A study on anisotropic hardening of 7075 aluminum alloy based on non-associated flow rules

The accurate description of anisotropic plastic deformation is key to accurately predicting the stamping forming of metal sheets. The anisotropic yield criterion, when based on the assumption of isotropic hardening, often leads to significant inaccuracies. To address this issue, this paper observes the anisotropic hardening phenomenon through non-associated flow rules and evaluates the anisotropy of 7075-O aluminum alloy. Through a series of tensile tests, we determined the mechanical properties of 7075-O aluminum alloy in three distinct orientations. To describe the metal hardening behavior, we employed the Swift-Voce hardening criterion. From the hardening curves in three different directions, it was found that AA7075-O exhibits plastic anisotropy. Based on the VUMAT subroutine, finite element simulation of AA7075-O tensile tests was conducted through Abaqus. Compared with the Hill48 model, it was found that the simulated values of the S–Y2009 anisotropic hardening model have a higher degree of agreement with the experimental curves. The S–Y2009 anisotropic hardening model was adopted to predict the earing behavior of AA7075-O during circular cup deep drawing. The root mean square error between the predicted values of the S–Y2009 model and the experimental values was only 0.1795, which is far smaller than that of the Hill48 yield model. Therefore, the SY2009 model has important guiding significance for the stamping forming of metal sheets.