An Evaluation of Recent Developments in Hardening and Flow Rules for Rate-Independent, Nonproportional Cyclic Plasticity

The Mroz kinematic hardening rule has previously demonstrated superior capability to correlate cyclically stable nonproportional stress-strain response. In this paper, recently proposed kinematic hardening rules for single and multiple surface cyclic plasticity models are evaluated. Significant improvement over the Mroz rule, without loss of generality, is achieved with a deviatoric stress rate-dominated rule proposed by Tseng and Lee for two surface theory. Recent approaches for correlation of the modulus function and isotropic hardening are discussed. The norm of the Mroz distance vector is found to uniquely correlate the variation of plastic hardening modulus through a cycle; it is necessary to include a measure of instantaneous nonproportionality, however, to properly normalize the modulus function. A new evolution equation is offered to correlate the additional isotropic hardening observed during nonproportional loading, and several contemporary approaches are also considered.