Viscoplastic regularization of local damage models: revisited

Local damage models are known to produce pathological mesh dependent results. Regularization techniques are therefore mandatory if local damage models are used for academic research or industrial applications. The viscoplastic framework can be used for regularization of local damage models. Despite of the easy implementation of viscoplasticity, thismethod of regularization did not gain much popularity in comparison to the non-local or gradient damage models. This work is an effort to further explore viscoplastic regularization for quasi-static problems. The focus of this work is on ductile materials. Two different types of strain rate hardening\ud models i.e. the Power law (with a multiplicative strain rate part) and the simplified Bergström van Liempt (with an additive strain rate part) models are used in this study. The modified Lemaitre’s anisotropic damage model with a strain\ud rate dependency was used in this study. It was found that the primary viscoplastic length scale is a function of the hardening and softening (damage) parameters and does not depend upon the prescribed strain rate whereas the secondary length scale is a function of the strain rate. As damage grows, the effective regularization length gradually decreases.When the effective regularization length gets shorter than the element length numerical results become mesh dependent again. This loss of objectivity can not be solved but the effect can be minimized by selecting a very fine mesh or by prescribing high deformation velocities

Large Strain and Small-Scale Biaxial Testing of Sheet Metals

Small-scale and multi-axial testing of sheet metals, particularly of lightweight alloys and advanced steels are becoming important as these materials exhibit forming behavior sensitive to their unique microstructural features and strain paths. As an alternative to large-scale standard tests, in this paper we introduce a novel biaxial tensile test apparatus utilizing miniature cruciform samples. The compact and portable apparatus includes a custom-built optical microscope and high-resolution digital image correlation (DIC) equipment for in-plane and in-situ strain measurements at the microstructure scale. The small strain and premature fracture problems common to the cruciform tests are solved by optimizing the sample design and by meticulously controlling the manufacturing steps and surface finish. Strain analyses reveal a key mechanism responsible for large strains and fracture at the center. This mechanism suppresses the local neck formation and allows uniform deformation under equibiaxial conditions until fracture. When normalized with the strain hardening exponent of the sample material (Al 6061-T6), the effective strain value before fracture, , surpass the reported values for similar materials tested by cruciform and standard methods

Advances in anisotropy of plastic behaviour and formability of sheet metals

This paper reviews the most recent models for description of the anisotropic plastic behavior and formability of sheet metals. After a brief review of classic isotropic yield functions, recent advanced anisotropic criteria for polycrystalline materials of various crystal structures and their applications to cup drawing are presented. Next, the discussion focuses on novel formulations of anisotropic hardening. A brief review of the experimental methods used for characterizing and modeling the anisotropic plastic behavior of metallic sheets and tubes under biaxial loading is presented. The experimental methods and theoretical models used for measuring and predicting the limit strains, development of new tests for determining the Forming Limit Curves (FLC), as well as on studying the influence of various material or process parameters on the limit strains are presented.11Nsciescopu