Numerical study of deformation behavior of rolled AZ31B plate under cyclic loading in different material orientations based on the EVPSC-TDT model

The EVPSC-TDT model is employed to mimic the stabilized stress-strain hysteresis loops of the rolled AZ31B plate under cyclic loading in different material orientations. The predicted stabilized stress-strain hysteresis loops for different material orientations are generally in good agreement with the corresponding experimental data. The key features associated with twinning and detwinning are interpreted in terms of activities of deformation modes. To appropriately mimic the cyclic plastic response of the rolled AZ31B plate, cyclic loading experiments should also be accounted for in determining the Voce-type hardening law parameters in the current model. The equation proposed in the literature is used in the current model to describe the evolution of residual twinning during cyclic loading, and a threshold equation with a new parameter is proposed to constrain fresh twinning and retwining. The effects of parameters in the two equations on cyclic plastic response are investigated. To approximately describe the apparent easier reverse motion of twin boundaries, the initial CRSS of detwinning is set to be half of that of twinning, and for simplicity the other voce-type hardening law parameters are kept the same for both twinning and detwinning. The effect of initial CRSS of detwinning on plastic response during reverse loading is also investigated. The inelastic behavior is predicted to occur at the very end of the unloading process for the 90° (ND) material orientation, which is ascribed to detwinning. It is assumed that the magnitude of internal tensile stress upon unloading together with that of the activation stress for detwinning determine when or whether detwinning will occur during unloading. The discrepancies between numerical simulations and experiments of the pseudo-elasticity behavior might be because the current mean field model based on self-consistent schemes might not properly describe some microstructure related properties of the AZ31B plate and so underestimates the internal tensile stresses of twinned grains before unloading, which deserves further investigation.