Mechanical behavior of materials

Mechanical behavior of materials

Lecture 5 – constitutive behavior

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Introduction
• In mechanics of materials, the constitutive law is
the relationship between stress and strain

• This is determined experimentally performing

simple stress state tests. In particular, uniaxial
tensile test is the preferred test to probe
material response and obtain information about
the nature of the constitutive law.

• In general, materials show a constitutive

behavior that can be classified under the these
main classes

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Introduction (cont.)
• Elastic material. Strain occurs in the material
immediately when the stress is applied. Strain is s
completely recovered when the stress (or load)
is removed.

• Linear- elastic
e

• Non-linear elastic

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Introduction (cont.)
• Elastic-plastic material. Strain occurs in the
material immediately when the stress is applied.
Strain is completely recoverable only up to a s
limit stress (yield stress). For increasing stress, a
permanent deformation (non recoverable)
appears (plastic deformation)

• Elastic-plastic and non-linear elastic behavior

cannot be discriminated until an unloading
occurs
e
𝜀𝑇 = 𝜀𝑒 + 𝜀𝑝 ep

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Introduction (cont.)
• Visco-Elastic-Plastic material. When the stress is
applied, strain requires some time to occur and
to reach the equilibrium. In general, elastic
strain occurs immediately while inelastic
deformation requires a finite time interval to
occurs.
• Inelastic deformation, also called viscous
deformation, can be recoverable or
unrecoverable (plastic)
• When the stress is removed, the elastic strain is
immediately recovered while recoverable
viscous strain require some time.

𝜀𝑇 = 𝜀𝑒 + 𝜀𝑣 + 𝜀𝑝

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Introduction (cont.)

• Almost all materials are elastic-visco-plastic in

nature.

• Viscous deformation are function of time and

temperature and are associated with the
dissipative mechanisms occurring in the
microscale (internal friction, obstacles, etc.) that
compete against the motion of dislocations

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Uniaxial response of metals and alloys

• The uniaxial tensile load response of metals and
alloys show the following features:
• Linear-elastic response up to a limit stress
value called yield stress;

• Beyond the yield stress, plastic deformation

occurs, the stress-strain response is non
linear (hardening): elongation is still
uniform.

• In ductile materials, at the UTS (ultimate

tensile stress) the elongation is no longer
uniform: necking develops.

• Beyond UTS, plastic deformation are more

and more localized in the neck region until
fracture occurs
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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Uniaxial response of metals and alloys

• From the constitutive point of view, the additive
strain decomposition is assumed:
𝜎
𝜀𝑇 = 𝜀𝑒 + 𝜀𝑝 = + 𝜀𝑝
𝐸

• A good estimate of the plastic deformation at

the neck is given by Bridgman,

𝐴0
𝜀𝑝 ≅ 2𝑙𝑛
𝐴𝑓

• This expression is obtained from the assumption

of conservation of plastic volume.

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Uniaxial response of metals and alloys: controlling parameters

• The uniaxial stress-strain response of metals and
alloys depends on outer variables:

• Temperature

• Strain rate

• Microstructure

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Uniaxial response of metals and alloys: controlling parameters

• The uniaxial stress-strain response of metals and
alloys depends on outer variables:

• Temperature
From a very general point of view, increasing
temperature causes the reduction of the yield
stress and an increase of ductility (strain at
failure)

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Uniaxial response of metals and alloys: controlling parameters

• Increasing temperature, viscous behavior
becomes more relevant: the Young modulus
depends on the load rate.

• In general, an increase of temperature increases

material toughness

• At elevated temperature, oxidation and ageing

can occur causing material embrittlement and
dramatic reduction of ductility.

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Uniaxial response of metals and alloys: controlling parameters

• Since the material response is viscous in nature,
strain rate has an effect on the material flow
curve.

• Increasing the strain rate:

• increases the yield stress

• Affect the slope of the hardening curve

• Affect the strain to failure (in a complex

manner)

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Uniaxial response of metals and alloys: controlling parameters

• Since the material response is viscous in nature,
strain rate has an effect on the material flow
curve.

• Example: titanium

Titanium (fully anneled)

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Uniaxial response of metals and alloys: controlling parameters

• Strain rate and temperature have a
competitive effect on the material response.

• Regarding the yield stress:

• Region I: weak dependence temperature,

strain rate independent

• Region II: linear dependence on the log of

strain rate

• Region II: linear dependence on the strain

rate.

