Abstract
A brief note on a finite element formulation for the transient analysis of viscoplastic solids is presented. Attention is confined to small strains in the present discussion and the emphasis is on stress wave propagation problems. The algorithm is based on straightforward explicit integration of both the equations of motion and the plastic rate equations. The explicit central difference method, is used for integration of the equation of motion. The stress update is accomplished by means of a forward gradient scheme based on an estimate of the plastic flow over a time increment. A number of simple numerical examples are presented to illustrate the method.