ABSTRACT
At each stage of softening, one can find two solution paths for the load increment: (1) the softening band grows symmetrically, being two elements wide, and (2) the softening extends asymmetrically in only one row of elements while the adjacent elements start unloading. The states obtained in each of these solutions are stable if the loading is displacement controlled, as has been checked from the condition d2W (a) = Min (Eq. 8).
