Abstract:

: The yield strength of materials under plane strain deformation is often not characterized experimentally due to difficulties that arise in interpreting the results of plane strain tensile tests. The strain and stress fields in the gauge region of these tests are inhomogeneous, making it challenging to extract the constitutive response from experimental measurements. Consequently, the plane strain yield stress is instead predicted using phenomenological plasticity models calibrated using uniaxial and biaxial tension data. To remove this uncertainty, a simple finite-element based inverse technique is proposed to determine the arc of the associated yield locus from uniaxial-to-plane strain tension using a constrained form of Vegter’s anisotropic yield criterion to analyze a notch tensile test. The inverse problem is formulated under associated deviatoric plasticity and constrained such that only a single parameter, the major principal yield stress under plane strain deformation, needs to be identified from the finite-element simulations. The methodology was applied to two different automotive steel grades, an ultra-high strength DP1180 and a DC04 mild steel. The predictive accuracy of the constitutive models was then evaluated using an alternate notch geometry that provides an intermediate stress state between uniaxial and plane strain tension. By performing notch tensile tests in three sheet orientations, three arcs of the yield surface were obtained and employed to calibrate the widely used Yld2000 yield function. The study shows that for DP1180, the normalized plane strain yield stress was in the range of 1.10 to 1.14 whereas for DDQ steel, the normalized plane strain yield stress was notably stronger, with values ranging from 1.22 to 1.27, depending on the orientation. The proposed methodology allows for a wealth of anisotropic plasticity data to be obtained from simple notch tests while ensuring the plane strain state is accurately characterized, since it governs localization and fracture in many forming operations.

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