Investigation of the Unloading Yield Effect in Aluminum and Magnesium Sheet Metal Alloys at Room Temperature

Abstract

The reduction of CO2-emissions and the lowering of fuel consumption are two main objectives in the automotive industry. To reach these targets, conventional materials like deep drawing steels are substituted by new modern lightweight materials such as aluminum and magnesium alloys. During forming of sheet metal parts, the material experiences a plastic deformation, which can affect the part quality regarding the amount of springback or the occurrence of stretcher strain marks. In this context, a time dependent change of the material behavior can emerge after removing the part from the forming tool. Within this contribution, the influence of pre-strain and the unloading yield effect on the subsequent mechanical behavior of the aluminum alloy AA7020 and the magnesium alloy AZ31B are investigated. Additionally, the time dependency of mechanical properties is analyzed for different aging times from 5 seconds to one week after pre-straining. The results show a significant increase of unloading yield effect with increasing pre-strain during uniaxial tension.