The present thesis develops an Armstrong-Frederick (A-F) type coupled kinematic hardening rule to assess ratcheting response of steel alloys under various multiaxial loading paths. The hardening rule is constructed on the basis of the recently proposed Ahmadzadeh-Varvani (AV) hardening rule to further evaluate the ratcheting response of materials under multiaxial loading spectra. The modified model offers a simple framework with limited number of terms and coefficients in the dynamic recovery portion of the model. The dynamic recovery further holds inner product of plastic strain increment p dand backstress unit vector a a with different directions under multiaxial stress cycles enables the model to track different directions. Term 1/ 2 n. a a taking positive values less than unity for multiaxial loading conditions is to control the accumulation rate of ratcheting strain and to prevent the modified model to experience plastic shakedown over stress cycles in stage II. Term(2 n. a a ) taking the values between 1 and 3 under multiaxial loading, magnifies the effect of coefficient γ2 to take into account the nonproportionality effect of various loading paths and further to shift down the predicted ratcheting strain over the stress cycles.
The predicted ratcheting curves by the modified rule were compared with those predicted based on earlier developed hardening rules of Ohno-Wang (O-W), Jiang-Sehitoglu (J-S), McDowell, and Chen-Jiao-Kim (C-J-K) holding relatively complex framework and more number of coefficients. The O-W, the J-S, McDowell and C-J-K models mainly deviated from the experimental ratcheting strain of steel alloys for various multiaxial loading histories, while the
predicted curves of the modified model closely agreed with experimental data of steel samples over ratcheting stages. The predicted ratcheting curves based on the modified model closely agreed with experimental data of steel samples under various multiaxial step-loading histories. The modified model was also found capable of predicting ratcheting in the opposite direction as the tensile axial mean stress dropped in magnitude. The O-W, J-S, McDowell and C-J-K models holding more backstress components and coefficients require longer Central Processing Unit (CPU) time. While time required for ratcheting assessment using the modified hardening rule was found to be twice shorter due to its simpler framework and limited number of coefficients.
Development of a kinematic hardening rule to assess ratcheting response of materials under various multiaxial loading spectra
