Template elastic‐plastic computations in geomechanics

In this paper we present a new approach to computations in elasto‐plastic geomechanics. The approach is based on the object oriented design philosophy and observations on similarity of most incremental elastic–plastic material models. This new approach to elastic–plastic computations in geomechanics allows for creation of template material models. The analysis of template material models will in turn allow for an easy implementation of other elastic–plastic material models based on the object oriented design principles. Furthermore we present some illustrative implementation details. Finally we present analysis results that emphasize features of template elastic–plastic computations in geomechanics. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.