Over a period of two days lectures were presented on the following topics:
- Elastoplastic material behaviour
- Response of structures and solid continua
- Load carrying capacity of perfectly plastic systems
- Theory of shakedown
- Computational methods of elastoplastic analysis
- Extended topics of inelastic description
The course started with the fundamentals of elastoplastic material behaviour and the corresponding mathematical description. Based on this, the elastoplastic response of structures and solid continua were discussed, and basic methods of analysis were presented. Possible simplifications for problems with reduced dimensionality were described. The load carrying capacity of plastic systems was outlined along with methods offering approximate solutions based on the limit load theorems. The issue of varying time, alternating loading was then considered within the context of shakedown theory, examining the tendency to elastic response of the system as a result of early stage plastic flow.
Computational methods of elastoplastic analysis was developed on the grounds of the finite element approach. This comprised direct and iterative solution techniques referring to an incrementation of the loading process. Apart from the finite element systematics, particular topics of interest comprised the convergence of the iteration to the solution, and the incrementation of the material constitutive relations that raise the issue of numerical stability.
Elastoplastic description and the ensuing computational algorithms was extended to other inelastic applications including variable temperature, creep, viscoplasticity, porous solids, soil materials and dynamics.
Prof Ioannis Doltsinis has the Venia Legendi at the University of Stuttgart. His current teaching assignments comprise advanced courses in Elastoplastic Structures, and Stochastic Analysis and Optimization in the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering where he acts also as the Studies Advisor. He has been Deputy Director of the Institute for Computer Applications at Stuttgart University, leader of several scientific sections and research projects, Visiting Professor at the University of Trento, Scientific Advisor for numerous research foundations at national and international level.
Prof Doltsinis has been working on the development of computer methods in the field of nonlinear mechanics of solids and fluids from the very beginning. He has performed and directed research with achievements in the fields of Elastoplastic Structures, Nonlinear Fracture Mechanics, Wide-span Lightweight Structures, Thermomechanics of Inelastic Solids, Material Deformation Processes, Strength of Ceramic Materials, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Re-entry Aerodynamics, Stochastic Mechanics. He is author of numerous papers published in professional journals, editor of thematic scientific publications and author of the books: Elements of Plasticity – Theory and Computation, and Large Deformation Processes of Solids – From Fundamentals to Numerical Simulation and Engineering Applications published by WIT Press.
Wessex Institute