A rate-consistent and intrinsically path-dependent incremental method for plastic buckling problems

This paper presents an incremental predictor}corrector method which is able to handle the continuous spreading of elastic unloading and, therefore, is particularly well suited to solve plastic bucking problems. The method, which deals explicitly with rate variables and equations, is (i) rate consistent, because it leads to the &trueʹ tangent matrix, and (ii) intrinsically path-dependent, because it enables an adequate identi"cation and characterization of the onset of elastic unloading within each incremental step.