Stress–strain behaviour of aluminium alloys at a wide range of strain rates

The stress–strain behaviour of extruded AA6xxx and AA7xxx aluminium alloys in T6 temper was studied at a wide range of strain rates. Tensile tests at low to medium strain rates were performed in a standard tensile test machine, while a split-Hopkinson tension bar was used to carry out tests at high rates of strain. Extruded aluminium alloys have anisotropic mechanical properties, and tests were therefore done in three directions with respect to the extrusion direction. It is found that the AA6xxx alloys exhibit no significant rate sensitivity in the stress–strain behaviour, while moderate rate sensitivity was found for the AA7xxx alloys. There seems to be no significant difference between the rate sensitivity in the three tensile directions. The experimental data were used to identify the parameters of a thermo-viscoplastic constitutive relation for the extruded alloys, which includes the effects of strain hardening, strain-rate hardening, thermal softening and plastic anisotropy.     

Experimental and numerical investigation of fracture in a cast aluminium alloy

This paper describes an experimental and numerical investigation on the fracture behaviour of a cast AlSi9MgMn aluminium alloy. In the experiments, a modified Arcan test set-up was used to study mixed-mode fracture. During testing, the tension load and the displacement of the actuator of the test machine were recorded, simultaneously as a high-resolution digital camera was used to record a speckle-patterned surface of the specimen. The recorded images were post-processed using an in-house digital image correlation (DIC) software to obtain information of the displacement and strain fields in the specimen during the test. In addition, some newly implemented features in the DIC software allowed us to detect and follow the crack propagation in the material. The numerical calculations were carried out with a user-defined material model implemented in an explicit finite element code. In the model, the material behaviour is described by the classical J₂ flow theory, while fracture was modelled by the Cockcroft–Latham criterion, assuming the fracture parameter to follow a modified weakest-link Weibull distribution. With the proposed probabilistic fracture modelling approach, the fracture parameter can be introduced as a random variable in the finite element simulations. Crack propagation was modelled by element erosion, and a non-local damage formulation was used to reduce mesh-size sensitivity. To reveal the effect of mesh density and meshing technique on the force–displacement curves and the crack propagation, several different meshes were used in the numerical simulations of the modified Arcan tests. The numerical results were finally compared to the experimental data and the agreement between the measured and predicted response was evaluated.     

Failure criteria with unilateral conditions for simulation of plate perforation

Finite element analysis of plate perforation is performed using a thermoelastic–thermoviscoplastic constitutive model and two uncoupled damage criteria with unilateral conditions. The first criterion is based on continuum damage mechanics, while the second is the Cockcroft–Latham criterion. Fracture is assumed to occur at a critical damage, and crack propagation is modelled with element erosion. The identification of the material parameters is based on inverse modelling of a uniaxial tension test. The constitutive model and damage criteria are applied in explicit finite element analysis of the perforation of a 12 mm thick steel plate struck by a blunt projectile in the sub-ordinance velocity regime. The results show the importance of the unilateral conditions in obtaining accurate prediction of the adiabatic shear banding process. The two fracture criteria have comparable dependence on the stress triaxiality and the Lode parameter when the microcrack-closure parameter is set to zero in the criterion based on continuum damage mechanics, and give similar failure mode and ballistic limit in the plate perforation problem.     

Elastic-plastic behaviour of dual-phase, high-strength steel under strain-path changes

The elastic-plastic behaviour of dual-phase, high-strength steel sheets under two-stage strain-path changes has been investigated. Three different loading sequences, namely monotonic, 45° tensile path changes and orthogonal tensile path changes complied by sequences of simple uniaxial tensile tests, were analysed at room temperature. From the experiments, it was found that there is a considerable reduction of the initial flow stress over the strain-path changes. The transient softening phenomenon is observed to be a function of orientation, and the period of the transient behaviour following the strain-path change is lengthened with the amount of pre-strain. A constitutive model is adopted that includes combined isotropic and kinematic hardening and is capable of describing the marked transient softening behaviour after the pre-straining. The experimental stress–strain behaviour subsequent to the strain path change is predicted with reasonable accuracy, while the model fails to accurately describe the transient, deformation-induced anisotropy in the plastic flow.     

