A Geometrically Nonlinear Elasto-Viscoplasticity Theory of Second Grade

Abstract

A general concept for the consideration of the influence of strain gradients on elasto-viscoplastic material behaviour at finite deformation is presented that does not need to account for an additional flow rule for the plastic strain gradient. The balance of momentum including the representation of the stresses, the power of work at contact for the formulation of boundary conditions as well as the nonlocal form of the total power of deformation are derived via the dissipation inequality for the investigated nonpolar continuum model of second grade. In addition to the gradient of the elastic strain tensor, energy storage with gradients of different internal variables is considered: gradient of (i) the plastic strain tensor itself, (ii) an internal strain tensor induced by viscoplastic straining, by which energy due to hardening is stored also with its gradient, and (iii) scalar internal variables like the accumulated viscoplastic strain or an internal time variable of damage. Finally, for the simulation of the damage behaviour during a strain hold-time period at a crack tip the responses of a ratedependent and a quasi-rate-independent gradient-enhanced damage model are compared in finite element studies.