Influence of the loading path on the mechanical behavior of metallic materials

Abstract

Commercial finite element software packages are widely used for the numerical simulation of sheet metal forming processes. However, most of existing software packages present some limitations. In particular, they are essentially based on phenomenological constitutive models and, accordingly, they do not precisely account for physical mechanisms of plasticity that take place at finer scales, or the associated microstructure evolution. In this context, we propose to couple the Abaqus finite element code and the LAM3 code with micromechanical simulation techniques based on crystal plasticity and a self-consistent scale-transition scheme. This coupling strategy will be applied to the simulation of rolling processes in order to assess the influence of the loading path on the evolution of the mechanical properties of the material. By following some appropriately selected strain paths along the rolling process, one can predict the texture evolution of the material as well as other parameters related to its microstructure. Our numerical results are compared with experimental data in the case of ferritic steels elaborated by the steel maker ArcelorMittal.