The role of the experimental data base used to identify material parameters in predicting the cyclic plastic response of an austenitic steel

The first objective of this paper investigates the influence of the previous strain history on ratcheting. New tests were performed where different strain-controlled histories have been applied prior to ratcheting tests. It is demonstrated that under the same conditions, one can observe ratcheting, plastic shakedown or elasticity according to the prior strain-controlled history. The second objective points out the correlation between the experimental data base devoted to the identification of the material parameters and the quality of the predictions in cyclic plasticity. The results suggest that the choice of the tests should be closely linked to the capabilities of the model. In particular, the presence of non proportional strain-controlled tests in the data base may be not a good choice if the model itself is not able to represent explicitly such a character. All tests considered here were performed on 304L SS at room temperature.