The role of accumulated plasticity on yield surface evolution in pearlitic steel

Journal article, 2023

In this paper, we analyze one specific assumption used in many cyclic plasticity models: The dependence of the yield surface evolution on the accumulated plasticity, i.e., the time-integrated plastic multiplier. We measure this scalar variable in carefully designed experiments and track the yield surface evolution. Our results show that this variable is insufficient to describe the isotropic or distortional hardening of the investigated steel, invalidating the commonly used assumption. The results highlight requirements for developing and verifying new isotropic and distortional hardening laws.