Hello everybody,

I have two quick questions regarding some material data and property settings in non-linear dynamic studies.

1) What is hardening factor?

I've looked around and can't seem to find out what it is or what it does! I found a thread which pointed out it may be related to work hardening, but I'd really like more of a detailed answer of what is is and what its purpose is in nonlinear dynamic simulations.

2) From what I understand, maximum incremental strain is the maximum strain that may occur between time steps during a nonlinear solve, otherwise the time step is reduced and the iteration is repeated to hopefully get a lower strain between steps. Now, this may seem like a dumb question, but is the maximum incremental strain based off engineering strain? i.e (L - Lo)/Lo where L is the stretched length, and Lo is the initial length? Or is it based off logarithmic strain? (Which I don't understand entirely). If anything I'd just like some clarification on how maximum incremental strain works in the nonlinear dynamic simulations. Also, I'd love to know whether increasing its value would be considered a bad idea or not. (i.e leads to poor results).

Thank you for your time!