Perspective on Continuum Modeling of Mesoscale/ Macroscale Phenomena

Abstract

The attempt to model or predict the inelastic response or permanent deformation and failure observed in metals dates back over 180 years. Various descriptions of the post elastic response of metals have been proposed from the fields of physics, materials science (metallurgy), engineering, mechanics, and applied mathematics. The communication between these fields has improved and many of the modeling efforts today involve concepts from most or all of these fields. Early engineering description of post yield response treated the material as perfectly plastic — the material continues to deform with zero additional increase in load. These models became the basis of the mathematical theory of plasticity and were extended to account for hardening, unloading, and directional hardening. In contradistinction, rheological models treated the finite deformation of a solid similar to the deformation of a viscous fluid. In many cases of large deformation, rheological models have provided both adequate and accurate information about the deformed shape of a metal during many manufacturing processes. The treatment of geometric defects in solid bodies initiated within the mathematical theory of elasticity, the dislocation, introduced as an incompatible “cut” in a continuum body. This resulted in a very large body of literature devoted to the linear elastic study of dislocations, dislocation structures, and their interactions, and has provided essential information in the understanding of the “state” of a deformed material.