Numerical improvement of viscoplastic nonlinear, finite-element analysis (Q1081363)

Nonlinear finite-element modeling (FEM) for the simulation of plastic forming processes requires repeated solution of sets of nonlinear equations, typically using the Newton-Raphson method. The success of this approach depends strongly on the ability to 'guess' an accurate 'trial' solution which can lead to a convergent final solution. During studies of large-deformation plasticity of a sheet tensile specimen, two conditions made the guess of a trial solution difficult: at the first step (when no previous solution was known) and during later steps (near physical failure) as the deformation became rapidly non-uniform. Several techniques based on an incremental approach to the trial solution were devised to improve the convergence under these conditions. The general method of varying single or multiple parameters in the geometric description, material laws, or boundary conditions while holding remaining parameters constant in order to arrive at effective trial solutions has potential application to a wide range of nonlinar FEM problems. The method is described and the benefits are illustrated by application to the study of transient stress-strain phenomena during nominally tensile deformation. For this problem, failure strains were calculable near the physical limit of formability and a variety of stress-strain curves, including negative workhardening ones, were treated. Without the described modifications, FEM was unable to simulate this problem.