Investigation of evolving yield surfaces of dual-phase steels

The aim of this paper is to describe the evolving yield behavior of dual-phase steels during plastic deformation characterized for ten loading paths using a series of mechanical tests including uniaxial tension, uniaxial compression, in-plane torsion and cruciform biaxial tension with the aid of digital image correlation techniques for strain measurement. Large plastic strains in the gauge area of cruciform specimens tested were enabled by a laser deposition process to strengthen the arms in order to measure deformation behavior of the sheet without arbitrarily thinning the gauge section. Experimental yield loci were determined for three dual phase steels with different strength levels up to equivalent plastic strains of ˜0.11 for DP590, ˜0.07 for DP780, ˜0.05 for DP980, respectively. Several existing anisotropic yield criteria under both associated flow rule (AFR) and non-associated flow rule (non-AFR) were applied to describe the anisotropic yield behavior of these DP steels. A comparative study was preformed to validate prediction accuracy of yield criteria with experimental measurements including yield loci, yield stresses and rφ -values under uniaxial tension in seven orientations as well as yield stresses and rb -value under equi-biaxial tension. The results show that non-AFR significantly improved prediction accuracy of both stresses and r-values simultaneously. Under non-AFR, an order of two in the yield stress function is sufficient to accurately predict flow stresses. The evolution of both yield stress and plastic potential surfaces of DP steels were illustrated by changing parameters in the yield criterion as functions of equivalent compliance λ¯.