True stress–strain curves of cold worked stainless steel over a large range of strains

True stress–strain curves for cold worked stainless steel were obtained over a range of strains that included a large strain exceeding the strain for the tensile strength (post-necking strain). A specified testing method was used to obtain the stress–strain curves in air at room temperature. The testing method employed the digital image correlation (DIC) technique and iterative finite element analyses (FEA) and was referred to as IFD (Iteration FEA procedure based on DIC measurement) method. Although hourglass type specimens have been previously used for the IFD method, in this study, plate specimens with a parallel gage section were used to obtain accurate yield and tensile strengths together with the stress–strain curves. The stress–strain curves including the post-necking strain were successfully obtained by the IFD method, and it was shown that the stress–strain curves for different degrees of cold work collapsed onto a single curve when the offset strain was considered. It was also shown that the Swift type constitutive equation gave good regression for the true stress–strain curves including the post-necking strain regardless of the degree of cold work, although the Ramberg–Osgood type constitutive equation showed poor fit. In the regression for the Swift type constitutive equation, the constant for power law could be assumed to be nS=0.5.