Inter-void shearing effect on damage evolution under plane strain deformation in high-strength aluminum alloy sheet

In this study, the ductile damage responses of high-strength 7000 series aluminum alloy (AA), AA 7075-T6 sheet samples, subjected to the plane strain deformation mode were investigated using finite element (FE) simulations. In the experiments, uniaxial tension (UT) and plane strain tension (PST) tests were conducted to characterize the plasticity and ductile damage behavior of the AA 7075-T6 sheet samples. The limiting dome height (LDH) and V-die air bending tests were conducted to evaluate the ductility of the material sub-jected to plastic deformation and friction between the tools, and the corresponding frac-tured samples were qualitatively analyzed in terms of dimples using fractography. FE simulations were performed to predict the ductility of the AA 7075-T6 sheet samples under plane strain deformation using an enhanced Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman (GTN) model, namely the GTN-shear model. The model was improved by adding the shear dimple effect to the original GTN model. The predicted results in terms of the load-displacement curves and displacements at the onset of failure were in good agreement with experimental data from the aforementioned tests. Furthermore, virtual roll forming simulations were con-ducted using the GTN-shear model to determine the effect of the prediction on ductile behavior for industrial applications.(c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

In this study, the ductile damage responses of high-strength 7000 series aluminum alloy (AA) 7075-T6 sheet samples under plane strain deformation were investigated using finite element simulations. The results showed that the GTN-shear model accurately predicted the ductile behavior of the material, and the virtual roll forming simulations demonstrated the significance of this prediction in industrial applications.