Plastic deformation of metallic materials during dynamic events

Recently, fully implicit computational capabilities have been developed to predict the plastic behavior of metallic materials (i.e. Ti, Mo) during dynamic events. It is to be noted that within this formulation framework, the equilibrium equations are solved for each time increment. The couplings of the numerical framework to the Cazacu et al. [1] plasticity model that accounts for all the key features of the plastic behavior of airframe materials, i.e. the tension-compression asymmetry and the orthotropic behavior, results in high fidelity prediction of the mechanical behavior during dynamic events. The improved predictive capabilities have been assessed for different strain rate conditions and different metallic materials. Furthermore, validation of the models and FE formulation for Taylor impact conditions through comparisons of experimental deformed profiles of Taylor specimens for Ti and Mo has been done. It is worth noting that for the first time, the extent of the zone of plastic deformation, change in geometry and the transition from transient to quasi-steady plastic wave propagation was captured with great fidelity. Furthermore, the model was used to gain understanding of the dynamic deformation process in terms of time evolution of the pressure, the extent of the plastically deformed zone, distribution of the local plastic strain rates, and when the transition to quasi-steady deformation occurs for different dynamic events. It was thus shown that this model has the potential to be used for virtual testing of complex systems.