Plastic localization phenomena in a Mn-alloyed austenitic steel

A 0.5 wt pct C, 22 wt pct Mn austenitic steel, recently proposed for fabricating automotive body structures by cold sheet forming, exhibits plastic localizations (PLs) during uniaxial tensile tests, yet showing a favorable overall strength and ductility. No localization happens during biaxial Erichsen cupping tests. Full-thickness tensile and Erichsen specimens, cut from as-produced steel sheets, were polished and tested at different strain rates. During the tensile tests, the PL phenomena consist first of macroscopic deformation bands traveling along the tensile axis, and then of a series of successive stationary deformation bands, each adjacent to the preceding ones; both types of bands involve the full specimen width and yield a macroscopically observable surface relief. No comparable surface relief was observed during the standard Erichsen tests. Because the stress state is known to influence PL phenomena, reduced-width Erichsen tests were performed on polished sheet specimens, in order to explore the transition from biaxial to uniaxial loading; surface relief lines were observed on a 20-mm-wide specimen, but not on wider ones

Ductile–brittle transitions in the fracture of plastically-deforming, adhesively-bonded structures. Part I: Experimental studies

AbstractRate effects for adhesively-bonded joints in steel sheets failing by mode-I fracture and plastic deformation were examined. Three types of test geometries were used to provide a range of crack velocities between 0.1 and 5000mm/s: a DCB geometry under displacement control, a wedge geometry under displacement control, and a wedge geometry loaded under impact conditions. Two fracture modes were observed: quasi-static crack growth and dynamic crack growth. The quasi-static crack growth was associated with a toughened mode of failure; the dynamic crack growth was associated with a more brittle mode of failure. The experiments indicated that the fracture parameters for the quasi-static crack growth were rate independent, and that quasi-static crack growth could occur even at the highest crack velocities. Effects of rate appeared to be limited to the ease with which a transition to dynamic fracture could be triggered. This transition appeared to be stochastic in nature, it did not appear to be associated with the attainment of any critical value for crack velocity or loading rate. While the mode-I quasi-static fracture behavior appeared to be rate independent, an increase in the tendency for dynamic fracture to be triggered as the crack velocity increased did have the effect of decreasing the average energy dissipated during fracture at higher loading rates

Computational characterization of the wave propagation behavior of multi-stable periodic cellular materials

In this work, we present a computational analysis of the planar wave propagation behavior of a one-dimensional periodic multi-stable cellular material. Wave propagation in these materials is interesting because they combine the ability of periodic cellular materials to exhibit stop and pass bands with the ability to dissipate energy through cell-level elastic instabilities. Here, we use Bloch periodic boundary conditions to compute the dispersion curves and introduce a new approach for computing wide band directionality plots. Also, we deconstruct the wave propagation behavior of this material to identify the contributions from its various structural elements by progressively building the unit cell, structural element by element, from a simple, homogeneous, isotropic primitive. Direct integration time domain analyses of a representative volume element at a few salient frequencies in the stop and pass bands are used to confirm the existence of partial band gaps in the response of the cellular material. Insights gained from the above analyses are then used to explore modifications of the unit cell that allow the user to tune the band gaps in the response of the material. We show that this material behaves like a locally resonant material that exhibits low frequency band gaps for small amplitude planar waves. Moreover, modulating the geometry or material of the central bar in the unit cell provides a path to adjust the position of the band gaps in the material response. Also, our results show that the material exhibits highly anisotropic wave propagation behavior that stems from the anisotropy in its mechanical structure. Notably, we found that unlike other multi-stable cellular materials reported in the literature, in the system studied in this work, the configurational changes in the unit cell corresponding to its different stable phases do not significantly alter the wave propagation behavior of the material. © 201