The Assessment of strain accumulation due to nonlinear events like creep, plasticity or ratcheting phenomenon has gained importance, since it causes an increase in creep and fatigue damage of materials. Some factors like the magnitude of loading, constitutive equations or the elastic regions around the nonlinear events have effect on the rate of strain accumulation. The elastic follow-up can explain the mechanism of strain accumulation. This phenomenon may occur when a mechanical structure with elastic manner is connected to non-linear events and they are subjected to a displacement load. In these cases, the high rigidity portion of elastic region of mechanical structure may enhance the force to the regions with low rigidity. So in the local non-linear portion, the strain is accumulated. This phenomenon is proposed as an important instruction in mechanical assessment codes. In this study, the effects of Elastic Follow-up phenomenon on strain accumulation due to elastic-plastic and local creep are investigated. So the Elastic Follow-up parameter is defined by the methods which are described in high temperature assessment procedures (R5). The results revealed that the strain accumulation depends on the elastic region in structures which is described by the Elastic Follow-up phenomenon.

Keywords: Elastic Follow-up, Strain Accumulation, Load Control Loading, Displacement Control Loading, Stiffness, creep

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