A coupled temperature and strain rate dependent yield function for dynamic deformations of bcc metals

A coupled temperature and strain rate microstructure physically based yield function is proposed in this work. It is incorporated along with the Clausius–Duhem inequality and an appropriate free energy definition in a general thermodynamic framework for deriving a three-dimensional kinematical model for thermo-viscoplastic deformations of body centered cubic (bcc) metals. The evolution equations are expressed in terms of the material time derivatives of the elastic strain, accumulated plastic strain (isotropic hardening), and the back stress conjugate tensor (kinematic hardening). The viscoplastic multipliers are obtained using both the Consistency and Perzyna viscoplasticity models. The athermal yield function is employed instead of the static yield function in the case of the Perzyna viscoplasticity model. It is found that the static strain rate value, at which the material shows rate-independent behavior, varies with the material deformation temperature. Computational aspects of the proposed model are addressed through the finite element implementation with an implicit stress integration algorithm. Finite element simulations are performed by implementing the proposed viscoplasticity constitutive models in the commercial finite element program ABAQUS/Explicit [ABAQUS, 2003. User Manual, Version 6.3. Habbitt, Karlsson and Sorensen Inc., Providence, RI] via the user material subroutine coded as VUMAT. Numerical implementation for a simple compression problem meshed with one element is used to validate the proposed model implementation with applications to tantalum, niobium, and vanadium at low and high strain rates and temperatures. The analysis of a tensile shear banding is also investigated to show the effectiveness and the performance of the proposed framework in describing the strain localizations at high velocity impact. Results show mesh independency as a result of the viscoplastic regularization used in the proposed formulation.