Advanced Strength and Applied Elasticity, Fourth Edition

Chapter 12 Plastic Behavior of Materials

12.1 Introduction

The subject of plasticity is perhaps best introduced by recalling the principal characteristics of elastic behavior. First, a material subjected to stressing within the elastic regime will return to its original state upon removal of those external influences causing application of load or displacement. Second, the deformation corresponding to a given stress depends solely on that stress and not on the history of strain or load. In plastic behavior, opposite characteristics are observed. The permanent distortion that takes place in the plastic range of a material can assume considerable proportions. This distortion depends not only on the final state of stress, but on the stress states ...