Localization in elasto-plastic materials: Influence of the plasticity yield surface in biaxial loading conditions

The influence of the plasticity yield surface on the development of instabilities in plane plates in biaxial loading is analyzed in order to understand and simulate the localization pattern observed in an expanding hemisphere experiment. First, a criterion for the activation of slip bands is formulated in the form of a critical hardening coefficient: it is particularized to the Von Mises and Tresca surfaces. In the Von Mises case, the criterion gives a strongly negative hardening coefficient in biaxial loading conditions different from the ones of plane strain. In the Tresca case, the criterion is fulfilled for a perfectly plastic material in uniaxial and biaxial loading; besides, in equi-biaxial loading, two possible orientations for slip bands are exhibited; this can be understood, with a few approximations, by the existence of a vertex point on the Tresca yield surface which give additive degrees of freedom for the direction of the plastic strain rate. Second, the development of localization in the loading conditions met in an expanding hemisphere experiment is simulated using both plasticity yield surfaces; whereas the Von Mises simulation does not localize, the Tresca simulation exhibits a pattern composed of a network of shear bands of different orientations; this pattern is not far from the pattern observed experimentally.