Constitutive Modeling of Magnesium Alloy Sheets

Abstract

Magnesium alloy sheets have unique mechanical properties: high in-plane anisotropy/asymmetry of yield stress and hardening response, which have not been thoroughly studied. The unusual mechanical behavior of magnesium alloys has been understood by the limited symmetry crystal structure of h.c.p metals and thus by deformation twinning. In this paper, the phenomenological continuum plasticity models considering the unusual plastic behavior of magnesium alloy sheet were developed for a finite element analysis. A new hardening law based on two-surface model was developed to consider the general stress-strain response of metal sheets such as Bauschinger effect, transient behavior and the unusual asymmetry. Three deformation modes observed during the continuous tension/compression tests were mathematically formulated with simplified relations between the state of deformation and their histories. In terms of the anisotropy and asymmetry of the initial yield stress, the Drucker-Prager's pressure dependent yield surface was modified to include the anisotropy of magnesium alloys. Also, characterization procedures of material parameters for the constitutive equations were presented and finally the correlation of simulation with measurements was performed to validate the proposed theory.