This book brings together, in sixteen chapters, those elements of the mechanics of plasticity most pertinent to engineers. A textbook style has been adopted in which worked examples and exercises illustrate the application of the theoretical material. The latter is provided with appropriate references to journals and other published sources. An appendix contains worked examples to selected exercises.The presentation of the introductory material, the theoretical developments and the use of appropriate experimental data appear within the first four chapters. Therein, appear the classical incremental flow and total deformation theories of plasticity. Comparisons with experimental results are able to discriminate between the two theories. Other fundamental studies of plasticity covered in later chapters include crystal plasticity and viscous behaviour of metallic solids. The intention there in chapters 8 and 11 is to reconcile micro and macro behaviour and to give an account of the time-dependence of deformation. The latter identifies creep strain as an adjunct to more recent plasticity theory where the classical approaches are known to be deficient. The remaining chapters are concerned mainly with applications of plasticity theory and the simplifications that these involve. Useful applications are given with and without work hardening for elastic-plasticity and with an absence of elasticity altogether in the case of a plastic-rigid solid. The topics within which these appear include structures, slip-line fields and finite elements for metal forming, stress waves in bars and plastic instability.The package of topics presented here is broader than other monographs on the theory of plasticity. The unique blend of contents is intended to support syllabuses across a diversity of undergraduate and postgraduate courses including manufacturing, engineering mechanics, strength of materials and applied mathematics.
