High-strain-rate tests on titanium 6-6-2 utilizing a unique rate-testing machine

This paper presents the design of a unique materials-testing system capable of medium strain rates of from 10^?4 to 10²/s. The design incorporates both closed-loop hydraulic operation with that of open-loop pneumatic operation. A novel design permits accurate specimen alignment and a stiff frame which exceeds 17×10⁶ lb/in. (11.7×10⁴ MPa). The mechanine is able to perform conventional tension/compression tests, fatigue tests and, with slight modification, biaxial-stress-tube tests and triaxial-stress tests. The accurate alignment capability coupled with high frame stiffness and the pneumatic operation enables the testing of brittle materials with rigid grips. Titanium 6-6-2 was tested in both tension and compression at strain rates from 10^?4 to about 10/s at four selected temperatures. The material showed a slight strain-rate sensitivity. Yield stress was shown to increase with strain rate while ductility decreased at each test temperature.     

A study of localisation in dual-phase high-strength steels under dynamic loading using digital image correlation and FE analysis

Tensile tests were conducted on dual-phase high-strength steel in a Split-Hopkinson Tension Bar at a strain-rate in the range of 150–600/s and in a servo-hydraulic testing machine at a strain-rate between 10^?3 and 10⁰/s. A novel specimen design was utilized for the Hopkinson bar tests of this sheet material. Digital image correlation was used together with high-speed photography to study strain localisation in the tensile specimens at high rates of strain. By using digital image correlation, it is possible to obtain in-plane displacement and strain fields during non-uniform deformation of the gauge section, and accordingly the strains associated with diffuse and localised necking may be determined. The full-field measurements in high strain-rate tests reveal that strain localisation started even before the maximum load was attained in the specimen. An elasto-viscoplastic constitutive model is used to predict the observed stress–strain behaviour and strain localisation for the dual-phase steel. Numerical simulations of dynamic tensile tests were performed using the non-linear explicit FE code LS-DYNA. Simulations were done with shell (plane stress) and brick elements. Good correlation between experiments and numerical predictions was achieved, in terms of engineering stress–strain behaviour, deformed geometry and strain fields. However, mesh density plays a role in the localisation of deformation in numerical simulations, particularly for the shell element analysis.     

The strain-rate effect and the incremental plastic wave in copper

An experimental investigation was conducted to determine the degree of sensitivity of commerically pure copper to strain rate and to note the effect of this sensitivity on the velocity of propagation of shearing strain in copper. Thin-walled cylindrical specimens of copper were loaded in torsion to eliminate the effects of radial inertia. All specimens were annealed and then cold worked in torsion to obtain necessary specimen uniformity. Quasi-static tests were performed on short-length specimens to determine the shearing stress-strain curve of copper at a very low strain rate. The strain-rate sensitivity of copper at low strain rates, from 3×10^?4/sec to 5/sec, was tested by loading short specimens at a very slow continuous rate and then suddenly increasing the strain rate. A quasi-static test was also performed to determine the effect of creep on prestressed copper. Dynamic tests involving strain rates up to 500/sec were performed on long specimens with a torsional impact machine. Specimens were tested under stress-free and prestressed initial conditions. The prestressed specimen was loaded at a slow, continuous rate before impact to avoid the undesirable effects of creep which would have occurred with a static preload. Results from the quasi-static tests showed that copper is noticeably sensitive to strain rate in the low strain-rate regions, but that the sensitivity becomes almost constant as the strain rate is increased. Results from the dynamic tests showed that large strains propagated at speeds which agreed well with speeds predicted by the strain-rate-independent theory of plastic-wave propagation. The lower-level strains in the prestressed specimen, however, propagated at much higher speeds than are predicted by the strain-rate independent. Because radial-inertia effects were not present, this discrepancy in measured and predicted speeds for low-level strains must be due to the strain-rate sensitivity of copper.     

Tensile testing of materials at high rates of strain

A tension version of the split Hopkinson bar or Kolsky apparatus is developed for conducting tests in tension at high rates of strain up to 10³ s^?1. A number of aluminum, titanium, and steel alloys tested in tension show increasing degrees of rate sensitivity above 10 to 10² s^?1. Tests on 6061-T651 and 7075-T6 aluminum show measurable strain-rate sensitivity in tension at the highest strain rates, although similar tests in compression in the literature show essentially no strain-rate sensitivity. Details of the apparatus and instrumentation and guidelines for its use are presented.     

