Variable Material Properties Approach: A Review on Twenty Years of Progress

Abstract

This paper provides a critical review of the advancements made in the application of the variable material properties (VMP) method over the past two decades. The VMP method was originally proposed in 1997 (Jahed and Dubey, 1997, ASME J. Pressure Vessel Technol., 119(3), pp. 264–273; Jahed et al., 1997, Int. J. Pressure Vessels Piping, 71(3), pp. 285–291) and further developed in 2001 (Parker, 2001, ASME J. Pressure Vessel Technol., 123(3), p. 271) as an elastoplastic method for the analysis of axisymmetric problems. The model was originally developed as a boundary value problem to predict the spatial distribution of stress. However, since 1997, it has been extended to include thermal effects to solve thermomechanical residual stresses; time domain to solve creep of disks and cylinders; finite deformation to solve cylinders under large strains; numerical solutions to make them more efficient; and asymmetric hardening behavior to accommodate nonslip deformation modes. These advancements, made over the past 20 years, are reviewed in this paper, and future trends and frontiers are discussed.