Measurement and modeling of simple shear deformation under load reversal: Application to advanced high strength steels

• A newly simple shear tester for AHSS was devised.
• The hardening behaviors of simple shear and compression–tension were discussed.
• The HAH model captured with two testing methods for three different AHSS.
• The springback profiles predicted using FE simulation based on two testing methods.

In this paper, the stress–strain behavior under load reversal of advanced high strength steel (AHSS) sheet samples was measured using a modified simple shear (SS) apparatus. The forward–reverse loading behavior was characterized for three different grades of AHSS; namely, DP, TRIP and TWIP steels. For comparison purpose, compression–tension (CT) tests were also carried out for the same materials. For all the cases, a typical complex anisotropic hardening behavior, including the Bauschinger effect, transient strain hardening with high rate and permanent softening, was observed during load reversal. No premature localization and sheet buckling occurred in these experiments, which have been major technical hurdles in CT tests. For example, an engineering shear strain of over 40%, which corresponds to an effective strain of roughly 0.2, at reversal was achieved for DP980 although the uniform elongation of this material in uniaxial tension is only 5%. A recently developed distortional hardening model (HAH) was employed to reproduce the SS stress–strain curves. Using the coefficients determined with these SS data, the CT behavior was predicted with the HAH model and compared with experimental results. This complementary study indicated that the constitutive model determined from the SS flow curves satisfactorily reproduced the CT hardening behavior. As an application, finite element simulations of springback were carried out for 2D draw-bending of a strip sheet.