A priori stability estimates and unconditionally stable product formula algorithms for nonlinear coupled thermoplasticity

Abstract

This article describes new a priori stability for the full nonlinear systems of coupled thermoplasticity at finite strains and presents a fractional step method leading to a new class of unconditionally stable staggered algorithms. These results are shown to hold for general models of multiplicative plasticity that include, as a particular case, the single-crystal model. The proposed product formula algorithm is designed via an entropy based operator split that yields one of the first known staggered algorithms that retains the property of nonlinear unconditional stability. The scheme employs an isentropic step, in which the total entropy is held constant, followed by a heat conduction step (with nonlinear source) at fixed configuration. The nonlinear stability analysis shows that the proposed staggered scheme inherits the a priori energy estimate for the continuum problem, regardless of the size of the time-step. In sharp contrast with these results, it is shown that widely used staggered methods employing an isothermal step followed by a heat conduction problem can be at most only conditionally stable. The excellent performance of the methodology is illustrated in representative numerical simulations.