Establishment of size-dependant constitutive model of micro-sheet metal materials

Abstract The inherent mechanism of size effect in micro-sheet material behavior of plastic forming was explained by the surface layer model and theory of metal crystal plasticity. A size-dependant constitutive model based on the surface layer model was established by introducing the scale parameters and modifying the classical Hall–Petch equation. The influence of the geometric dimensions and the grain size on the flow behavior of the material was discussed using the new material constitutive model. The results show that, the flow stress decreases while the sheet metal thickness decreases when the grain size keeps constant, and the micro-sheet metal with a larger grain size is more easily to be influenced by the size effects. The material constitutive model established is validated by the stress–strain curve of the micro-sheet metal with different thicknesses derived from the tensile experiments. The rationality of the material model is verified by the fact that the calculation results are consistent with the experimental results.