The interaction between pulse shape and strain hardening in dynamic plastic response

Abstract

The effect of pulse shape on the dynamic plastic response of a single-degree-of-freedom system with rigid-strain-hardening behavior is investigated. The duration of response and final displacement are found to depend exactly on three parameters defined in terms of simple integrals of the pulse shape and material constants. These three parameters, however, lack an obvious physical interpretation. Consequently, a second set of three parameters is proposed which approximately accounts for the effect of pulse shape on the determination of the response duration and final displacement. Two of these parameters are the amplitude and duration of an equivalent rectangular pulse which has the same area and centroid as the applied pulse. The third parameter represents the amount of strain hardening and is determined from the strain-hardening coefficient and a measure of the effective pulse length.