Experimental and numerical investigation of combined isotropic-kinematic hardening behavior of sheet metals

To prevent a sheet specimen from buckling subjected to a tension-compression cyclic loading, a new fixture has been developed to use with a regular tensile-compression machine. The novelty of this device lies in 4-block wedge design with pre-loaded springs. This design allows blocks to freely move in the vertical direction while providing the normal support to the entire length of the specimen during the tension-compression cycle. The entire test is easy to setup, which is another advantage of this design. In order to measure the strain accurately, the transmission type laser extensometer was utilized together with the implementation of double-side fins in the specimen. Experimental results of tension-compression tests are presented followed by a review of existing testing methods. In order to describe the accurate cyclic tension-compression behavior, the combined isotropic-kinematic hardening law based on the modified Chaboche model and the practical two-surface model based on Dafalias-Popov and Krieg models have been modified in this work, considering the permanent softening behavior during reverse loading and the non-symmetric behavior during reloading. Through tension-compression tests, the material characterization has been performed for three base materials, BH180, DP600 steels and AA6111-T4 sheets.     

A simple isotropic-distortional hardening model and its application in elastic–plastic analysis of localized necking in orthotropic sheet metals

In the present work an elastic–plastic constitutive model including mixed isotropic-distortional hardening is presented. The approach is very simple and requires only experimental data that are part of the standard characterization of sheet metals. It is shown that the distortional hardening contribution can be of considerable importance for localized necking prediction in orthotropic sheet metals.     

A novel quadratic yield model to describe the feature of multi-yield-surface of rolled sheet metals

Since Hill’s quadratic yield model [Hill, R., 1948. A theory of the yielding and plastic flow of anisotropic metals. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A193, 281–297] cannot address enough experimental results for fairly describing the “anomalous” yield behavior as observed in some of rolled sheet metals, a new quadratic yield model is proposed. As the concept of multiple yielding systems is introduced into the new quadratic yield model, seven commonly used experimental results, three uniaxial tension stresses, one equibiaxial tension stress and three strain ratios, can all be taken into account for characterizing the anisotropy of rolled sheet metals. If more experimental results are extra needed for further improving the prediction, this yield model is still workable. As the experimental parameters are defined as functions of loading direction of corresponding test separately from the major part of yield model, the increase of experimental results regarding the same test does not vary the quadratic form of yield model. The representation of this yield model with axes of principal stresses demonstrates the similar form to Hill’s quadratic model. Therefore, many previous studies developed from Hill’s quadratic yield model can be directly upgraded by the new model to reach a higher accurate level.     

Anisotropic hardening and non-associated flow in proportional loading of sheet metals

Conventional isotropic hardening models constrain the shape of the yield function to remain fixed throughout plastic deformation. However, experiments show that hardening is only approximately isotropic under conditions of proportional loading, giving rise to systematic errors in calculation of stresses based on models that impose the constraint. Five different material data for aluminum and stainless steel alloys are used to calibrate and evaluate five material models, ranging in complexity from a von Mises’ model based on isotropic hardening to a non- associated flow rule (AFR) model based on anisotropic hardening. A new model is described in which four stress–strain functions are explicitly integrated into the yield criterion in closed form definition of the yield condition. The model is based on a non-AFR so that this integration does not affect the accuracy of the plastic strain components defined by the gradient of a separate plastic potential function. The model not only enables the elimination of systematic errors for loading along the four loading conditions, but also leads to a significant reduction of systematic errors in other loading conditions to no higher than 1.5% of the magnitude of the predicted stresses, far less that errors obtained under isotropic hardening, and at a level comparable to experimental uncertainty in the stress measurement. The model is expected to lead to a significant improvement in stress prediction under conditions dominated by proportional loading, and this is expected to directly improve the accuracy of springback, tearing, and earing predictions for these processes. In addition, it is shown that there is no consequence on MK necking localization due to the saturation of the yield surface in pure shear that occurs with the aluminum alloys using the present model.     

