Integrated Thermomechanical Characterization of Metals Using the Virtual Fields Method

In this paper, the possibility of characterizing the thermomechanical behavior of metals using the virtual fields method (VFM) and suitable specimens with heterogeneous strain and temperature fields was demonstrated using simulated experiments. The used geometry is a double-notched tensile test with a Gaussian distribution of temperature over the surface. The chosen constitutive model is the Johnson-Cook hardening law coupled with the Hill48 anisotropic yield criterion. First the VFM strategy and the simulated experiments are described. Then the results are presented showing three case studies, (i) only the effect of the temperature is identified, (ii) the whole set of constitutive parameters is identified at the same time, (iii) a two-step identification is performed. The potentiality of the method as well as the main problems are discussed extensively.