A deep learning energy-based method for classical elastoplasticity

The deep energy method (DEM) has been used to solve the elastic deformation of structures with linear elasticity, hyperelasticity, and strain-gradient elasticity material models based on the principle of minimum potential energy. In this work, we extend DEM to elastoplasticity problems involving path dependence and irreversibility. A loss function inspired by the discrete variational formulation of plasticity is proposed. The radial return algorithm is coupled with DEM to update the plastic internal state variables without violating the Kuhn–Tucker consistency conditions. Finite element shape functions and their gradients are used to approximate the spatial gradients of the DEM-predicted displacements, and Gauss quadrature is used to integrate the loss function. Four numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the use of the framework, such as generating stress–strain curves in cyclic loading, material heterogeneity, performance comparison with other physics-informed methods, and simulation/inference on unstructured meshes. In all cases, the DEM solution shows decent accuracy compared to the reference solution obtained from the finite element method. The current DEM model marks the first time that energy-based physics-informed neural networks are extended to plasticity, and offers promising potential to effectively solve elastoplasticity problems from scratch using deep neural networks.