Abstract:
The objective of the present work is to highlight the effect of variation of the elastic modulus during plastic deformation on uniaxial ratchetting simulations. In order to achieve this target, the variation of the elastic modulus during loading and un-loading is considered and discussed based on some experimental observations which pointed out recently. Then the effect of such variation on simulations is scrutinized from the theoretical point of view by considering simulations of ratchetting experiments conducted on stainless steel 304L using the well-known Armstrong–Frederick model. It is shown that, using two different values for the elastic modulus during loading and un-loading could have a significant effect on simulations of uniaxial ratchetting. The importance of such findings is that the excessive ratchetting over-prediction resulting from any specific kinematic hardening rule is expected to decrease significantly by taking into consideration this effect. In this case, it is necessary to include variation of elastic modulus within the scheme of constitutive modeling of cyclic plasticity to simulate actual material responses especially ratchetting.