A finite strain gradient theory for viscoplasticity by means of micromorphic regularization

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Stretching of polycarbonate films leads to the formation of shear bands in the necking zone [1]. Standard viscoplastic material models render mesh size dependent results, which requires a mathematical regularization. To this end, we present a finite strain gradient theory for a viscoplastic, isotropic material model where we extend the model presented in [2] to a micromorphic model by introducing a new micromorphic variable as an additional degree of freedom with its first gradient [3, 4]. The variable here has the meaning of a micro plastic strain, and is coupled with the macro plastic by a micro penalty term, forcing the macro‐plastic strain to be close to the micro‐plastic strain for the targeted shear band regularization effect. We have implemented the model equations as a three dimensional initial boundary value problem in an in house FE‐tool, to simulate different geometries with different thickness and to compare it the experimental tests. The analysis is performed for a uniaxial tensile geometry as well as for a biaxial tensile geometry. The numerical examples show the ability of the model to regularize the shear bands and solve the problem of localization.</jats:p>