Influence of Strain Gradient on Springback of Thin Pure Titanium Foils in Microbending Assisted by Resistance Heating

Abstract

Strain gradient is known as an important factor that influences springback of bent components in microscale. Compared with thicker foils, thinner foils usually indicate more strain gradient due to non-uniform material deformation. A resistance heating (RH) method is an effective approach to obtain homogenous material flow by heating foils within only several minutes. To predict springback of foils bent at elevated temperatures, an investigation of the influence of strain gradient on springback is indispensable. To achieve this, microbending tests assisted by RH were conducted at different temperatures ranging from 298 to 723 K in the present study. 0.05 mm-thick pure Ti foils with varying grain sizes of 2.7, 14.7, and 24.5 μm were used. As results, normalized bending moment decreased with increasing temperature and with increasing grain size. The less strain gradient of the foils with larger grain size and at elevated temperatures was confirmed to be the reason according to a theoretical analysis of springback using the constitutive model considering statically stored dislocations (SSDs) and geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs). The predicted normalized bending moment by theoretical calculation showed good agreement with experimental results at the temperature of 573 K or higher but not at the temperature lower than 573 K. It was found that the springback of the foils was influenced by the strain gradient at low temperatures. Furthermore, the size effects caused by strain gradient reduced as the bending temperature increases.