An equivalent strain rule for elastic-plastic notch fields under triaxial stress constraint

In this paper, a theoretical study is carried out for a typical notch problem, a plate having a circular hole under biaxial tension and triaxial stress constraint in strain hardening materials, in order to reveal the natural characters of the notch stress-strain fields. Based the theoretical solution a strain equivalent rule is proposed by which the elastic-plastic strain field can be obtained from the corresponding linear elastic field just by a simple variable replacement. Validation against theoretical analyses for various combinations of materials, triaxial stress constraints and load levels, and numerical calculations for different notch configuration confirms the advantage of the present method over the previous ones.