Strain-rate history and temperature effects on the torsional-shear behavior of a mild steel

Previous investigations on the effects of strain-rate and temperature histories on the mechanical behavior of steel are briefly reviewed. A study is presented on the influence of strain rate and strain-rate history on the shear behavior of a mild steel, over a wide range of temperature Experiments were performed on thin-walled tubular specimens of short gage length, using a torsional split-Hopkinson-bar apparatus adapted to permit quasi-static as well as dynamic straining at different temperatures. The constant-rate behavior was first measured at nominal strain rates of 10^?3 and 10³ s^?1 for ?150, ?100, ?50, 20, 200 and 400°C. Tests were then carried out, at the same temperatures, in which the strain rate was suddenly increased during deformation from the lower to the higher rate at various large values of plastic strain. The increase in rate occurred in a time of the order of 20 μs so that relatively little change of strain took place during the jump. The low strain-rate results show a well-defined elastic limit but no yield drop, a small yield plateau is found at room temperature. The subsequent strain hardening shows a maximum at 200°C, when serrated flow occurs and the ductility is reduced. The high strain-rate results show a considerable drop of stress at yield. The post-yield flow stress decreases steadily with increasing temperature, throughout the temperature range investigated. At room temperature and below, the strain-hardening rate becomes negative at large strains. The adiabatic temperature rise in the dynamic tests was computed on the assumption that the plastic work is entirely converted to heat. This enabled the isothermal dynamic stress-strain curves to be calculated, and showed that considerable thermal softening took place. The initial response to a strain-rate jump is approximately elastic, and has a magnitude which increases with decrease of testing temperature; it is little affected by the amount of prestrain. At 200 and 400° C, a yield drop occurs after the initial stress increment. The post-jump flow stress is always greater than that for the same strain in a constant-rate dynamic test, the strain-hardening rate becoming negative at large strains or low testing temperature. This observed effect of strain-rate history cannot be explained by the thermal softening accompanying dynamic deformation. These and other results concerning total ductility under various strain-rate and temperature conditions show that strain-rate history strongly affects the mechanical behavior of the mild steel tested and, hence, should be taken into account in the formulation of constitutive equations for that material.     

Constitutive modeling of the dynamic fracture of smooth tensile bars

A recently developed viscoplastic-damage type of constitutive theory for high strain-rate flow processes and ductile fracture is used to model the deformation and fracture of dynamically loaded smooth cylindrical tensile bars. The analysis assumes polycrystalline materials which usually contain microvoids with an average density of the order of 10⁶ per cm³ that are dispersed homogeneously throughout. It is shown that for dynamically imposed loading that produce nominal strain rates ranging between 5 × 10² − 5 × 10³ sec ⁻¹, the inhomogeneous fields of stress and deformation caused by wave propagation and wave reflection induce necking at different locations along the gauge section, depending upon the strain-rate imposed. This occurs without imposition of any geometrical or material irregularity to preposition the location of the necking. The imposed rate of strain is also shown to affect the magnitude of the strain at which necking initiates, as well as the strain required for fracture.     

High strain-rate crack growth in rate-dependent plastic solids

At high crack velocities in metallic materials nearly all plastic strain accumulates at very high strain-rates, typically in the range 10³ s^?1 to 10⁵ s^?1. At these rates, dislocation motion is limited by dynamic lattice effects and the plastic strain-rate increases approximately linearly with stress. The problem for a crack growing at high velocity is posed for steady-state, small scale yielding in elastic/rate-dependent plastic solids. A general expression is derived for the near-tip stress intensity factor in terms of the remote intensity factor, or equivalently for the near-tip energy release-rate in terms of the overall release-rate. An approximate calculation of the plastic strain-rates provides this relation in analytical form. Imposition of the condition that the near-tip energy release-rate be maintained at a critical value provides a propagation equation for the growing crack. A single, nondimensional combination of material constants emerges as the controlling parameter. Implications for dynamic crack propagation are discussed.     

A comparison of quasi-static uniaxial-strain and hugoniot tests for quartz-phenolic composite

The purpose of this paper is to show that, within experimental uncertainty, the change in volume with stress obtained by quasi-static uniaxial-strain tests matches that obtained by hugoniot experiments over the same pressure range for quartz phenolic. The result of these tests shows that comparing the data by both techniques is meaningful. In addition, the use of the relatively simple and inexpensive quasi-static uniaxial-strain test (strain rates of 10^?4/sec) may provide designers and materials engineers a method for rapid surveying of materials for their hugoniot properties.     

Evaluation of the Material Properties of an OFHC Copper Film at High Strain Rates Using a Micro-Testing Machine

The material properties of an oxygen-free high thermal conductivity (OFHC) film with a thickness of 0.1 mm were evaluated at strain rates ranging from 10⁻³/s to 10³/s using a high-speed material micro-testing machine (HSMMTM). The high strain-rate material properties of thin films are important especially for an evaluation of the structural reliability of micro-formed parts and MEMS products. The high strain-rate material testing methods of thin films, however, have yet to be established to the point that the testing methods of larger specimens for electronics, auto-body, train, ship, and ocean structures are. For evaluation, a new type of HSMMTM was developed to conduct high-speed tensile tests of thin films. This machine is capable of testing at a sufficiently high tensile speed with an electromagnetic actuator, a novel gripping mechanism, and an accurate load measurement system. The OFHC copper film shows high strain-rate sensitivity in terms of the flow stress, fracture elongation, and strain hardening. These measures increase as the tensile strain rate increases. The rate-dependent material properties of an OFHC copper film are also compared with those of a bulk OFHC copper sheet with a thickness of 1 mm. The flow stress of an OFHC copper film is relatively low compared to that of a bulk OFHC copper sheet in the entire range of strain rates, while the fracture elongation of an OFHC copper film is much larger than that of a bulk OFHC copper sheet. A quantitative comparison would provide material data at high strain rates for the design and analysis of micro-appliances and different types of micro-equipment.     

