A Phenomenological Constitutive Equation to Describe Various Flow Stress Behaviors of Materials in Wide Strain Rate and Temperature Regimes

A simple phenomenological constitutive model has been proposed to describe dynamic deformation behavior of various metals in wide strain rate, strain, and temperature regimes. The formulation of the model is, sigma=[A+B{1-exp(-C epsilon)}][D ln(epsilon center dot/epsilon center dot(0))+exp(E center dot epsilon center dot/epsilon center dot(0))][1-(T-T-ref)/(T-m-T-ref)](m), where sigma is the flow stress, epsilon is the strain, epsilon center dot is the strain rate, epsilon center dot(0) is the reference strain rate, T is the temperature, T-ref is the reference temperature, T-m is the melting temperature, and A, B, C, D, E, and m are the material parameters. The proposed model successfully describes not only the linear rise of flow stress with logarithmic strain rate for many metals, but also the upturn of the flow stress at strain rate over about 10(4) s(-1) for the case of copper. It can also describe the exponential increase in the flow stress with logarithmic strain rate for the case of tantalum, and is capable of predicting thermal softening of various metals at high as well as low temperature. The current model can be used for the practical simulation of many high-strain-rate events with improved precision and as a more rigorous comparison standard in the development of a physical model.