A variable stiffness method for creep analysis is presented that utilizes a strain-hardening theory of creep and an implicit time-marching scheme. The formulation makes use of the change in stress and accumulated creep strain during a time interval to determine the corresponding creep strain increment. The method is well suited for use in formulations of elastic-plastic-creep and large displacement, small strain analysis. Applications are presented to demonstrate that this implicit method offers numerical stability using relatively large time steps for which the conventional explicit scheme fails to function.
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