Analysis of cyclic creep and rupture. Part 1: bounding theorems and cyclic reference stresses

Abstract

Cyclic loading on structures can produce failures not readily predicted by conventional static analysis. Ratcheting or incremental distortion leads to structural failure, and complicates the problems of creep and fatigue prediction. Predicting shakedown, ratcheting, accelerated creep and rupture, for cyclic loading, are the objectives of cyclic stress analysis. Limit load, shakedown and ratcheting analyses provide a comprehensive basis to understand static structural behaviour for ductile inelastic materials, subject to variable loading but excluding inertial dynamic effects. From them we can predict the following failure modes: – Plastic collapse. – Failure to shakedown. – Ratcheting. – Accelerated creep and rupture. This is achieved with a generalisation of the reference stress concept. Conventionally, and for steady loading, the limit load reference stress is the lowest yield stress for which the structure does not collapse. For cyclic loading two definitions are available. The more conservative is the lowest yield stress for which the structure shakes down (behaves elastically). The less conservative is the lowest yield stress for which the structure does not ratchet. They have different meanings and uses. Explaining and justifying the use of cyclic reference stresses to bound creep and rupture is the objective of Part 1. Part 2 gives examples illustrating a range of structural behaviours. The methodology of these papers involves so-called approximate methods at one level, that of inferring limiting or conservative time-dependent behaviour from time-independent elastic–plastic cyclic analyses. The elastic–plastic cyclic analyses themselves are straightforward if tedious. Some ideas and a new analysis technique are available to reduce the trial-and-error.