Title: Arbitrary order 2D virtual elements for polygonal meshes: Part II, inelastic problem,
Abstract: The present paper is the second part of a twofold work, whose first part is
reported in [3], concerning a newly developed Virtual Element Method (VEM) for
2D continuum problems. The first part of the work proposed a study for linear
elastic problem. The aim of this part is to explore the features of the VEM
formulation when material nonlinearity is considered, showing that the accuracy
and easiness of implementation discovered in the analysis inherent to the first
part of the work are still retained. Three different nonlinear constitutive
laws are considered in the VEM formulation. In particular, the generalized
viscoplastic model, the classical Mises plasticity with isotropic/kinematic
hardening and a shape memory alloy (SMA) constitutive law are implemented. The
versatility with respect to all the considered nonlinear material constitutive
laws is demonstrated through several numerical examples, also remarking that
the proposed 2D VEM formulation can be straightforwardly implemented as in a
standard nonlinear structural finite element method (FEM) framework.