Experimental Investigation and FE Analysis on Constitutive Relationship of High Strength Aluminum Alloy under Cyclic Loading

Abstract

Experiments of 17 high strength aluminum alloy (7A04) specimens were conducted to investigate the constitutive relationship under cyclic loading. The monotonic behavior and hysteretic behavior were focused on and the fracture surface was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) to investigate the microfailure modes. Based on Ramberg-Osgood model, stress-strain skeleton curves under cyclic loading were fitted. Parameters of combined hardening model including isotropic hardening and kinematic hardening were calibrated from test data according to Chaboche model. The cyclic tests were simulated in finite element software ABAQUS. The test results show that 7A04 aluminum alloy has obvious nonlinearity and ultra-high strength which is over 600 MPa, however, with relatively poor ductility. In the cyclic loading tests, 7A04 aluminum alloy showed cyclic hardening behavior and when the compressive strain was larger than 1%, the stiffness degradation and strength degradation occurred. The simulated curves derived by FE model fitted well with experimental curves which indicates that the parameters of this combined model can be used in accurate calculation of 7A04 high strength aluminum structures under cyclic loading.