A dangerous use of the fading memory term for non linear kinematic models at variable temperature

•Warning against possible misuse of the very classical Chaboche–Armstrong–Frederick rule for kinematic hardening.•Consequences of a bad choice of the material parameters are exhibited for non isothermal loadings.•A solution is proposed.

The purpose of this note is to shed the light on a specific problem linked to the use of a variable fading memory parameter in a nonlinear kinematic rule. A strong variation of this parameter versus temperature may generate cumbersome behaviours even with very simple temperature histories. A better solution is to use several non linear kinematic variables with a constant fading memory term.