Stability and dynamics of a plastic softening oscillator

This paper deals with the stability of a single-degree-of-freedom plastic softening oscillator. Understanding such an elementary model concerns, for instance, the seismic behaviour of concrete or steel structures. The associated dynamic system is a complex hysteretic system. Using appropriate internal variables, it can be written as a singular autonomous system. Liapounov stability of the solutions is then studied. A domain of perturbations associated with a stable solution is exhibited. This domain looks like a truncated cone in the three-dimensional phase space. It can be read as a critical displacement or energy that the oscillator can support during a seismic excitation. The difference with the “equivalent” linearized elastic system is highlighted. The unloading part of the response of the inelastic system has a stabilising effect.