Anisotropic work hardening of steel sheets under plane stress

This work is a follow-up of the previous report by Kim and Yin [Kim, K.H., Yin, J.J., 1997. Evolution of anisotropy under plane stress. J. Mech. Phys. Solids 45, 841–851] regarding the anisotropic work hardening of cold rolled steel sheets. Tensile prestrain has been applied at angles to the rolling direction and then tensile uniaxial yield stress and R-value distributions are measured. As reported earlier, the orientations of local maxima and minima in the yield stress are altered when the prestrain axis is not in the rolling direction. This led Kim and Yin [Kim and Yin (1997)] to suggest that the orientations of orthotropy axes are altered by the tensile prestrain at angles to the rolling direction. However, R-value distribution is found to be hardly affected by the prestrain. The unchanging R-value distribution shows that the material remembers the rolling direction even after the prestrain. An attempt is made to approximate the observed yield and flow behavior based upon isotropic-kinematic hardening with the quadratic yield function (Hill, 1948). The degree of approximation raises the issues of yield point definition, flexibility of yield function, non-associated flow rules, distortional hardening and others.     

Numerical analysis of diffuse and localized necking in orthotropic sheet metals

In the present paper the diffuse and localized necking models according to Swift [Swift, H.W., 1952. Plastic instability under plane stress, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 11–18], Hill [Hill, R., 1952. On discontinuous plastic states, with special reference to localized necking in thin sheets. Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids 1, 19–30] and Marciniak and Kuczyński [Marciniak, Z., Kuczyński, K., 1967. Limit strains in the process of stretch-forming sheet metal. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 9, 609–620], respectively, are considered. A theoretical framework for the mentioned models is proposed that covers rigid–plastic as well as elastic–plastic constitutive modelling using various advanced phenomenological yield functions that are able to account very accurately for plastic anisotropy. The mentioned necking models are applied to different orthotropic sheet metals in order to assess their predictive capabilities and to stress out some potential sources for discrepancies between simulations and experiments. In particular, the impact of the applied hardening curve and the equibiaxial r-value, which was recently introduced by Barlat [Barlat, F., Brem, J.C., Yoon, J.W., Chung, K., Dick, R.E., Choi, S.-H., Pourboghrat, F., Chu, E., Lege, D.J., 2003. Plane stress yield function for aluminium alloy sheets – part 1: theory. International Journal of Plasticity 19, 297–1319], on formability prediction is investigated. Furthermore, the impact of the Portevin–LeChatelier effect on the formability of aluminum sheet metals is discussed.     

Constitutive modeling of orthotropic sheet metals by presenting hardening-induced anisotropy

An essential work on the constitutive modeling of rolled sheet metals is the consideration of hardening-induced anisotropy. In engineering applications, we often use testing results of four specified experiments, three uniaxial-tensions in rolling, transverse and diagonal directions and one equibiaxial-tension, to describe the anisotropic features of rolled sheet metals. In order to completely take all these experimental results, including stress-components and strain-ratios, into account in the constitutive modeling for presenting hardening-induced anisotropy, an appropriate yield model is developed. This yield model can be characterized experimentally from the offset of material yield to the end of material hardening. Since this adaptive yield model can directly represent any subsequent yielding state of rolled sheet metals without the need of an artificially defined “effective stress”, it makes the constitutive modeling simpler, clearer and more physics-based. This proposed yield model is convex from the initial yield state till the end of strain-hardening and is well-suited in implementation of finite element programs.     

A non-associated constitutive model with mixed iso-kinematic hardening for finite element simulation of sheet metal forming

In this paper an anisotropic material model based on non-associated flow rule and mixed isotropic–kinematic hardening was developed and implemented into a user-defined material (UMAT) subroutine for the commercial finite element code ABAQUS. Both yield function and plastic potential were defined in the form of Hill’s [Hill, R., 1948. A theory of the yielding and plastic flow of anisotropic metals. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 193, 281–297] quadratic anisotropic function, where the coefficients for the yield function were determined from the yield stresses in different material orientations, and those of the plastic potential were determined from the r-values in different directions. Isotropic hardening follows a nonlinear behavior, generally in the power law form for most grades of steel and the exponential law form for aluminum alloys. Also, a kinematic hardening law was implemented to account for cyclic loading effects. The evolution of the backstress tensor was modeled based on the nonlinear kinematic hardening theory (Armstrong–Frederick formulation). Computational plasticity equations were then formulated by using a return-mapping algorithm to integrate the stress over each time increment. Either explicit or implicit time integration schemes can be used for this model. Finally, the implemented material model was utilized to simulate two sheet metal forming processes: the cup drawing of AA2090-T3, and the springback of the channel drawing of two sheet materials (DP600 and AA6022-T43). Experimental cyclic shear tests were carried out in order to determine the cyclic stress–strain behavior and the Bauschinger ratio. The in-plane anisotropy (r-value and yield stress directionalities) of these sheet materials was also compared with the results of numerical simulations using the non-associated model. These results showed that this non-associated, mixed hardening model significantly improves the prediction of earing in the cup drawing process and the prediction of springback in the sidewall of drawn channel sections, even when a simple quadratic constitutive model is used.     

