Estimation of compressive behavior of circular 2D components beyond elastic limit

Abstract

The rounded components with circular geometry comprises large fraction of the mechanical elements, the behavior of which has been explored in the context of contact mechanics. The initial connection of such geometries with the external object is typically a point, where extreme amount of the stress is generated. Hence it is inevitable for them to arrive into the plastic regime due to stress-concentration, however they do not fail immediately, since their large fraction still remains in elastic regime. Thus component expresses partially-elastic, partially-plastic behavior. In this work, starting with experimental observations of such behavior, we develop constitutive framework to quantify the formation of plastic region/fraction versus the applied strain. In parallel, we perform simulations to explore and verify the shape of the formed plastic zone and compute its relative magnitude. The developed paradigm can be used to determine the criticality of the plastic deformation, beyond the yielding limit in the rounded components, and plan the maintenance respectively.