Numerical study on patterning of shear bands in a Cosserat continuum

Abstract

Numerical simulation of patterns of shear bands in biaxial compression tests using an elasto-plastic Cosserat constitutive equation is presented. Random distribution of the material properties acts as a trigger for the localized deformation. Two types of stress-strain curves, namely strain softening and strain softening followed by strain hardening, are investigated. It is shown that the characteristic of the stress-strain curve is crucial for the patterning of shear bands. While calculations with the stress-strain curve with solely softening yield only one single shear band, a flock of shear bands can be obtained with the stress-strain curve with softening followed by hardening. Benefited from the characteristic length provided by the Cosserat elasto-plastic constitutive equation, the dependence of the calculation on the mesh-size is avoided.