Inelastic strain recovery of magnesium alloys and a new elastic modulus model

Abstract Cyclic loading-unloading uniaxial tension experiments were performed for AZ31B magnesium sheets. The inelastic strain recovery behavior of the AZ31B sheets unloaded under different plastic strain was investigated. An interesting phenomenon on the elastic modulus change was presented. A new elastic modulus model was presented to characterize the inelastic strain recovery of the AZ31B sheets. Unlike the available models, this elastic modulus model takes both the instant stress and the plastic strain as the variables. The new elastic modulus model was incorporated into the ABAQUS software using the user subroutines. Validation of the subroutines and springback simulations were conducted with the presented elastic modulus models. The results showed that the inelastic strain recovery of the AZ31B sheets can reach 24% of the total strain recovery. The instant elastic modulus model can predict a perfect unloading path. The new elastic modulus model works better than the constant elastic modulus.