# Defining plasticity

 You can define plasticity behavior for the available components of relative motion. For more information, see Connector plastic behavior. If you specify a plasticity behavior option, you must also specify an elasticity behavior option.
 Related Topics Connector section editors Creating connector sections Specifying potential terms In Other Guides Connector plastic behavior
1. Display the connector section editor using one of the following methods:

• To create a new connector section, follow the procedure outlined in Creating connector sections.

• To edit an existing connector section, select ConnectorSectionManager from the main menu bar, select the connector section from the list that appears, and click .

2. In the Edit Connector Section dialog box, do one of the following:

• To define a new plasticity behavior, click and select Plasticity from the menu that appears.

• To edit an existing plasticity behavior, select the behavior from the Behavior Options list to display the associated data fields for that behavior.

3. If you are defining uncoupled plasticity behavior,

1. Choose Uncoupled in the Coupling field to specify forces/moments as a tabular function of their respective available components of relative motion.
2. In the Force/Moment field, toggle on the forces or moments that are consistent with the available components of relative motion for which you are defining plasticity behavior. If the behavior is the same for multiple components, you can define a single plasticity behavior that will use this one function. If the behavior is different for multiple components, you must define separate plasticity behaviors.

4. If you are defining coupled plasticity behavior,

1. Choose Coupled in the Coupling field.
2. Select the Force Potential tabbed page, and define at least one force potential term. For more information, see Specifying potential terms.

5. Select the hardening behavior.

• Toggle on Specify isotropic hardening to define the initial yield value and, optionally, the evolution of the yield surface size, $F0$, as a function of the equivalent plastic relative motion, $u¯p⁢l$.

• Toggle on Specify kinematic hardening to define the translation of the yield surface in force space through the backforce, $α$.

At least one hardening behavior, isotropic or kinematic, must be defined. You can select both types of hardening to define a combined isotropic/kinematic hardening behavior.

6. If you toggled on Specify isotropic hardening:

1. Select the Isotropic Hardening tabbed page.
2. Choose the Definition.

• Choose Tabular to specify the force-constitutive motion data directly in tabular form.

• Choose Exponential Law to specify the material parameters of the exponential law used to calculate the equivalent force defining the size of the yield surface.

7. If you toggled on Specify kinematic hardening:

1. Select the Kinematic Hardening tabbed page.
2. Choose the Definition.

• Choose Half-cycle to specify the force-constitutive motion data obtained from the first half cycle of a unidirectional tension or compression experiment.

• Choose Stabilized to specify the force-constitutive motion data obtained from the stabilized cycle of a specimen that is subjected to symmetric cycles.

• Choose Parameters to specify the material parameters directly.

8. To define behavior data that depend on temperature or field variables, do the following on the Isotropic Hardening or Kinematic Hardening tabbed page:

1. Toggle on Use temperature-dependent data to define behavior data that vary with temperature. A column labeled Temp appears in the tabular data area.
2. To define behavior data that depend on field variables, click the arrows to the right of the Number of field variables field to increase or decrease the number of field variables. Field variable columns appear in the tabular data area.

9. Enter plastic hardening data in the tables on the Isotropic Hardening and/or Kinematic Hardening tabbed pages. You can enter data into the tables using the keyboard. Alternatively, you can click mouse button 3 anywhere in the tables to view a list of options for specifying tabular data. For detailed information on each option, see Entering tabular data.

10. To modify the behavior settings for the regularization (Abaqus/Explicit analyses only) or the extrapolation of the data, use the procedure described in Specifying behavior settings for tabular data. For an Abaqus/Explicit analysis that includes isotropic hardening using a Tabular definition, you can also specify settings for the evaluation of rate-dependent data.

11. Select one of the following:

• If you want to continue defining behaviors, click Add, select the desired behavior, and continue the connector section definition. For instructions on defining other behaviors, see Using the connector section editors.

• If you want to view or edit an existing behavior, select it from the Behavior Options list. For instructions on editing behaviors, see Using the connector section editors.

• If you want to save your connector section definition and exit the editor, click .