A research note on certain loading directions in rate independent plasticity

Starting with the strain space formulation of rate independent elastic-plastic materials, the notion of “work-instability”, i.e. the possibility of an elastic plastic material undergoing spontaneous plastic deformation in a workless manner, is discussed. Some simple criteria for a material to be work stable are presented. An example of a material that satisfies Prandtl-Reuss type equations with strain softening is presented and it is demonstrated that for plane homogeneous deformations, the material shows the possibility of spontaneous plastic flow even if the in-plane strains are held fixed, if it softens beyond a critical amount.     

A combined necking and shear localization analysis for aluminum sheets under biaxial stretching conditions

A combined necking and shear localization analysis is adopted to model the failures of two aluminum sheets, AA5754 and AA6111, under biaxial stretching conditions. The approach is based on the assumption that the reduction of thickness or the necking mode is modeled by a plane stress formulation and the final failure mode of shear localization is modeled by a generalized plane strain formulation. The sheet material is modeled by an elastic-viscoplastic constitutive relation that accounts for the potential surface curvature, material plastic anisotropy, material rate sensitivity, and the softening due to the nucleation, growth, and coalescence of microvoids. Specifically, the necking/shear failure of the aluminum sheets is modeled under uniaxial tension, plane strain tension and equal biaxial tension. The results based on the mechanics model presented in this paper are in agreement with those based on the forming limit diagrams (FLDs) and tensile tests. When the necking mode is suppressed, the failure strains are also determined under plane strain conditions. These failure strains can be used as guidances for estimation of the surface failure strains on the stretching sides of the aluminum sheets under plane strain bending conditions. The estimated surface failure strains are higher than the failure strains of the forming limit diagrams under plane strain stretching conditions. The results are consistent with experimental observations where the surface failure strains of the aluminum sheets increase significantly on the stretching sides of the sheets under bending conditions. The results also indicate that when a considerable amount of necking is observed for a sheet metal under stretching conditions, the surface failure strains on the stretching sides of the sheet metal under bending conditions can be significantly higher.     

Marciniak–Kuczynski type modelling of the effect of Through-Thickness Shear on the forming limits of sheet metal

The Marciniak–Kuczynski (MK) forming limit model is extended in order to predict localized necking in sheet metal forming operations in which Through-Thickness Shear (TTS), also known as out-of-plane shear, occurs. An example of such a forming operation is Single Point Incremental Forming. The Forming Limit Diagram (FLD) of a purely plastic, isotropic hardening material with von Mises yield locus is discussed, for monotonic deformation paths that include TTS. If TTS is present in the plane containing the critical groove direction in the MK model, it is seen that formability is increased for all in-plane strain modes, except equibiaxial stretching. The increase in formability due to TTS is explained through a detailed study of some selected deformation modes. The underlying mechanism is a change of the stress mode in the groove that results in a delay of the onset of localized necking.     

Dynamic crack-tip fields in rate-sensitive solids

The asymptotic stress and strain fields near the tip of a crack which propagates dynamically in a rate-sensitive solid are obtained under anti-plane shear and plane strain conditions. The problem is formulated within the context of a small-strain theory for a solid whose mechanical behavior under high strain rates is described by an elastic-viscoplastic constitutive relation. It is shown that, if the stresses are singular at the crack-tip, the viscoplastic relation is equivalent asymptotically to an elastic-non-linear viscous relation. Furthermore, for a certain range of the material parameter which characterizes the rate-sensitivity of the material, the elastic strain-rates near the propagating crack tip are shown to have the same asymptotic radial dependence near the propagating crack-tip as the inelastic strain-rates. This determines the order of the stress singularity uniquely. The governing equations for anti-plane shear and plane strain are then derived. The numerical results for the stress and strain fields are presented for anti-plane shear and plane strain. For the present model, the results suggest that under small-scale yielding conditions, there exists a minimum velocity for stable steady crack propagation. The implication that a terminal velocity for a running crack may exist is also discussed.     

