Importance of Anisotropic Coefficients for Material Constitutive Models in Forming and Crushing Simulations

The unique material properties of aluminium material have gained more attention in automotive and aerospace industries owing to its lightweight and high strength, without compensating the safety and performance. In order to develop efficient Finite Element models of tubular elements which undergone prior forming processes, a constitutive material model should be utilized for aluminum alloy sheet to account for plastic anisotropy. The principal aim of the present article is to describe the significance of material anisotropy, and to determine various coefficients for material constitutive models in forming and crushing simulations. The uniaxial tensile tests have been performed to calculate yielding strength, ultimate tensile strength, strain hardening exponent, and anisotropy factor according to ASTM-E517 standard. As a result, the current paper highlighted the significance of utilizing constitutive material model which considers anisotropy, so as to obtain the accurate crashworthiness parameters of energy absorbing tubular structures during numerical simulations.