BOUNDARY EFFECTS IN ELASTOPLASTIC COSSERAT CONTINUA

The argument of discontinuous bifurcation is normally formulated for d etecting spatial discontinuities in the interior of an infinite soluti on domain. This paper expands localization analysis to a finite domain in which the translatory notion of classical continua is enriched by independent microrotations in the spirit of Cosserat continua. The bif urcation condition for the interior is augmented by complementing cond itions at the boundaries and at material interfaces. In analogy to the equivalent propagation argument for Rayleigh surface waves and Stonel ey waves within the traditional format of elasto-plasticity (see Needl eman, A. and Ortiz, M. (1991). Effect of boundaries and interfaces on shear-band localization. Int. J. Solids Struct. 28, 859-877) the curre nt study develops the complementing propagation conditions for the mic ropolar Cosserat description of elasto-plasticity. To this end, their singularities are examined in terms of stationary Rayleigh surface wav es and Stoneley waves at interior interfaces. (C) 1997 Elsevier Scienc e Ltd. All rights reserved.