Effect of viscoplastic flow rules on the initiation and growth of shear bands at high strain rates

M ARCHAND and Duffy have reported detailed measurements of the temperature and strain as a shear band develops in a HY-100 steel. Assuming their torsional tests in thin-wall tubes can be adequately modeled by a viscoplastic block undergoing overall adiabatic simple shearing deformations, we investigate the effect of modeling the viscoplastic response of the material by a.power law, and flow rules proposed by Litonski, Bodner and Partom, and Johnson and Cook. Each of these flow rules is first calibrated by using the test data at a nominal strain-rate of 3300 s ^-1. Then predictions from the use of these flow rules at nominal strain-rates of 1400 s ^-1 and 1600 s ^-1 are compared with the experimental findings. It is found that the Bodner-Partom law and the dipolar theory proposed by Wright and Batra predict reasonably well the main features of the shear band formation in a HY-100 steel.