Elastoplastic model of metals with smooth elastic–plastic transition

The subloading surface model is based on the simple and natural postulate that the plastic strain rate develops as the stress approaches the yield surface. It therefore always describes the continuous variation of the tangent modulus. It requires no incorporation of an algorithm for the judgment of yielding, i.e., a judgment of whether or not the stress reaches the yield surface. Furthermore, the calculation is controlled to fulfill the consistency condition. Consequently, the stress is attracted automatically to the normal-yield surface in the plastic loading process even if it goes out from that surface. The model has been adopted widely to the description of deformation behavior of geomaterials and friction behavior. In this article, it is applied to the formulation of the constitutive equation of metals by modifying the past formulation of this model. This modification enables to avoid the indetermination of the subloading surface, to make the reloading curve recover promptly to the preceding loading curve, and to describe the cyclic stagnation of isotropic hardening. The applicability of the present model to the description of actual metal deformation behavior is verified through comparison with various cyclic loading test data.