Microstructure-based constitutive modeling for the analysis and design of aluminium sheet forming processes

Finite Element (FE) modeling technology is one of the most powerful tools to design new products (i.e. autobody parts, rigid packaging, aerospace components, appliances, etc.) and processes. Among other features, the material description is an important input to the FE models. This work describes a methodology that provides phenomenological constitutive equations based on the main microstructure components of aluminum alloys including crystallographic texture, dislocation density and precipitate particle distribution. An example constitutive equation with its application to numerical sheet forming process analysis is provided in this work