Evaluation of identification methods for YLD2004-18p

Four calibration methods have been evaluated for the linear transformation-based anisotropic yield function YLD2004-18p (Barlat, F., Aretz, H., Yoon, J.W., Karabin, M.E., Brem, J.C., Dick, R.E., 2005. Linear transformation-based anisotropic yield functions. Int. J. Plasticity 21, 1009–1039) and the aluminium alloy AA5083-H116. The different parameter identifications are based on least squares fits to combinations of uniaxial tensile tests in seven directions with respect to the rolling direction, compression (upsetting) tests in the normal direction and stress states found using the full-constraint (FC) Taylor model for 690 evenly distributed strain paths. An elastic–plastic constitutive model based on YLD2004-18p has been implemented in a non-linear finite element code and used in finite element simulations of plane-strain tension tests, shear tests and upsetting tests. The experimental results as well as the Taylor model predictions can be satisfactorily reproduced by the considered yield function. However, the lacking ability of the Taylor model to quantitatively reproduce the experiments calls for more advanced crystal plasticity models.     

A study of localisation in dual-phase high-strength steels under dynamic loading using digital image correlation and FE analysis

Tensile tests were conducted on dual-phase high-strength steel in a Split-Hopkinson Tension Bar at a strain-rate in the range of 150–600/s and in a servo-hydraulic testing machine at a strain-rate between 10^?3 and 10⁰/s. A novel specimen design was utilized for the Hopkinson bar tests of this sheet material. Digital image correlation was used together with high-speed photography to study strain localisation in the tensile specimens at high rates of strain. By using digital image correlation, it is possible to obtain in-plane displacement and strain fields during non-uniform deformation of the gauge section, and accordingly the strains associated with diffuse and localised necking may be determined. The full-field measurements in high strain-rate tests reveal that strain localisation started even before the maximum load was attained in the specimen. An elasto-viscoplastic constitutive model is used to predict the observed stress–strain behaviour and strain localisation for the dual-phase steel. Numerical simulations of dynamic tensile tests were performed using the non-linear explicit FE code LS-DYNA. Simulations were done with shell (plane stress) and brick elements. Good correlation between experiments and numerical predictions was achieved, in terms of engineering stress–strain behaviour, deformed geometry and strain fields. However, mesh density plays a role in the localisation of deformation in numerical simulations, particularly for the shell element analysis.     

Fracture characteristics of a cold-rolled dual-phase steel

In this study, the fracture characteristics of a cold-rolled, low-strength, high-hardening steel sheet (Docol 600DL) under quasi-static loading conditions are established using five different test set-ups. In all the tests, the sheet material is initially in plane-stress states. Optical field measurements with digital image correlation were used to determine the strain fields to fracture, to calibrate the material model for the sheet material and to validate the finite element models of the tests. Based on the field measurements, a novel method for experimental determination of the stress triaxiality and the Lode parameter is presented for isotropic materials and plane-stress states. These parameters were also obtained from finite element simulations. Comparisons show that the two methods give approximately the same average values of the stress triaxiality and the Lode parameter up to fracture. The sheet material displays only moderate variation in ductility as a function of the stress triaxiality and the Lode parameter within the investigated range of these parameters. The most critical through-thickness position in the specimens was found to be in the centre where the strains and the stress triaxiality are highest.     

On the Dynamic Response of Laminated Glass Exposed to Impact Before Blast Loading

Experimental Mechanics - In this study, the effect of fragment or bullet impact before blast loading on laminated glass is studied experimentally. First, laminated windows consisting of two 3.8 mm...