A combined isotropic-kinematic hardening model for the simulation of warm forming and subsequent loading at room temperature

A coupled isotropic-kinematic hardening material model was developed based on phenomenological observations of performed two stage experiments on a medium carbon steel – SAE 1144, where the first deformation is performed at elevated temperatures and the second deformation at room temperature. Above all, deformations with orthogonal loading at various temperatures were investigated in order to determine the influence of the loading direction as well as of the temperature. Bergström’s theory of work hardening as well as the nonlinear kinematic hardening of an Armstrong–Frederick type were used as a basis for the model development. In the proposed model a relationship between material coefficients of the classical Bergström model and temperature was investigated. The aim of the new material model was to introduce the least possible amount of new parameters as well as to facilitate the mathematical determination of parameters during the fitting of the model with experimental data. The developed model was implemented in an in-house FE-Code in order to simulate the material behavior due to the dynamic strain aging and the hardening behavior after the dynamic strain aging process. Representative simulation results were compared with the experimental data in order to validate the efficiency and the application range of the model.     

On the use of a reduced enhanced solid-shell (RESS) element for sheet forming simulations

A recently proposed reduced enhanced solid-shell (RESS) element [Alves de Sousa, R.J., Cardoso, R.P.R., Fontes Valente, R.A., Yoon, J.W., Grácio, J.J., Natal Jorge, R.M., 2005. A new one-point quadrature enhanced assumed strain (EAS) solid-shell element with multiple integration points along thickness: Part I – Geometrically Linear Applications. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering 62, 952–977; Alves de Sousa, R.J., Cardoso, R.P.R., Fontes Valente, R.A., Yoon, J.W., Grácio, J.J., Natal Jorge, R.M., 2006. A new one-point quadrature enhanced assumed strain (EAS) solid-shell element with multiple integration points along thickness: Part II – Nonlinear Applications. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 67, 160–188.] is based on the enhanced assumed strain (EAS) method with a one-point quadrature numerical integration scheme. In this work, the RESS element is applied to large-deformation elasto-plastic thin-shell applications, including contact and plastic anisotropy. One of the main advantages of the RESS is its minimum number of enhancing parameters (only one), which when associated with an in-plane reduced integration scheme, circumvents efficiently well-known locking phenomena, leading to a computationally efficient performance when compared to conventional 3D solid elements. It is also worth noting that the element accounts for an arbitrary number of integration points through thickness direction within a single element layer. This capability has proven to be efficient, for instance, for accurately describing springback phenomenon in sheet forming simulations. A physical stabilization procedure is employed in order to correct the element’s rank deficiency. A general elasto-plastic model is also incorporated for the constitutive modelling of sheet forming operations with plastic anisotropy. Several examples including contact, anisotropic plasticity and springback effects are carried out and the results are compared with experimental data.     

Characterization and development of an evolutionary yield function for the superconducting niobium sheet

Superconducting radio frequency (SRF) niobium cavities are widely used in high-energy physics to accelerate particle beams in particle accelerators. The performance of SRF cavities is affected by the microstructure and purity of the niobium sheet, surface quality, geometry, etc. Following optimum strain paths in the forming of these cavities can significantly control these parameters. To select these strain paths, however, information about the mechanical behavior, microstructure, and formability of the niobium sheet is required. Due to the lack of information, first an extensive experimental study was carried out to characterize the formability of the niobium sheet, followed by examining the suitability of Hill’s anisotropic yield function to model its plastic behavior. Results from this study showed that, due to intrinsic behavior, it is necessary to evolve the anisotropic coefficients of Hill’s yield function in order to properly model the plastic behavior of the niobium sheet. The accuracy of the newly developed evolutionary yield function was verified by applying it to the modeling of the hydrostatic bulging of the niobium sheet.     

