JOURNAL OF
SOUND AND
VIBRATION
Journal of Sound and Vibration 322 (2009) 954–968
A Bouc–Wen model compatible with plasticity postulates
A.E. Charalampakis, V.K. Koumousis
National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Received 20 April 2008; received in revised form 7 November 2008; accepted 12 November 2008
Handling Editor: C.L. Morfey
Available online 8 January 2009
Abstract
The versatile Bouc–Wen model has been used extensively to describe hysteretic phenomena in various fields of
engineering. Nevertheless, it is known that it exhibits displacement drift, force relaxation and nonclosure of hysteretic
loops when subjected to short unloading–reloading paths. Consequently, it locally violates Drucker’s or Ilyushin’s
postulate of plasticity. In this study, an effective modification of the model is proposed which eliminates these problems.
A stiffening factor is introduced into the hysteretic differential equation which enables the distinction between virgin
loading and reloading. Appropriate reversal points are utilized effectively to guide the entire process. It is shown that the
proposed modification corrects the nonphysical behavior of the model under short unloading–reloading paths without
affecting its response in all other cases. It is further demonstrated that the original and modified model exhibit significantly
different response under seismic excitation.
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1. Introduction
The Bouc–Wen model is a smooth phenomenological model that is often used to descri be hysteretic
phenomena. It was introduced by Bouc [1] and further extended by Wen [2], who investigated the random
vibration of hysteretic systems. Although developed independently, it belongs to the class of endochronic
models, first introduced by Valanis [3], which use the notion of intrinsic time to describe the inelastic behavior
of materials.
The Bouc–Wen model has been employed successfully in many areas of engineering. Nevertheless, it is
known that it suffers from displacement drift, force relaxation and nonclosure of hysteretic loops when
subjected to short unloading–reloading paths. As a result, it locally violates Drucker’s [4] or Ilyushin’s [5]
postulate of plasticity. Drucker’s postulate states that the work done by an external added stress over a closed
stress loop is nonnegative, while Ilyushin’s postulate states that the total work done over a closed strain loop is
nonnegative. These postulates are of paramount importance in classical elastoplasticity as they imply the
normality rule for the plastic strain rate and the convexity of the yield surface in stress space. Ilyushin’s
postulate is less restrictive and characterizes the behavior of a very large class of materials, while resulting in
the same consequences as Drucker’s [6].
ARTICLE IN PRESS
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doi:10.1016/j.jsv.2008.11.017
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