Equivalent Stress

Equivalent Stress
Introduction
The equivalent stress output from LUSAS and MYSTRO (also known as effective or generalised stress) represents an envelope of the direct and shear stress components and is based upon classical failure criteria theorems. There are a number of these theorems, each of which caters for the varying failure characteristics of different materials. In this note, the von Mises failure criterion is in focus, but the general points made apply equally to other yield functions such as Tresca, Mohr-Coulomb and the like. When using the von Mises material models in LUSAS, the equivalent stress is computed from equations based upon the distortion-energy theorem (also known as the shear-energy or von Mises-Hencky theory). This yield criteria has been shown to be particularly effective in the prediction of failure for ductile materials such as metals.

The Von Mises Failure Criteria

In terms of the principal deviatoric1 stresses, the von Mises stress is computed from E = 3(J2) where J2 is the second deviatoric stress invariant of the stress tensor defined by J2 = 1/6 [(1 - 2)2 + (2 - 3)2 + (3 - 1)2] The equivalent stress may also be expressed in terms of direct stress components as E = [(x - y)2 + (y - z)2 + (z - x)2 + 6(xy2 + yz2 + zx2)]/2 When expanded, this becomes E = [x2 + y2 + z2- xy - yz - zx + 3(xy2 + yz2 + zx2)] and the corresponding equation for equivalent strain2 is E = [x2 + y2 + z2 - xy - yz - zx + 0.75(xy2 + yz2 + zx2)] The number of terms available for use with these two general equations depends on the element type and are given below

In many practical applications such as metal plasticity, soil mechanics and biomechanics, it is physically relevant to isolate the hydrostatic pressure component from the stress tensor. For example the deviatoric component of stress in the x-direction would be computed as x - (x + y + z)/3 Note that LUSAS and MYSTRO output as the shear strain (commonly termed the Engineering strain) which is not the same as the shear strain tensor component (). Their relationship is (=2)

Equivalent Stress

Stress Component Available

x x, y, xy x, y, xy x, y, xy, z x, xy, xz x, y, z, xy, yz, zx x, xy, xz, yz x, z x, y, xy, z x, y, xy, yz, zx

Element Type
Uniaxial Case Plane Stress Plane Strain (Approximate Model) Axisymmetric Solid Beams Solids Semiloof Beam (BSL4) Axisymmetric Sheet Plane Strain Thick Shells

The definitions of equivalent stress and strain for stress resultant output may be obtained by simply replacing the stress components (x, etc.) with their counterparts (Nx, etc.).

Equivalent Stress Greater Than The Yield Stress?

For a number of the LUSAS nonlinear materials, the von Mises failure criteria is used to determine whether yield has occurred at a Gauss point. This is performed by comparing the yield stress (Y) computed at the previous iteration with the magnitude of the failure criteria (E) as computed from the current predicted iterative stress field. If the inequality (E Y) is violated then material yielding is assumed to have occurred. The stress state is then modified by accumulating plastic strain until the inequality is satisfied. It is possible for one or more of the direct stresses to exceed the user specified value of initial uniaxial yield stress however. There are a number of explanations if this occurs The definition of the distortion-energy theory itself permits this behaviour. It typically occurs for stress fields with low shear stress compared to the direct stresses. If the inequality; xy > xy2 is satisfied in the two dimensional, three component stress equation, then the effective stress will always be greater than the direct stresses (try, for instance x = 1, y = 2 and xy = 0) The presence of a hardening gradient will cause the initial uniaxial yield stress to change with increasing plastic strain. The updated or current yield stress should be used for checking purposes (available from the LUSAS output file when Gauss point output has been requested at tabulation). The initial uniaxial yield stress will remain constant throughout the analysis with the specification of perfect plasticity (zero hardening modulus) The solution for the increment being investigated may not be adequately converged. Slackening the residual and/or maximum absolute residual norms to achieve convergence should be a last resort. Residual norm magnitudes less than 0.1 are normally achievable and should be aimed for ideally The failure criteria is always evaluated at the Gauss point level. In general, the extrapolation carried out to obtain the nodal results will not necessarily satisfy the above failure criteria and any checks of this sort should be performed on Gauss point results

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Equivalent Stress

The plasticity formulation used for the thick shell element suite is based on a plane stress assumption (i.e. z=0), giving the usual stress output of

x, y, xy, yz, zx
Because of this assumption, the element is not able to use the classical plasticity algorithms available for three dimensional solid elements (the missing stress, z, being the main problem). The plasticity formulation used for these elements, therefore, only uses the stress terms

x, y, xy
and ignores the transverse shear terms, assuming them to remain elastic (a reasonable assumption in the general case).

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