The present study is devoted to extending Barlat’s famous yield criteria to tension–compression asymmetry by a novel method originally introduced by Khan, which can decouple the anisotropy and tension–compression asymmetry characteristics. First, Barlat (1987) isotropic yield criterion, which leads to a good approximation of yield loci calculated by the Taylor–Bishop–Hill crystal plasticity model, is extended to include yielding asymmetry. Furthermore, the famous Barlat (1989) anisotropic yield criterion, which can well describe the plastic behavior of face-centered cubic (FCC) metals, is extended to take the different strength effects into account. The proposed anisotropic yield criterion has a simple mathematical form and has only five parameters when used in planar stress states. Compared with existing theories, the new yield criterion has much fewer parameters, which makes it very convenient for practical applications. Furthermore, all coefficients of the criterion can be determined by explicit expressions. The effectiveness and flexibility of the new yield criterion have been verified by applying to different materials. Results show that the proposed theory can describe the plastic anisotropy and yielding asymmetry of metals well and the transformation onset of the shape memory alloy, showing excellent predictive ability and flexibility.

Solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) have emerged as a promising technology for efficient energy storage and CO₂ utilization via H₂O–CO₂ co-electrolysis. While most previous studies focused on planar or tubular configurations, this work investigated a novel flat, tubular SOEC design using a comprehensive 3D multi-physics model developed in COMSOL Multiphysics 5.6. This model integrates charge transfer, gas flow, heat transfer, chemical/electrochemical reactions, and structural mechanics to analyze operational behavior and thermo-mechanical stress under different voltages and pressures. Simulation results indicate that increasing operating voltage leads to significant temperature and current density inhomogeneity. Furthermore, elevated pressure improves electrochemical performance, possibly due to increased reactant concentrations and reduced mass transfer limitations; however, it also increases temperature gradients and the maximum first principal stress. These findings underscore that the design and optimization of flat tubular SOECs in H₂O–CO₂ co-electrolysis should take the trade-off between performance and durability into consideration.

A large number of criteria to model the onset of plasticity for ductile metals have been proposed by researchers in the last century. Strangely, very few researchers have tried to model the stress-induced crystalline phase transformation of Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) according to yield criteria. This paper focuses on the question: is a yield criterion originally proposed for describing the plastic behavior of metals suitable to model the “pseudoelastic” behavior of SMAs? To answer this question, two yield criteria originally proposed by the present author are used to predict the initial surface of transformation onset of two different SMAs: Cu-Al-Be and Ni-Ti alloy. The predicted initial transformation onset surfaces of the two SMAs are compared with experimental results and existing theories reported in the literature and some significant conclusions and recommendations are given.