A New Approach for Obtaining the Compression Behavior of Anisotropic Sheet Metals Applicable to a Wide Range of Test Conditions

Abstract

The consideration of anisotropic and asymmetric tension-compression behaviour in some materials has proved to be of great importance for the modelling of plastic behaviours that allow for accurate results in sheet metal forming analysis. However, obtaining this compression behaviour of a sheet metal in the principal plane directions is one of the most complex aspects from an experimental point of view. This complexity is notably increased when this behaviour needs to be analysed under high temperature conditions. This paper presents a compression test system with load application in the in-plane sheet directions which is characterised by a relative technical simplicity allowing its application under temperature conditions of up to 750 °C and different strain-rates. Due to the specific test conditions, namely the high temperature, it is not possible to use the common systems for measuring the strains involved and to obtain the stress-strain curve. Therefore, this paper proposes two methods for this purpose. The first is the performance of interrupted tests and measurement of the central cross sections. The second consists of inverse calibration using finite element simulations. The sensitivity of the proposed test methodology is validated through the characterisation, at room temperature, of the compression and tensile behaviour of six materials with different plastic deformation phenomena. In this way, the asymmetric tension-compression phenomena are accurately identified and high compression strains of around 0.3, higher than those existing in the literature, are investigated. A novel test methodology is thus established that is easily applicable for the mechanical characterisation of sheet metal at high temperature.

Keywords

• sheet metal compression
• tension-compression asymmetry
• anisotropy
• sheet metal forming