Work-hardening behavior of polycrystalline aluminum alloy under multiaxial stress paths

• A thin-walled tubular specimen of A3003-O is subjected to uniaxial, biaxial, and triaxial stress paths.
• The amount of work hardening of the specimen depends on the plastic work and the applied stress path.
• Numerical simulations are performed using the crystal plasticity model.
• The evolution rate of the dislocation density varies depending on the stress path.

A thin-walled tubular specimen of A3003-O is subjected to uniaxial, biaxial, and triaxial stress paths using an axial load-internal pressure-torsion type test machine. For linear multiaxial stress paths, the ratios of axial, circumferential, and shear stresses are kept constant, and the stress–strain relations for various stress paths are measured. The work-hardening behavior of the specimen is evaluated based on the plastic work per unit volume, and contours of equal plastic work are constructed. The shape of the contour changes progressively with increasing plastic strain. Therefore, the amount of work hardening of the specimen depends on the plastic work and the applied stress path. In order to clarify the source of such work-hardening behavior, numerical simulations are performed using the crystal plasticity model. Two hardening models are adopted. In one model, the slip resistance is given as a function of accumulated slip, and, in the other model, the slip resistance is given as a function of dislocation density. The evolution of macroscopic flow stress depends only on the plastic work for the accumulated-slip-based model, and this model cannot predict the experimental trend. On the other hand, the dislocation-density-based model reproduces the stress-path dependent work-hardening behavior observed in the experiments, although quantitative agreement is not fully achieved. In the simulation, the evolution rate of the dislocation density varies depending on the stress path, which is identified as the source of the stress-path-dependent work-hardening behavior.