In antiplane perfect plasticity, velocity and shear stresses depend only on . Force balance is , the fixed yield surface is , and the associated flow rule is with . Differentiating the yield equation in each coordinate and combining it with equilibrium shows that are constant along characteristic curves tangent to . For example . Nonzero regular yield gradient is needed for a characteristic direction.
Associated flow rule 2026-10-14
Plastic strain rate is normal to the yield surface in the work-conjugate stress variables. With symmetric stress variations, the pairing is ; in two dimensions its off-diagonal contribution is . This factor is essential when changing to reduced stress coordinates.
For an associated flow rule in the reduced plane-strain yield coordinates, the rate-of-strain tensor has zero extension along both slip line directions. Write velocity as , with the local orthonormal axes turning through angle . Differentiating along an curve gives longitudinal extension ; along a curve it gives . Setting these extensions to zero proves the relations for the corresponding anisotropic yield surface parameterization.
Put , , , and write , . In antiplane perfect plasticity, force balance and the fixed yield surface give
Differentiate the second relation in . Along the proposed characteristic curve,
Similarly, differentiating the yield relation in gives
The associated flow rule and give , . Consequently
Thus both shear stresses and the antiplane velocity are constant on each characteristic. Assume a regular yield gradient . Since the stress is constant on a characteristic, its tangent has fixed direction, so the curves are straight lines, apart from arbitrary reparameterization by .
In a centred antiplane plastic fan those lines emanate from the crack tip. Hence
and a radial line at angle from the axis must have
The crack faces have normal in the direction, so traction freedom requires there. The fan joins the adjacent constant crack-face stress region along the characteristic carrying that stress. Its boundary line therefore satisfies
with the direction interpreted directly when the denominator vanishes. The original PDF reverses this ratio. Its displayed ratio is , whereas the tangent of an angle from the axis is . The distinction cannot be removed while retaining both its stated characteristic direction and its angle convention.
For the elliptic yield surface, with ,
On the forward fan , choose the loading branch . The radial tangent condition gives . Substituting in the yield equation and choosing the positive square root gives exactly
For the endpoints, use the equivalent nonsingular expressions
They give on the upper boundary ray and on the lower one. The correct boundaries are , the vertical line through the tip. At either of these stress states and , so the characteristic tangent is vertical. The printed boundary ratio would instead give a horizontal line, providing a concrete counterexample to that intermediate assertion.
Extend the upper and lower rear sectors by the constant stresses and respectively; these satisfy the traction-free crack faces and match the fan stresses continuously. The reversed loading has all stresses negated. To check equilibrium within the forward fan, differentiation gives
and hence . The yield equation is satisfied identically as well.
Figure 1.
Radial characteristics and vertical boundaries of the elliptic antiplane fan
. Details.
Finally , while . The associated flow rule reduces to
for this stress branch. Any such angular velocity field is constant along the rays and has constant values in the adjacent rear sectors. Its magnitude and angular variation require velocity or loading data beyond the specified traction-free faces; the local stress fan alone does not determine them.
Write , and . On the fixed yield surface, and , where is stress-space arc length. Substituting , , into planar force balance gives
Thus , with .
For a spatial curve and a function , the chain rule gives
Here primes refer to the spatial parameter , not the yield-curve parameter . The displayed row-matrix product being zero is therefore sufficient for to remain constant.
The eigenvectors of are and , with eigenvalues and . Along these slip lines, respectively, and . This proves the stress characteristics for an anisotropic yield curve:
For the velocity relations, the outward normal to the reduced yield curve is proportional to . The associated flow rule, using the symmetric stress work pairing , therefore gives a rate-of-strain tensor proportional to
The off-diagonal stress variation contributes , which ensures this normality calculation uses the correct factor. Direct multiplication gives : neither slip line direction extends instantaneously.
Resolve the velocity as . Since and , its longitudinal derivative along an curve is , and along a curve it is . Setting these extensions to zero gives the Geiringer velocity relations:
The shear stress decreases monotonically from the fibre to zero at the free surface, so its maximum is
Flow occurs precisely when this exceeds the yield stress:
When this condition holds, there is one yield surface determined by
The region is yielded and the outer region is an unyielded plug flow of a yield-stress fluid. In the yielded region, . The no-slip condition gives
The unyielded layer translates without shearing at the plug speed
Perfect plasticity 2026-10-14
A perfectly plastic material has a yield surface that does not change with accumulated plastic deformation. This removes hardening while retaining the distinction between elastic and plastic loading.
Parameterize a fixed yield surface by stress-space arc length with and . For mean normal stress , force balance gives , where . Its eigenvectors along angles and have eigenvalues and , proving the displayed slip line invariants.