A numerical analysis of the tensile test for sheet metals

Abstract

The strain hardening, strain-rate hardening, and plastic anisotropy properties of metal sheets are normally determined in a tensile test during the nearly uniform deformation prior to the maximum load. Beyond this point, strain nonuniformity leading to a neck is poorly understood in terms of interaction of these material properties with changes in strain-rate and stress-state within the neck, and the resulting load-extension plot. Satisfactory modeling of this problem has been achieved by using a rigid/plastic constitutive law including strain hardening and strain-rate hardening. Progressive cessation of deformation starting from elements in the specimen fillet region toward the center is demonstrated. This effect is shown to generate a strain peak (neck) at the gage length center. The predicted load-extension plots and strain distributions in the neck agree well with experiments conducted on a number of test materials. This work provides a quantitative measure of the influence of various material parameters on tensile ductility and identifies the proper constitutive law for input into mathematical models of more complex forming operations.