Usage of the Tresca yield condition in finite element plane strain analysis

Abstract

Plastic stress-strain relations for perfectly plastic and strain-hardening materials in plane strain condition are developed for materials that obey the Tresca yield condition. A method of handling the three-dimensional yield surface by constructing a two-dimensional equivalent yield surface is described. The plastic stress-strain relations are employed to obtain elastic-plastic solutions for a notched tension specimen subjected to monotonically increasing loads. The results are compared to those previously available in the literature for the von Mises yield condition. It is shown that the stress-strain relations developed for the Tresca yield condition in plane strain can be as easily used as those of the von Mises yield condition, which have commonly been employed. The resulting solution is more conservative and safe, suggesting that it is desirable to use the Tresca yield condition in elastic-plastic analyses of metal structures in design.