Experimental and numerical investigation of combined isotropic-kinematic hardening behavior of sheet metals

To prevent a sheet specimen from buckling subjected to a tension-compression cyclic loading, a new fixture has been developed to use with a regular tensile-compression machine. The novelty of this device lies in 4-block wedge design with pre-loaded springs. This design allows blocks to freely move in the vertical direction while providing the normal support to the entire length of the specimen during the tension-compression cycle. The entire test is easy to setup, which is another advantage of this design. In order to measure the strain accurately, the transmission type laser extensometer was utilized together with the implementation of double-side fins in the specimen. Experimental results of tension-compression tests are presented followed by a review of existing testing methods. In order to describe the accurate cyclic tension-compression behavior, the combined isotropic-kinematic hardening law based on the modified Chaboche model and the practical two-surface model based on Dafalias-Popov and Krieg models have been modified in this work, considering the permanent softening behavior during reverse loading and the non-symmetric behavior during reloading. Through tension-compression tests, the material characterization has been performed for three base materials, BH180, DP600 steels and AA6111-T4 sheets.