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Uniaxial response of metals and alloys: controlling parameters

• Microstructure

• The yield stress is the macroscopic value at

which the slips occurs on the entire volume

• The presence of inclusions and barrier may

block dislocation causing an increase of the
yield stress (precipitation hardening)

• Alloying increases the yield stress

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Uniaxial response of metals and alloys: controlling parameters

• Microstructure

• The yield stress depends on the grain size

according to the Hall-Petch relationship

𝑘
𝜎𝑌 = 𝜎0 +
𝑑

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Plastic flow curve

s
• The flow curve is usually expressed by a
power-law,

𝜎 𝜀𝑝 = 𝐾𝜀𝑝𝑛

• This expression was found to work well for

ep
several classes of metals: but only in terms
of engineering stress vs engineering strain! lns

• The great advantages of this expression are: n

• Only two parameters that can be easily
determined by linear fit on the log-log
stress-strain plane ln(K)

lnep
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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Plastic flow curve

s
• The plastic exponent has the meaning
of the plastic strain at the onset necking

• Considère framework:
• During tensile deformation the net
resisting is reduced and the load has to
decrease e
• During tensile deformation the material
strain hardens, load has to increase
• At necking the two effect are equal
𝜀𝑝 = 𝜀𝑢 → 𝜎 = 𝜎𝑢
𝑑𝜎
𝐼𝑛𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑑𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝜎 = 𝑑𝜀
𝑑𝜀𝑝 𝑝
𝑃 𝑃 𝑑𝐴 𝑑𝜎
𝐷𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑑𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑑𝜎 = 𝑑 = − = 𝜎𝑑𝜀𝑝 → = 𝜎𝑢
𝐴 𝐴 𝐴 𝑑𝜀𝑝
𝜀𝑝 =𝜀𝑢

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Plastic flow curve

Therefore, substituting:

𝜀𝑝 = 𝜀𝑢 → 𝜎𝑢 = 𝐾𝜀𝑢𝑚

𝑑𝜎 s
𝜀𝑝 = 𝜀𝑢 → = 𝐾𝑛𝜀𝑢𝑚−1 = 𝜎𝑢
𝑑𝜀𝑝

𝐾𝑛𝜀𝑢𝑚−1 = 𝐾𝜀𝑢𝑚

𝑚 = 𝜀𝑢

e
The hardening exponent is the strain at the
onset necking!

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Plastic flow curve

Decreasing the grain size:
The yield stress increases, and eu becomes
vanishing small: ductility is lost!

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Plastic flow curve

The Ramberg–Osgood equation was proposed 𝜀𝑡 = 𝜀𝑒 + 𝜀𝑝
to describe the non linear relationship
between stress and strain in materials near
their yield points. 𝜎 𝜎 𝑛
𝜀𝑡 = + 𝐾
It is especially useful for metals that harden 𝐸 𝐸
with plastic deformation showing a smooth
elastic-plastic transition.
𝑛−1
𝜎 𝜎 𝜎
𝜀𝑡 = + 𝛼 𝜎 ≥ 𝜎𝑌
The expression is given as e function of s. 𝐸 𝐸 𝜎𝑌

As the power-law, it works well for engineering

strain function of engineering stress data.

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Plastic flow curve

A good candidate expression for the flow curve
Today, with the use of computer, there is no has to reach a saturation stress for infinite
need for simple expression for the stress-strain strain, since the number of dislocations that
curve. can be generated is finite.

In finite element codes, the flow curve can be A versatile expression is the Voce type law:
given in tabular form or by user subroutine.
𝜎 = 𝜎𝑌 + 𝑅 1 − exp −𝜀𝑝 /𝑏

The major limitation of the power-law

expression is that it returns infinite stress for When needed multiple terms may be added,
infinite strain and this is unphysical. 𝑛

𝜎 = 𝜎𝑌 + 𝑅𝑖 1 − exp −𝜀𝑝 /𝑏𝑖

𝑖=1

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Plastic flow curve

Strain rate and temperature effects can be
accounted for modifying the flow curve
expression.
1/𝑞
𝜀
Cowper and Symonds: 𝜎 = 𝐴 + 𝐵𝜀𝑝𝑚 1+
𝐷

𝑚
𝜀 𝑇 − 𝑇0
Johnson and Cook: 𝜎 = 𝐴 + 𝐵𝜀𝑝𝑚 1 + 𝐶𝑙𝑜𝑔 1−
𝐷 𝑇𝑚 − 𝑇0

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 Mechanical behavior of materials

Suggested reading
• Brnic, Josip. Analysis of Engineering
Structures and Material Behavior. John
Wiley & Sons, 2018.

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