Modeling Pseudo-elastic Behavior of Springback.

One of the principal foundations of mathematical theory of conventional plasticity for rate-independent metals is that there exists a well-defined yield surface in stress space for any material point under deformation. A material point can undergo further plastic deformation if the applied stresses are beyond current yield surface which is generally referred as “plastic loading”. On the other hand, if the applied stress state falls within or on the yield surface, the metal will deform elastically only and is said to be undergoing “elastic unloading”. Although it has been always recognized throughout the history of development of plasticity theory that there is indeed inelastic deformation accompanying elastic unloading, which leads to metal’s hysteresis behavior, its effects were thought to be negligible and were largely ignored in the mathematical treatment. Recently there have been renewed interests in the study of unloading behavior of sheet metals upon large plastic deformation and its implications on springback prediction. Springback is essentially an elastic recovery process of a formed sheet metal blank when it is released from the forming dies. Its magnitude depends on the stress states and compliances of the deformed sheet metal if no further plastic loading occurs during the relaxation process. Therefore the accurate determination of material compliances during springback and its effective incorporation into simulation software are important aspects for springback calculation. Some of the studies suggest that the unloading curve might deviate from linearity, and suggestions were made that a reduced elastic modulus be used for springback simulation. The aim of this study is NOT to take a position on the debate of whether elastic moduli are changed during sheet metal forming process. Instead we propose an approach of modeling observed psuedoelastic behavior within the context of mathematical theory of plasticity, where elastic moduli are treated to be constant. In the context of this investigation we refer psuedoelastic behavior in the most general sense as any deviation from linearity in the unloading curve. The non-linearity leads to a hysteresis loop upon reloading. The approach is based on the non-conventional theory with a vanishing elastic region as advanced by Dafalias and Popov. The treatment is purely phenomenological where we don’t distinguish between macroscopic plasticity and micro-plasticity. The macroscopic uniaxial stress-strain curve is used to define effective plastic response in the same manner as classical plasticity theory except that the nonlinearity during unloading and reloading are incorporated into plasticity. It is shown that such models can be easily formulated within the context of elastoplasticity without violating any physical mechanisms of deformation. Springback for a plane strain bending model is used to demonstrate the potential effect if such a model is applied. © 2005 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]