Inversion of a full-range stress-strain relation for stainless steel alloys

This paper presents an approximate inversion of the stress-strain relation for stainless steel alloys. Using currently available stress-strain relations based on a modified Ramberg-Osgood equation, a new expression for the stress σ as an explicit function of the total strain ε is obtained. The new expression is valid over the full-range of the stress well beyond the 0.2% proof stress σ_0.2, defined as the stress level corresponding to the plastic strain value of 0.2%. The validity of the inverted expression is tested over a wide range of material parameters. The tests show that the new expression results in stress-strain curves which are both qualitatively and quantitatively consistent with the fully iterated numerical solution of the full-range stress-strain relation.