Effect of transverse stress on switch-toughening of ferroelectrics

Testing data indicated that T stress significantly altersR-curves of ferroelectrics. The model of stress-induced polarization switching is adopted to evaluate the fracture toughness of ferroelectrics under K field and T stress. Analytical solution is obtained to estimate the steady state fracture resistance of mono-domain ferroelectrics. The result is generalized to multi-domain ferroelectric ceramics via Reuss approximation, which enables us to explain quantitatively R-curves under two testing configurations.     

A first-principles measure for the twinnability of FCC metals

Twinnability is the property describing the ease with which a metal plastically deforms by twinning relative to deforming by dislocation-mediated slip. In this paper a theoretical measure for twinnability in face-centered-cubic (fcc) metals is obtained through homogenization of a recently introduced criterion for deformation twinning (DT) at a crack tip in a single crystal. The DT criterion quantifies the competition between slip and twinning at the crack tip as a function of crack orientation and applied loading. The twinnability of bulk material is obtained by constructing a representative volume element of the material as a polycrystal containing a distribution of microcracks and integrating the DT criterion over all possible grain and microcrack orientations. The resulting integral expression depends weakly on Poisson's ratio and significantly on three interfacial energies: the stacking-fault energy, the unstable-stacking energy and the unstable-twinning energy. All these four quantities can be computed from first principles. The weak dependence on Poisson's ratio is exploited to derive a simple and accurate closed-form approximation for twinnability which clarifies its dependence on the remaining material parameters. To validate the new measure, the twinnability of eight pure fcc metals is computed using parameters obtained from quantum-mechanical tight-binding calculations. The ranking of these materials according to their theoretical twinnability agrees with the available experimental evidence, including the low incidence of DT in Al, and predicts that Pd should twin as easily as Cu.     

A new analytical theory for earing generated from anisotropic plasticity

Commercial canmaking processes include drawing, redrawing and several ironing operations. It is experimentally observed that during the drawing and redrawing processes earing develops, but during the ironing processes earing is reduced. It is essential to understand the earing mechanism during drawing and ironing for an advanced material modeling. A new analytical approach that relates the earing profile to r-value and yield stress directionalities is presented in this work. The analytical formula is based on the exact integration of the logarithmic strain. The derivation is for a cylindrical cup under the plane stress condition based on rigid perfect plasticity while force equilibrium is not considered. The earing profile is obtained solely from anisotropic plastic properties in simple tension. The earing mechanism is explained from the present theory with explicit formulae. It has been proved that earing is the combination of the contributions from r-value and yield stress directionalities. From a directionality (y-axis) vs. angle from the rolling (x-axis) plot, the earing profile is generated to be a scaled mirror image of the r-value directionality with respect to 90° (x = 90) and also a scaled mirror image of the yield stress directionality with respect to the reference yield stress (y = 1). Three different materials (Al-5% Mg alloy, AA 2090-T3 and AA 3104 RPDT control coil) are considered for verification purposes. This approach provides a fundamental basis for understanding the earing mechanism. In practice, the present theory is also very useful for the prediction of the earing profile of a drawn and iron cup and its related convolute cut-edge design for an earless cup.     

Effects of the stress state on plasticity and ductile failure of an aluminum 5083 alloy

The experimental and numerical work presented in this paper reveals that stress state has strong effects on both the plastic response and the ductile fracture behavior of an aluminum 5083 alloy. As a result, the hydrostatic stress and the third invariant of the stress deviator (which is related to the Lode angle) need to be incorporated in the material modeling. These findings challenge the classical J₂ plasticity theory and provide a blueprint for the establishment of the stress state dependent plasticity and ductile fracture models for aluminum structural reliability assessments. Further investigations are planned to advance, calibrate and validate the new plasticity and ductile fracture models.     

