Elastic-plastic-creep cyclic loading of beams using the Prager kinematic hardening model

Abstract

The Prager kinematic hardening model is used to evaluate the elastic-plastic-creep cyclic loading of beams under thermal and mechanical loads. The material of the structure used in this article is assumed to follow a non-linear strain-hardening characteristic. The material's strain-hardening curves in tension and compression are assumed to be identical for isotropic material. A new iterative method is used to calculate the stresses and plastic strains in the structure due to the cyclic loadings. The results of the analysis are checked against the known experimental data. The thermal and mechanical stresses are categorized into load- and deformation-controlled stresses. When creep deformation is considered, the load-controlled stresses result in ratcheting, and the deformation-controlled stresses result in shakedown behaviour.