Physically Based Constitutive Model for Body Centered Cubic Metals with Applications to Iron

A constitutive model is developed in this work to describe the mechanical behavior of body centered cubic metals under a wide range of strain rates and temperatures. The model is based on macromechanical state variables such as stress, strain, and material constants that include threshold and transition temperature as well as micromechanical terms such as mobile dislocation density and burgers vector. The principle of the activation energy and its dependence on temperature, strain rate, and stress is the key point in this proposed model. The model is used to simulate the experimental behavior of pure iron at various temperatures and strain rates in order to obtain the different model parameters. The model shows good capability in capturing the coupling between strain rate and temperature, plastic strain and strain rate, and plastic strain and temperature. The model is used to characterize the hardness of iron at low and high strain rates for a representative strain of 8%.