Constitutive equations for metal powders: application to powder forming processes

A new constitutive model for cold compaction of metal powders is developed. The plastic flow of metal powders at the macroscopic level is assumed to be representable as a combination of a distortion mechanism, and a consolidation mechanism. For the distortion mechanism the model employs a pressure-sensitive, Mohr–Coulomb type yield condition, and a new physically based non-associated flow rule. For the consolidation mechanism the model employs a smooth yield function which has a quarter-elliptical shape in the mean-normal pressure and the equivalent shear stress plane, together with an associated flow rule. The constitutive model has been implemented in a finite element program. The material parameters in the constitutive model have been calibrated for MH-100 iron powder by fitting the model to reproduce data from true triaxial compression experiments, torsion ring-shear experiments, and simple compression experiments. The predictive capability of the constitutive model and computational procedure is checked by simulating two simple powder forming processes: (i) a uniaxial strain compression of a cylindrical sample, and (ii) forming of a conical shaped-charge liner. In both cases the predicted load–displacement curves and density variations in the compacted specimens are shown to compare well with corresponding experimental measurements.