Engineering Books: PLASTICITY THEORY

PLASTICITY THEORY

When I first began to plan this book, I thought that I would begin the preface
with the words “The purpose of this little book is...” While I never lost my
belief that small is beautiful, I discovered that it is impossible to put together
a treatment of a field as vast as plasticity theory between the covers of a
truly “little” book and still hope that it will be reasonably comprehensive.
I have long felt that a modern book on the subject — one that would be

useful as a primary reference and, more importantly, as a textbook in a grad-
uate course (such as the one that my colleague Jim Kelly and I have been

teaching) — should incorporate modern treatments of constitutive theory

(including thermodynamics and internal variables), large-deformation plas-
ticity, and dynamic plasticity. By no coincidence, it is precisely these topics

— rather than the traditional study of elastic-plastic boundary-value prob-
lems, slip-line theory and limit analysis — that have been the subject of

my own research in plasticity theory.

I found it quite frustrating that no book in print came even close to
adequately covering all these topics. Out of necessity, I began to prepare
class notes to supplement readings from various available sources. With
the aid of contemporary word-processing technology, the class notes came
to resemble book chapters, prompting some students and colleagues to ask,
“Why don’t you write a book?” It was these queries that gave me the
idea of composing a “little” book that would discuss both the topics that
are omitted from most extant books and, for the sake of completeness, the
conventional topics as well.

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