A user-friendly yield criterion for metals exhibiting tension-compression asymmetry

The aim of this paper is to model the yielding asymmetry of pressure-insensitive metals, including but not limited to Ni₃Al alloys. The main focuses are put on the flexibility and manipulative convenience. The parameters of theory are kept to a minimum and can be determined by as few tests as possible. These requirements are fulfilled by constructing a yield function using the second and third-invariants of a linearly transformed stress tensor. The proposed yield criterion has a simple mathematical form and has only seven parameters when used in three-dimensional stresses. Compared with existing theories, the new yield criterion has much fewer parameters, which makes it very convenient for practical applications. The coefficients of the criterion are identified by an error minimization procedure. Applications to a Ni₃Al based intermetallic alloy as well as a Cu-Al-Be shape memory alloy and comparison to other criteria show that the proposed criterion has nearly the same predictive ability and flexibility with other criteria. The proposed yield criterion can estimate the coefficients by using less data, which is a big advantage compared with other similar theories, especially when there is a limited number of experimental data.