Transient Solutions for One-Dimensional Problems With Strain Softening

Abstract

Closed-form solutions are presented for the transient response of rods in which strain softening occurs and the stress-strain laws exhibit nonvanishing stresses after the strain-softening regime. It is found that the appearance of any strain softening results in an infinite strain rate if the material is inviscid. For a stress-strain law with a monotonically decreasing stress the strains are infinite also. If the stress increases after the strain-softening portion, the strains remain finite and the strain-softening point moves through the rod.