Abstract
In this work, we have employed the strain gradient plasticity theory to investigate the effect of material size on the deformation behavior in metal forming process. Flow stress is expressed in terms of strain, strain gradient (spatial derivative of strain) and intrinsic material length. The least square method coupled with strain gradient plasticity was used to calculate the components of strain gradient at each element of material. For demonstrating the size effect, the proposed approach has been applied to plane compression process and micro rolling process. Results show when the characteristic length of the material comes to the intrinsic material length, the effect of strain gradient is noteworthy. For the microcompression, the additional work hardening at higher strain gradient regions results in uniform distribution of strain. In the case of micro-rolling, the strain gradient is remarkable at the exit section where the actual reduction of the rolling finishes and subsequently strong work hardening take places at the section. This results in a considerable increase in rolling force. Rolling force with the strain gradient plasticity considered in analysis increases by 20% compared to that with conventional plasticity theory.
