Analysis of Material Response Based on Chaboche Unified Viscoplastic Constitutive Equation

Abstract

Service conditions for structures at elevated temperatures in nuclear power plant involve transient thermal and mechanical load levels that are severe enough to caeuse inelastic deformations due to creep and plasticity. Therefore, a systematic mehtod of inelastic analysis is needed for the design of structural components in nuclear poser plants subjected to such loading conditions. In the present investigation, the Chabodhe model, one of the unified viscoplastic constitutive equations, was selected for systematic inelastic analysis. The material response was integrated based on GMR ( generallized mid-point rule) time integral scheme and provided to ABAQUS as a material subroutine, UMAT program. By comparing results obtaned from uniaxial analysis using the developed UMAT program with those from Runge-Kutta solutions and experimentaiton, the validity of the adopted Chaboche model and the numerical stability and accuracy of the developed UMAT program were verified. In addition, the developed material subroutine was applied for uniaxial creep and tension analyses for the plate with a hole in the center. The application further demonstrates usefulness of the developed program.