On the Thermodynamics of Rate-Independent Elastoplastic Materials

Abstract

Rate-independent material behavior is characterized by hysteresis effects, which do not depend on the rate of cyclic processes. In this case, infinitely slow thermodynamic processes cannot be interpreted to be reversible in the sense of classical thermodynamics. In spite of this well known fact, which has already been noticed by Carathlodory [1], it turns out, that it is possible to model a quasistatic hysteresis behavior as a. sequence of equilibrium states. However, as a basic difference to thermoviscoelasticity in the sense of Coleman and Gurtin [2], the stability properties of the equilibrium states change in dependence of the applied straining process.