Model-based estimation of the stress-strain curve of metal strips

The identification of the stress-strain curve of metal strips is a common task in the metals industry. As an alternative to commonly used tensile test machines, an inexpensive, model-based optical measurement method is presented. Particular importance was placed on the cost and usability of the method. The indirect approach computes the stress-strain curve based on a measured strip bending line. For the measurement, a metal strip is bent over a solid roll. A defined weight can be mounted at the end of the strip to control the local bending moment in the strip. The bending line of the strip is optically measured by a camera. The identification is carried out based on an optimization problem, where the quadratic error between the measured and the modelled strip bending line is minimized. Experimental results and measurements from a tensile test machine show a good agreement and thus verify the proposed identification method.