Enhanced formability in sheet metals produced by cladding a high strain-rate sensitive layer

The necking behavior of cladding sheets with a rate-sensitive layer cladding on a rate-insensitive core material has been studied. A nonlinear long-wavelength analysis, similar to the one proposed by Hutchinson and Neale (1977, "Influence of Strain-Rate Sensitivity on Necking Under Uniaxial Tension," Acta Metal., 25, pp. 839-846) for monolithic rate-sensitive materials, is developed to identify the onset of necking in a rate-sensitive clad sheet. This relatively simple analysis is validated by comparing its numerical results with those based on more complicated finite element analysis. It is demonstrated that for monolithic rate-sensitive materials the proposed nonlinear analysis reduces to the one developed by Hutchinson and Neale (1977). For cladding sheets, it is found that the necking strain increases monotonically by increasing the strain-rate sensitivity of the clad layer if the volume fraction of cladding is fixed. It is also revealed that, for fixed strain-rate sensitivity of the clad layer, necking localization is retarded by increasing the volume fraction of the cladding layer.