Constitutive modeling for high-temperature tensile deformation behavior of pure molybdenum considering strain effects

• Uniaxial tensile tests were performed on a pure molybdenum sheet in the hot environment.
• Constitutive equation was established to describe the flow stress behavior of pure molybdenum at elevated temperature.
• Material constants were expressed by the polynomial fitting of true strain.

In order to get a reliable constitutive equation for the accurate simulation, high temperature flow behavior of molybdenum sheet was investigated by performing uniaxial hot tensile tests in the temperature range of 993–1143 K at an interval of 50 K with strain rates ranging from 0.0005 to 0.02 s− 1. The true stress–strain curves revealed the characteristics of strain hardening and followed by flow softening under lower strain rates at temperature over 1093 K, and the dominant role of work hardening at higher strain rates and lower temperatures. Considering the effects of strain rates and temperature incorporating strain on the flow behavior, the Arrhenius-type constitutive equation with material constants expressed by the polynomial fitting of strain was established, and the flow stress values predicted by the constitutive equation agreed well with the experimental results.