Accurate plane strain compression test validation

Abstract Large strain characterization of sheet metals has become increasingly important with the generalization of advanced high strength steels, for which the tensile test provides data over a very reduced strain range. Among the numerous alternative characterization tests, the plane strain compression test (PSCT) requires a small amount of material and classical testing machine and acquisition. PSCT was mainly used for hot forming characterization, but recently it has been proved sufficiently accurate for application in cold metal forming. This work provides an in-depth validation of the PSCT by means of the finite element method. When converting the PSCT force-displacement curve into a stress-strain curve (flow curve), several analytical corrections are applied. Several sets of such corrections terms were proposed in the literature, some of which are consistently used by all authors, while others being only used in some papers. The FE simulation of the test was used in order to validate these correction terms and their hypotheses. The originality of the approach is the design of a sequence of test configurations which allow for the individual validation of each and every one of the correction terms concerning the effect of several test parameters. The FE simulations showed that the analytical exploitation of the PSCT provides a very good accuracy. They helped identifying the most suitable correction terms to consider.