Book excerpt: The principal aim of this text is to encourage the development and application of numerical modelling techniques as an aid to achieving greater efficiency and optimization of metal-forming processes. The contents of this book have therefore been carefully planned to provide both an introduction to the fundamental theory of material deformation simulation, and also a comprehensive survey of the "state-of-the-art" of deformation modelling techniques and their application to specific and industrially relevant processes. To this end, leading international figures in the field of material deformation research have been invited to contribute chapters on subjects on which they are acknowledged experts. The information in this book has been arranged in four parts: Part I deals with plasticity theory, Part II with various numerical modelling techniques, Part III with specific process applications and material phenomena and Part IV with integrated computer systems. The objective of Part I is to establish the underlying theory of material deformation on which the following chapters can build. It begins with a chapter which reviews the basic theories of classical plasticity and describes their analytical representations. The second chapter moves on to look at the theory of deforming materials and shows how these expressions may be used in numerical techniques. The last two chapters of Part I provide a review of isotropic plasticity and anisotropic plasticity.