Multiaxial ratcheting-fatigue evaluation of pressurized elbow pipe under strong cyclic loading using damage-coupled cyclic plasticity model

Continuous damage mechanics (CDM) is based on the theories of continuous medium mechanics and continuous medium thermodynamics, which considers damage is an irreversible dissipative process within the materials, and employs the field-theoretic approach of image-only science to study the internal macroscopic damage evolution law of the materials and its influence on the deterioration of the macroscopic mechanical properties of the materials. Hence, within the framework of CDM, a damage-coupled cyclic plasticity constitutive model is proposed based on combined isotropic and Chen-Jiao-Kim (CJK) kinematic hardening rule for evaluating the ratcheting-fatigue behavior of 90° elbow pipes under strong cyclic loading in this paper. Stress return mapping and numerical solution procedures of the proposed model are formulated based on the backward finite difference method. Formulation of the consistent tangent operator is presented for the Finite Element implementation of the plasticity model in ABAQUS UMAT. The FE analysis of non-pressurized and pressurized elbow pipes under cyclic displacement-controlled loading is respectively performed using the implemented constitutive model. The results reveal that the predicted results of the damage-coupled cyclic plasticity constitutive model are better than combined isotropic-kinematic hardening model, and well consistent with the experimental data.