The Incremental Strain Growth of Elastic-Plastic Bodies Subjected to High Levels of Cyclic Thermal Loading

A linearized method of analysis proposed in an accompanying paper [1] is used to obtain the ratchet rate for two types of thermal loading problems where parts of the structure experience reversed plastic straining. For structures that can shakedown plasticially it is found that for a given increment of load beyond the plastic shakedown boundary, the rate of ratchet increases with increasing level of thermal loading. When a structure is unable to shakedown plastically it ratchets at low mechanical loading as the result of a localized mechanism that involves some reversed plasticity. It is shown that the ratchet rate in such situations can be substantial but its value is very dependent on the local curvature of the yield and not the accuracy of the yield surface itself.