Enhanced measurement of strain distributions

A theoretical approach is presented that uses multiple strain gages to accurately measure complicated strain distributions. The technique is based on the method of weighted residuals in conjunction with measured strain data and is applicable for arbitrary in-plane strain distributions. Conventional measurements using strain gages are shown to represent a particular case of the approach presented. The experimental characterization of unidimensional strain fields is discussed in detail. Two approaches are presented; these are based on linear and quadratic approximations of the strain field. The strain distribution for two important practical problems is evaluated assuming ideal conditions to assess the performance of the proposed approach. In both cases, the simulated results demonstrate that measurement error resulting from the finite size of a strain gage may be reduced. That is, a larger strain gage may be used for a given maximum admissible error. The method also allows a minimal error of measured nonlinear strains.     

Experimental observations of evolving yield loci in biaxially strained AA5754-O

Experimental measurement of the plastic biaxial mechanical response for an aluminum alloy (AA5754-O) sheet metal is presented. Traditional methods of multiaxial sheet metal testing require the use of finite element analysis (FEA) or other assumptions of material response to determine the multiaxial true stress versus true strain behavior of the as-received sheet material. The method used here strives to produce less ambiguous measurements of data for a larger strain range than previously possible, through a combination of the Marciniak flat bottom ram test and an X-ray diffraction technique for stress measurement. The study is performed in conjunction with a study of the microstructural changes that occur during deformation, and these microstructural results are briefly mentioned in this work. Issues of calibration and applicability are discussed, and results are presented for uniaxial (U), plane strain (PS), and balanced biaxial (BB) extension. The results show repeatable behavior (within quantified uncertainties) for U to 20%, PS to almost 15%, and BB to above 20% in-plane strains. The results are first compared with three common yield locus models (von Mises’, Hill’48, and Hosford’79), and show some unexpected results in the shape change of the yield locus at high strain levels (>5% strain). These changes include the rotation of the locus toward the von Mises surface and elongation in the balanced biaxial direction. Comparison with a more complex yield locus model (Yld2000-2d with eight adjustable parameters) showed that the locus elongation in the biaxial direction could be fit well (for a specific level of work), but at the detriment of fit to the plane strain data. Artificially large plastic strain ratios would be needed to match both the biaxial and plane strain behavior even with this more complex model.     

Computational analysis of stress-based forming limit curves

This article, through computational analyses, examines the validity of using the stress-based and extended stress-based forming limit curves to predict the onset of necking during proportional loading of sheet metal. To this end, a model material consisting of a homogeneous zone and a zone that has voids (material inhomogeneity) is proposed and used to simulate necking under plane strain and uni-axial stress load paths. Results of the in-plane loading computations are used to construct a strain-based formability limit curve for the model material. This limit curve is transformed into principal stress space using the procedure due to Stoughton [Stoughton, T.B., 2000. A general forming limit criterion for sheet metal forming. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 42, 1–27]. The stress-based limit curve is then transformed into equivalent stress and mean stress space to obtain an Extended Stress-Based Limit Curve (XSFLC). When subjected to three-dimensional loading, the model material is observed to display a variety of responses. From these responses, a criterion for the applicability of the XSFLC to predict the onset of necking in the model material when it is subjected to three-dimensional loading is obtained. In the context of straight tube hydroforming, to provide support for the use of the XSFLC, it is demonstrated that the criterion is satisfied.     

Fatigue-crack-tip plastic strains by the stereoimaging technique

The stereoimaging technique is an accurate, high-resolution means of measuring the in-plane displacements resulting from the deformation of a specimen so that the corresponding components of the strain tensor can be computed independently of the stresses. The example used in this paper is a fatigue-cracked specimen of a microscopically homogeneous experimental powder-metallurgy aluminum alloy, analyzed to determine the displacement and strain fields accompanying the opening of the fatigue crack. The displacement measurements are processed by a computer program which compensates for measurement fluctuations in the displacement data by smoothing, and derives the strain magnitudes. The principal strains and the maximum shear strain are determined using Mohr's circle, and the latter strain is then used to estimate the plastic-zone size. The crack-opening mode may be inferred from the displacement map, and the state of stress (plane stress or plane strain) inferred by applying the in-plane compatibility equation.     

