A consistent numerical scheme for the von Mises mixed-hardening constitutive equations

Analytical solutions are derived for the von Mises mixed-hardening elastoplastic model under rectilinear strain paths, and the concept of response subspace is introduced such that the original five-dimensional problem in deviatoric stress space is reduced to a more economic two-dimensional problem, of which two coordinates (x,y) suffice to determine normalized active stress. Furthermore, in this subspace a Minkowski spacetime can be endowed, on which the group action is found to be a proper orthochronous Lorentz group SOo(2,1). The existence of a fixed point attractor in the normalized active stress space is demonstrated by the long-term behavior deduced from the analytical solutions, which together with the response stability is further verified by Lyapunov's direct method. Two numerical schemes based on a nonlinear Volterra integral equation and on a group symmetry are derived, the latter of which exactly preserves the consistency condition for every time step. The consistent scheme is stable, accurate and efficient, because it updates the stress point automatically on the yield surface at each time step without any iteration. For the purpose of comparison and contrast, numerical results calculated by the above two schemes as well as by the radial return method were displayed for several loading examples. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.