AbstractPerfectly elastoplastic constitutive model is modified through a smoothing factor introduced by Liu [Liu, C.-S., 2003. Smoothing elastoplastic stress–strain curves obtained by a critical modification of conventional models. Int. J. Solids Struct. 40, 2121–2145]. The new model allows plasticity to happen in a non-zero-measure yield volume in stress space, rather than that of conventional zero-measure yield surface, and within the yield volume the plastic modulus is varying continuously. It endows a specific strain-hardening rule of flow stress and is able to describe the phenomena of strain hardening, cyclic hardening, the Bauschinger effect, mean-stress relaxation, strain ratcheting, out-of-phase hardening, as well as erasure-of-memory. In order to suppress the over prediction of ratcheting we consider a scalar function of smoothing factor, which can simulate the saturation behavior of uniaxial/multiaxial strain ratcheting. These effects are demonstrated through numerical examples. The existence of stress equilibrium point and limiting surface is a natural result without requiring an extra design. Moreover, the non-linear constitutive equations can be converted into a linear system for augmented stress in the Minkowski space, of which the symmetry group is a proper orthochronous Lorentz group SOo(5,1). The augmented stress is a time-like vector, moving on hyperboloids inside the cone. When taking the Prager kinematic hardening rule into account we can simulate some cyclic behaviors of SAE 4340 and grade 60 steels within a certain accuracy through the use of only three material constants and a fixed smoothing factor. To simulate the ratcheting behaviors of SS304 stainless steel we allow the smoothing factor to be an exponential decaying function of λ.