2.3.

Plasticity, Hysteresis, Bauschinger Effects

After steel has been stressed beyond its elastic limit and into the plastic range, a number of phenomena can be observed during
repeated unloading, reloading, and stress reversal. First, unloading to σ = 0 and reloading to the previously attained maximum
stress level will be elastic with a stiffness equal to the original stiffness, E, as shown in Figure 2.10. Then, as also shown, upon
stress reversal (to σ = − σy ), a sharp "corner" in the stress-strain curve is not found at the onset of yielding; instead, stiffness
softening occurs gradually with yielding initiating earlier than otherwise predicted. This behavior, known as the Bauschinger
effect, is a natural property of steel—its cause is explained in the next section. If the stress reversal is initiated prior to
attainment of the strain-hardening range when the steel is loaded in one direction, a yield plateau will eventually be found in the
reversed loading direction as shown in Figure 2.10a. However, once the strain-hardening range has been entered in one loading
direction, the yield plateau effectively disappears in both loading directions (Figure 2.10b).

Figure 2.10 Cyclic stress-strain relationship of structural steel.

A most important property of steels subjected to large cyclic inelastic loading is their ability to dissipate hysteretic energy. The
energy needed to plastically elongate or shorten a steel specimen can be calculated as the product of the plastic force times
the plastic displacement (i.e., the work done in the plastic range) and is called the hysteretic energy. Unlike kinetic and strain
energy, hysteretic energy is a nonrecoverable dissipated energy. As shown in Figure 2.11a, under a progressively increasing
loading, followed by subsequent unloading, the hysteretic energy, EH, can be expressed as:

EH = PY (δMAX − δY )

(2.6)

that is, the shaded area in this figure. For a full cycle of load reversal, the hysteretic energy will simply be the area enclosed by
the loop of the force-displacement curve, as shown in Figure 2.11b, and approximately expressed as:

EH ≅ PY [δMAX − δY ) + (δMAX − δMIN − 2δY )]

(2.7)

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 Figure 2.11 Hysteretic energy of structural steel: (a) half cycle and (b) full cycle.

A more accurate calculation of hysteretic energy in this case would recognize the small loss of hysteretic energy at the rounded
corners of the force-displacement curve due to the Bauschinger effect.

Under repeated cycles of loading, the energy dissipated in each cycle is simply summed to calculate the total energy dissipated.
This cumulative energy dissipation capacity is a most important property that makes possible the survival of steel structures to
rare but rather severe loading conditions, such as blast loading or earthquake loading.

Within the framework of this book, the above description of inelastic cyclic behavior is certainly adequate. However, it is
noteworthy that a few additional minor phenomena also develop as steel undergoes numerous cycles of severe hysteretic
behavior. For example, the threshold beyond which strain-hardening starts to develop, as well as the extent of the elastic range
prior to onset of the Bauschinger effect, is a function of the prior plastic loading history. Mizuno et al. (1992), Dafalias (1992),
and Lee et al. (1992) provide a good overview of these phenomena and progress on the development of constitutive
relationships that can capture the complex behavior of structural steels subjected to arbitrary cyclic loading histories.

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