A model for the through-thickness elastic–plastic behaviour of paper

An elastic–plastic material model for the out-of-plane mechanical behaviour of paper is presented. This model enables simulation the elastic–plastic behaviour under high compressive loads in the through-thickness direction (ZD). Paper does not exhibit a sharp transition from elastic to elastic–plastic behaviour. This makes it advantageous to define critical stress states based on failure stresses rather than yield stresses. Moreover, the failure stress in out-of-plane shear is strongly affected by previous plastic through-thickness compression. To cover these two features, a model based on the idea of a bounding surface that grows in size with plastic compression is proposed. Here, both the bounding and the yield surfaces are suggested as parabolas in stress space. While the bounding surface is open for compressive loads, the yield surface is bordered by the maximum applied through-thickness compression.     

A New Experimental Technique for the Multi-axial Testing of Advanced High Strength Steel Sheets

This paper deals with the development of a new experimental technique for the multi-axial testing of flat sheets and its application to advanced high strength steels. In close analogy with the traditional tension-torsion test for bulk materials, the sheet material is subject to combined tension and shear loading. Using a custom-made dual actuator hydraulic testing machine, combinations of normal and tangential loading are applied to the boundaries of a flat sheet metal specimen. The specimen shape is optimized to provide uniform stress and strain fields within its gage section. Finite element simulations are carried out to verify the approximate formulas for the shear and normal stress components at the specimen center. The corresponding strain fields are determined from digital image correlation. Two test series are performed on a TRIP-assisted steel sheet. The experimental results demonstrate that this new experimental technique can be used to investigate the large deformation behavior of advanced high strength steel sheets. The evolution of the yield surface of the TRIP700 steel is determined for both radial and non-proportional loading paths.     

THE ANALYSES OF THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL STRESS STRUCTURE NEAR THE CRACK TIP OF MODE I CT SPECIMENS IN ELASTICPLASTIC STATE(Ⅰ)—THE ANALYSES OF CONSTRAINT PARAMETERS AND FRACTURE PARAMETERS

In the present paper, three dimensional analyses of some general constraint parameters and fracture parameters near the crack tip. of Mode I CT specimens in two different thicknesses are carried out by employing ADINA program. The results reveal that the constraints along the thickness direction are obviously separated into two parts: the keeping similar high constraint field (Z₁) and rapid reducing constraints one (Z₂). The two fields are experimentally confiremed to correspond to the smooth region and the shear lip on the fracture face respectively. So the three dimensional stress structure of Mode I specimens can be derived through discussing the two fields respectively. The distribution of the Crack Tip Opening Displacement (CTOD) along the thickness direction and the three dimensional distribution of the void growth ratio (V_g) near the crack tip are also obtained. The two fracture parameters are in similar trends along the thickness direction, and both of them can reflect the effect of thickness and that of the loading level to a certain degree.     

A numerical method for determining the shear stress of magnetorheological fluids using the parallel-plate measuring system

This work proposes a new numerical method for determining the shear stress, which does not need any preassumption about the exact behavior of the fluid to achieve absolute data using a parallel-plate measuring system. The ability for representing different behaviors along the entire shear-rate range makes this method particularly interesting for the study of magnetorheological (MR) fluids. In this work, the conversion factors used by the rheometer for concentric-cylinder, cone-plate, and parallel-plate measuring systems are first analyzed. This analysis shows that the software used by the rheometer is not appropriate for the quantitative characterization of non-Newtonian fluids using the parallel-plate measuring system. Therefore, a new method for conversion of the parameters measured by the rheometer to the rheological parameters of the fluid is proposed; simultaneously, this new method is compared with other correction methods proposed in the literature: the Rabinowitsch-type method and the single-point method. Finally, the proposed method is applied for the quantitative characterization of an MR fluid.     

A method for correction of the wall-slip effect in a Couette rheometer

A simple method for correction of the wall-slip effect in a Couette rheometer was derived. The method requires only two series of measurements (two flow curves) performed in two measuring sets of any dimensions, and therefore it may be applied for the results obtained in each rheometer with a standard cup and bob set. The method was checked for experimental data and also verified theoretically for a hypothetical liquid. H height of cylinder - M torque - r distance from axis - R _i ,R ₀ radius of inner and outer cylinder - R _m average radius defined by Eq. (7) - u slip velocity - shear rate - shear rate for no-slip conditions - Newtonian viscosity - angular speed - angular speed of the rotating cylinder