Thermal deformation analysis of an aluminum alloy utilizing 3D DIC

Abstract

The thermally induced behavior of a 6000 series Aluminum Alloy is investigated in this study. The objective of this experiment is to replicate the deformation and the heating cycles a sheet of the Aluminum Alloy is subjected to during production. Various surface strains are achieved by introducing the sample geometries to different loading conditions. Axial strains are induced in thin flat dogbone specimens via static tension tests with varying displacement. In addition, bending strains are generated in thin flat rectangular specimens via a three point bend test with varying punch radii. The specimens are then placed in a furnace with a heat cycle that ranges from 130 to 190 °C. Three dimensional digital image correlation is used to measure the surface strain during the initial deformation and heating cycle for all experiments. The resulting surface strain and temperature data is used to investigate the effect of temperature and initial strain on the permanent thermallyinduced strain from the heating cycle.