A finite-strain model for anisotropic viscoplastic porous media: II – Applications

In Part I of this work, we have proposed a new model based on the “second-order” nonlinear homogenization method for determining the effective response and microstructure evolution in viscoplastic porous media with aligned ellipsoidal voids subjected to general loading conditions. In this second part, the new model is used to analyze the instantaneous effective behavior and microstructure evolution in porous media for several representative loading conditions and microstructural configurations. First, we study the effect of the shape and orientation of the voids on the overall instantaneous response of a porous medium that is subjected to principal loading conditions. Secondly, we study the problem of microstructure evolution under axisymmetric and simple shear loading conditions for initially spherical voids in an attempt to validate the present model by comparison with existing numerical and approximate results in the literature. Finally, we study the possible development of macroscopic instabilities for the special case of ideally-plastic solids subjected to plane-strain loading conditions. The results, reported in this paper, suggest that the present model improves dramatically on the earlier “variational” estimates, in particular, because it generates much more accurate results for high triaxiality loading conditions.