Evaluation of the VDA 238–100 Tight Radius Bend Test for Plane Strain Fracture Characterization of Automotive Sheet Metals

Accurate characterization of the fracture limit in plane strain tension of automotive sheet metals is critical for the design and crash performance of structural components. Plane strain bending using the VDA 238–100 V-bend test has potential for proportional fracture characterization by avoiding a tensile instability. The VDA 238–100 V-bend test was evaluated using DIC strain measurement to characterize the plane strain fracture limit under proportional plane stress loading and to evaluate the effect of the VDA pre-straining methodology for ductile alloys upon the material response. The load-based failure criterion of the V-bend test was evaluated with DIC to monitor the development of surface cracking. The influence of the non-linear strain path imposed by the pre-straining procedure for ductile materials was then evaluated for three automotive alloys: an advanced high strength dual phase steel, DP1180, a rare-earth magnesium, ZEK100, and an AA5182 aluminum. A fracture criterion based on the load threshold was reasonable for the three alloys considered. Pre-straining in uniaxial tension prior to plane strain bending affected each alloy differently. The DP1180 was not affected by the non-linear strain path whereas the cumulative equivalent strain for the AA5182 and ZEK100 increased by strains of 0.07 and 0.05 strain, respectively. The non-linear strain path within the VDA pre-straining methodology creates ambiguity in comparing the fracture limits of different materials. The plane strain fracture limit for proportional loading can be readily obtained in the V-bend test with DIC strain measurement.

     

Distortional hardening plasticity model for paperboard

A distortional hardening elasto-plastic model at finite strains suitable for modeling of orthotropic materials is presented. As a prototype material, paperboard is considered. An in-plane model is established. The model developed is motivated from non-proportional loading tests on paperboard where the paperboard is pre-strained in one direction and then loaded in the perpendicular direction. A softening effect is revealed in the pre-strained samples. The observed experimental findings cannot be accurately predicted by current models for paperboard. To be able to model the softening effects, a yield surface based on multiple hardening variables is introduced. It is shown that the model parameters can be obtained from simple uniaxial experiments. The model is implemented in a finite element framework which is used to illustrate the behavior of the model at some specific loading situations and is compared with strain fields obtained from Digital Image Correlation experiments.     

The interferometric strain rosette technique

An interferometric strain rosette can be used to measure three in-plane strains. The strain rosette consists of three microindentations produced on an object surface. Upon illuminating the indentations with laser light, each pair of indentations acts as a two-point source generating a pair of Young's interference fringe patterns. When the object is deformed, the distance between the indentations is altered. By measuring the change of spacing of the Young's fringes, the strain in the direction of the separation of the indentations is measured. Three indentations are at the vertexes of an equilateral triangle to constitute a strain rosette. Each pair of the microindentations enables measurement of an axial strain in the indentation separation. The rosette measures simultaneously three in-plane strains in the directions of the triangular sides. As three in-plane strains are measured, the in-plane shear and two normal strains can be found. Compared with a resistance strain rosette, the interferometric strain rosette has great features such as non-contacting and a short gage length. In addition, the interferometric strain rosette can measure large elastoplastic strains and is applicable to measurements at elevated temperatures. The theory with experimental evaluation is presented. Measurement sensitivity of the technique is discussed. Potential applications and limitations of the technique are to be described as well.     

Elastic-plastic analysis of biaxially loaded center-cracked plates

Center-cracked panels loaded in biaxial tension are examined in this paper. Calibration relations for the J integral and the Q constraint factor are presented for a Ramberg–Osgood power law hardening material under plane stress and plane strain loadings. Two cases are examined: an isolated crack and a periodic array of cracks both under biaxial loading conditions. The latter has previously been studied for plane stress conditions. A number of different J estimation schemes are proposed based on the remote load and displacement and their dependence on geometry, biaxiality, and material properties is discussed. The variation of constraint, as characterised by Q, is also presented for plane stress and plane strain conditions. Simple slip line field solutions are derived for perfectly plastic conditions and the resulting limit load solutions are compared with numerically determined values. Implications for failure of cracked plates under biaxial loading are discussed.     

