Mechanical properties and constitutive models of low yield point steels

Abstract

As new advanced high performance structural steels, low yield point (LYP) steels have been widely accepted and used in the technology of energy dissipation for seismic design. This paper is concerned with the mechanical properties and constitutive models of LYP steels fabricated in China. Axial coupons machined from LYP steel plates of LY100, LY160, and LY225 were tested under monotonic and 12 different cyclic loading systems to investigate their material response, including monotonic and hysteretic properties as well as deformation and energy dissipation capacity. The material parameters of the LYP steels for two analytical constitutive models (the Chaboche model and the Hu et al. model) were identified based on the experimental data. Furthermore, the accuracy and applicability of those constitutive models were verified with finite element analysis in ABAQUS by comparing the results of experiments and simulations. The results revealed the high performance of LYP steels in China and provided reliable modeling methods in simulation for engineering applications.