Phenomenological modelling of flow behaviour of 20MnMoNi55 reactor pressure vessel steel at cryogenic temperature with different strain rates

In the present study a phenomenological constitutive model is developed to describe the flow behaviour of 20MnMoNi55 low carbon reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steel at sub-zero temperature under different strain rates. A set of uniaxial tensile tests is done with the variation of strain rates and temperature ranging from 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹ to 10⁻¹ s⁻¹ and -80 °C to −140 °C respectively. From the experimental data, family of flow curves at different temperatures and strain rates are generated and fitted exponentially. The strain rate and temperature dependence of the coefficients of the exponential flow curves are extracted from these curves and characterised through a general phenomenological constitutive coupled equation. The coefficients of this coupled equation are optimised using genetic algorithm. Finite element simulation of tensile tests at different strain rates and temperatures are done using this coupled equation in material model of Abaqus FEA software and validated with experimental results. The novelties of proposed model are: (a) it can predict precisely the flow behaviour of tensile tests (b) it is a simple form of equation where fitting parameters are both function of strain rate ratio and temperature ratio, (c) it has ability to characterize flow behaviour with decreasing subzero temperatures and increasing strain rates.