Strain gradient crystal plasticity effects on flow localization

In metal grains one of the most important failure mechanisms involves shear band localization. As the band width is small, the deformations are affected by material length scales. To study localization in single grains a rate-dependent crystal plasticity formulation for finite strains is presented for metals described by the reformulated Fleck–Hutchinson strain gradient plasticity theory. The theory is implemented numerically within a finite element framework using slip rate increments and displacement increments as state variables. The formulation reduces to the classical crystal plasticity theory in the absence of strain gradients. The model is used to study the effect of an internal material length scale on the localization of plastic flow in shear bands in a single crystal under plane strain tension. It is shown that the mesh sensitivity is removed when using the nonlocal material model considered. Furthermore, it is illustrated how different hardening functions affect the formation of shear bands.     

Relaxation in crystal plasticity with three active slip systems

We study a variational model for finite crystal plasticity in the limit of rigid elasticity. We focus on the case of three distinct slip systems whose slip directions lie in one plane and are rotated by 120° with respect to each other, with linear self-hardening and infinite latent hardening, in the sense that each material point has to deform in single slip. Under these conditions, plastic deformation is accompanied by the formation of fine-scale structures, in which activity along the different slip systems localizes in different areas. The quasiconvex envelope of the energy density, which describes the macroscopic material behavior, is determined in a regime from small up to intermediate strains, and upper and lower bounds are provided for large strains. Finally sufficient conditions are given under which the lamination convex envelope of an extended-valued energy density is an upper bound for its quasiconvex envelope.     

Cylindrical void in a rigid-ideally plastic single crystal. Part I: Anisotropic slip line theory solution for face-centered cubic crystals

The fracture toughness of ductile materials depends upon the ability of the material to resist the growth of microscale voids near a crack tip. Mechanics analyses of the elastic–plastic deformation state around such voids typically assume the surrounding material to be isotropic. However, the voids exist predominantly within a single grain of a polycrystalline material, so it is necessary to account for the anisotropic nature of the surrounding material. In the present work, anisotropic slip line theory is employed to derive the stress and deformation state around a cylindrical void in a single crystal oriented so that plane strain conditions are admitted from three effective in-plane slip systems. The deformation state takes the form of angular sectors around the circumference of the void. Only one of the three effective slip systems is active within each sector. Each slip sector is further subdivided into smaller sectors inside of which it is possible to derive the stress state. Thus the theory predicts a highly heterogeneous stress and deformation state. In addition, it is shown that the in-plane pressure necessary to activate plastic deformation around a cylindrical void in an anisotropic material is significantly higher than that necessary for an isotropic material. Experiments and single crystal plasticity finite element simulations of cylindrical voids in single crystals, both of which exhibit a close correspondence to the analytical theory, are discussed in a companion paper.     

Strain gradient crystal plasticity analysis of a single crystal containing a cylindrical void

The effects of void size and hardening in a hexagonal close-packed single crystal containing a cylindrical void loaded by a far-field equibiaxial tensile stress under plane strain conditions are studied. The crystal has three in-plane slip systems oriented at the angle 60° with respect to one another. Finite element simulations are performed using a strain gradient crystal plasticity formulation with an intrinsic length scale parameter in a non-local strain gradient constitutive framework. For a vanishing length scale parameter the non-local formulation reduces to a local crystal plasticity formulation. The stress and deformation fields obtained with a local non-hardening constitutive formulation are compared to those obtained from a local hardening formulation and to those from a non-local formulation. Compared to the case of the non-hardening local constitutive formulation, it is shown that a local theory with hardening has only minor effects on the deformation field around the void, whereas a significant difference is obtained with the non-local constitutive relation. Finally, it is shown that the applied stress state required to activate plastic deformation at the void is up to three times higher for smaller void sizes than for larger void sizes in the non-local material.     

