Constitutive Modeling of Structural Steels: Nonlinear Isotropic/Kinematic Hardening Material Model and Its Calibration

Numerical models of structural components that deteriorate primarily due to geometric instabilities under multiaxis cyclic loading are sensitive to both the assumed geometric imperfections and the nonlinear material model assumptions. Therefore, the accuracy of the constitutive model is a desirable feature in finite-element simulations. However, the classic Voce-Chaboche metal plasticity model, ubiquitous among commercial finite-element software, is found to underestimate the initial yield stress in structural steels by about 10%–30% when calibrated to minimize the overall difference in strain energy between the model and test data of load protocols representative of earthquake loading. This paper proposes a refined version of the Voce-Chaboche material model. When compared with the original model, the updated one improves the prediction of the initial yield stress, can simulate initial yield plateau behavior, and better estimates experimental cyclic stress-strain data. Constraints on the model parameters are established, a calibration procedure is developed, and model parameters are proposed for nine structural steels used worldwide. Source code for the material model is also made publicly available. A case study demonstrates that steel component behavior is sensitive to subtle differences in the material response that arise between the Voce-Chaboche and the proposed material models.