Numerical and experimental studies of self-organization of shear bands in 7075 aluminium alloy

The evolution of multiple shear bands in 7075 aluminium alloy was investigated through the radial collapse of thick-walled cylinder at two different strain rates. The self-organization of multiple shear bands was also examined and analyzed. The experimental results show that the shear-band evolution is totally different between the two groups of specimens. The experimental shear-band spacings are compared with existing theoretical predictions: Grady–Kipp, Wright–Ockendon and Xue–Meyers theories. The shortcomings in analyzing the experimental spacings with the former two one-dimensional theories are discussed. Xue–Meyers theory expands the WO model to a two-dimensional configuration and can explain the self-organization in experiment. For the first time the self-organization of multiple shear bands during the deformation process was numerically simulated under the condition of uniform shear-band nucleation. In other case, an imperfection was introduced in the model to demonstrate that the non-uniform shear-band nucleation has important influence on the evolution of shear bands.