Scaling of structures subject to impact loads when using a power law constitutive equation

It is well known that structures subjected to dynamic loads do not follow the usual similarity laws when the material is strain rate sensitive. As a consequence, it is not possible to use a scaled model to predict the prototype behaviour. In the present study, this problem is overcome by changing the impact velocity so that the model behaves exactly as the prototype. This exact solution is generated thanks to the use of an exponential constitutive law to infer the dynamic flow stress. Furthermore, it is shown that the adopted procedure does not rely on any previous knowledge of the structure response. Three analytical models are used to analyze the performance of the technique. It is shown that perfect similarity is achieved, regardless of the magnitude of the scaling factor. For the class of material used, the solution outlined has long been sought, inasmuch as it allows perfect similarity for strain rate sensitive structures subject to impact loads.     

Elastic bodies reinforced with inextensible surfaces

The constraint of in-plane rigidity is examined within the general framework of the theory of internally constrained materials. It is shown that, for in-plane rigid materials, local strain and active stress are both defined by vectorial quantities. Representation formulae for the elastic response mapping are established in the cases of transverse isotropy and maximal symmetry, compatible with the constraint manifold. The equilibrium problem for an elastic body reinforced with parallel inextensible planes is also considered. In particular, universal solutions for bodies with maximal material symmetry are determined within the class of deformations which leave rigid every reinforcing plane.     

Limit analysis of orthotropic plates

The limit analysis problem for plates in bending is considered. The failure criterion for the material is assumed as orthotropic, with possible non-symmetric strength properties. According to Kirchhoff’s hypothesis, the plate is conceived as a superposition of layers, individually in plane stress situation, and continuity is enforced by means of a kinematic assumption. By exploiting previous results, recently established by the authors, the expression of the dissipation power per unit plate area is defined on this basis and the kinematic (upper bound) theorem of limit analysis is cast in a form suitable for numerical solutions. To this purpose, efficient algorithms successfully employed in the isotropic case can be used with minor modifications. The effectiveness of the procedure is demonstrated by solving some homogeneous plate examples. Results permit the assessment of the influence of different aspects, such as the ratio between strengths along the orthotropy directions, the tensile to compressive strength differential and the inclination of the orthotropy axes with respect to the sides. The effects of in-plane edge constraints are also discussed and it appears that they are emphasized considerably by anisotropy. Even if referred to specific cases, some conclusions can be regarded as fairly general.     

The appropriate corotational rate, exact formula for the plastic spin and constitutive model for finite elastoplasticity

The exact formulae for the plastic and the elastic spin referred to the deformed configuration are derived, where the plastic spin is a function of the plastic strain rate and the elastic spin a function of the elastic strain rate. With these exact formulae we determine the macroscopic substructure spin that allows us to define the appropriate corotational rate for finite elastoplasticity.Plastic, elastic and substructure spin are considered and simplified for various sub-classes of restricted elastic-plastic strains. It is shown that for the special cases of rigid-plasticity and hypoelasticity the proposed corotational rate is identical with the Green-Naghdi rate, while the ZarembaJaumann rate yields a good approximation for moderately large strains.To compare our exact plastic spin formula with the constitutive assumption for the plastic spin introduced by Dafalias and others, we simplify our result for small elastic-moderate plastic strains and introduce a simplest evolution law for kinematic hardening leading to the Dafalias formula and to an exact determination of its unknown coefficient. It is also shown that contrary to statements in the literature the plastic spin is not zero for vanishing kinematic hardening.For isotropic-elastic material with induced plastic flow undergoing isotropic and kinematic hardening constitutive and evolution laws are proposed. Elastic and plastic Lagrangean and Eulerian logarithmic strain measures are introduced and their material time derivatives and corotational rates, respectively, are considered. Finally, the elastic-plastic tangent operator is derived.The presented theory is implemented in a solution algorithm and numerically applied to the simple shear problem for finite elastic-finite plastic strains as well as for sub-classes of restricted strains. The results are compared with those of the literature and with those obtained by using other corotational rates.