtual power balance is given by:

 t(n).uda +  b
P P
g .udv =  (σ : Ee + p e p + (skw σ p ) : W p )dv
P
(4.30)

where we have made use of the fact that σ : H e = σ : E , thanks to the symmetry of the Cauchy
stress. Now, using the same argument as before, we may derive the same macroscopic local force
balance (4.19). In deriving the microscopic force balance, we take, as before, u = 0 so that
H e = −(e p N p + W p ) . Using σ : W p = 0 , the virtual power balance reduces to:

 [( − σ0 : N p )e p + (skw σ p ) : W p )]dv = 0

p
(4.31)
P

The arbitrariness of W p immediately implies that skw σ p = 0 (providing an alternative proof to

what we already know). Moreover, since e p  0 is also arbitrary, we have the following microscopic
force balance:

 p =| σ0 | (4.32)

So the hypothesis of codirectionality has essentially reduced the microscopic force balance to a
scalar equation, unlike equation (4.24).

Free energy imbalance:

For any subregion P of the body, the temporal increase in free energy must be balanced by the
external power expended minus the dissipation, which is incidentally non-negative.

 dv =  t(n).uda +  b
P P P
g .udv −   dv
P
(4.33)

Using the power balance, we may rewrite the above as:

 dv =  (σ : E +  p e p )dv −   dv
e
(4.34)
P P P

Upon an obvious localization, we have the local free energy imbalance:

 − σ : Ee −  p e p = −  0 (4.35)

Constitutive theory

Assuming rate independence, we may write the following functional relations:

ˆ (Ee ); σ = σˆ (Ee ); σ p = σˆ p (N p , e p )
= (4.36)

In the case where the plastic flow is not evolving, i.e. when E p = 0 , the free energy imbalance
ˆ (Ee )

reduces to   σ : Ee , which is satisfied for all constitutive processes only if σ = . Thus we
Ee
have  p e p  0 .