A strain rate dependent thermo-elasto-plastic constitutive model for crystalline metallic materials

The strain rate and temperature effects on the deformation behavior of crystalline metal materials have always been a research hotspot. In this paper, a strain rate dependent thermo-elasto-plastic constitutive model was established to investigate the deformation behavior of crystalline metal materials. Firstly, the deformation gradient was re-decomposed into three parts: thermal part, elastic part and plastic part. Then, the thermal strain was introduced into the total strain and the thermo-elastic constitutive equation was established. For the plastic behavior, a new relation between stress and plastic strain was proposed to describe the strain rate and temperature effects on the flow stress and work-hardening. The stress–strain curves were calculated over wide ranges of strain rates (10(–6)–6000 s(−1)) and temperatures (233–730 K) for three kinds of crystalline metal materials with different crystal structure: oxygen free high conductivity copper for face centered cubic metals, Tantalum for body centered cubic metals and Ti–6Al–4V alloy for two phase crystal metals. The comparisons between the calculation and experimental results reveal that the present model describes the deformation behavior of crystalline metal materials well. Also, it is concise and efficient for the practical application.