Basic conditions for material and structural ratcheting

This paper is intended to provide an overview of different aspects of ratcheting under cyclic loading below the creep range. It distinguishes between material ratcheting and structural ratcheting, each being characterized by several different phenomena which appear in different configurations of materials, states of stress, structural geometries and loadings. The systematic compilation of these phenomena presented in the paper may help to improve understanding between material researchers, developers of inelastic methods of analysis, structural analysts and design code committees. Above all, a certain degree of knowledge about the different mechanisms of ratcheting is important for a structural analyst to be able to choose an appropriate analytical method for assessing the ratcheting phenomena involved in a specific design problem.