Determination of stress-strain characteristics at very high strain rates

A modified version of the Kolsky thin-wafer technique is described. The method permits one to obtain the dynamic plastic properties of materials at strain rates as high as 10⁵ sec^?1. Data obtained from compression tests on high-purity aluminum are presented for strain rates ranging from 4000 to 120,000 sec^?1 at room temperature. Specimen-size effects and the effect of lateral inertia are taken into account in analyzing the data. The results plotted as stress vs. strain rate at constant strains (5 to 20 percent) show that, at the highest strain rates, the stress rises very rapidly with strain rate suggesting that a limiting strain rate is being reached. At the lower strain rates (10³ to 10⁴ sec^?1), the stress is linearly proportional to the strain rate indicating that the material is deforming in a viscous manner.     

Annular Pulse Shaping Technique for Large-Diameter Kolsky Bar Experiments on Concrete

The goal of this study is to design a novel annular pulse shaping technique for large-diameter Kolsky bars for investigating the dynamic compressive response of concretes. The purpose of implementing an annular pulse shaper design is to alleviate inertia-induced stresses in the pulse shaper material that would otherwise superpose unwanted oscillations on the incident wave. This newly developed pulse shaping technique led to well-controlled testing conditions enabling dynamic stress equilibrium, uniform deformation, and constant strain-rate in the testing of a chosen concrete material. The observed dynamic deformation rate of the concrete is highly consistent (8 % variation) with the stress in the specimen well equilibrated confirming the validity of this new technique. Experimental results at both quasi-static (10^?4 s^?1) and dynamic (100 s^?1, 240 s^?1) strain rates showed that the failure strength of this concrete is rate-sensitive.     

The effect of strain rate and heat developed during deformation on the stress-strain curve of plastics

Polymethylmethacrylate, cellulose acetate butyrate, polypropylene and nylon 6–6 have been characterized in compression at various strain rates from 10^?4 s^?1 to 10³ s^?1 at room temperature. A medium strain-rate machine and a split-Hopkinson-bar apparatus are used in conducting the experiments. The temperature rise developed during deformation is also measured by using a thermocouple. All four materials tested definitely show a viscous effect at the beginning of the deformation and a plastic flow follows thereafter. Test results also indicate that the temperature rise developed during deformation cannot be neglected in determining the dynamic response of those materials investigated in this study.     

Dynamic deformation of metals under high hydrostatic pressure

A method for investigating the static and dynamic deformation of materials subjected to hydrostatic confining pressures is described. Results of tests on high-purity (99.995 percent) copper in compression are given. These tests cover a range of hydrostatic pressures from one to 6,985 bars (100,000 psi) and strain rates from 0.001 to 10,000 sec^?1. The results show a definite strain-rate effect which is dependent on pressure.     

Effects of strain rate and moisture content on the behaviour of sand under one-dimensional compression

The influence of strain rate and moisture content on the behaviour of a quartz sand was assessed using high-pressure quasi-static (10^?3 s^?1) and high-strain rate (10³ s^?1) experiments under uniaxial strain. Quasi-static compression to axial stresses of 800 MPa was carried out alongside split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) experiments to 400 MPa, where in each case lateral deformation of the specimen was prevented using a steel test box or ring, and lateral stresses were recorded. A significant increase in constrained modulus was observed between strain rates of 10^?3s^?1 and 10³s^?1, however a consistently lower Poisson’s ratio in the dynamic tests minimised changes in bulk modulus. The reduction in Poissons ratio suggests that the stiffening of the sand in the SHPB tests is due to additional inertial confinement rather than an inherent strain-rate dependence. In the quasi-static tests the specimens behaved less stiffly with increasing moisture content, while in the dynamic tests the addition of water had little effect on the overall stiffness, causing the quasi-static and dynamic series to diverge with increasing moisture content.     

Strain-rate and strain-rate-history effects in several metals in torsion

A machine for testing thin-walled tubes in torsion at shear-strain rates up to 25/sec is described. Results of constant and variable-strain-rate tests are presented for 1100-0 aluminum, AISI 1020 steel, and 50-A titanium. Results indicate that 1100-0 aluminum is very slightly strain-rate sensitive, but steel and titanium are noticeably sensitive to both strain rate and strain-rate history. Variable-rate tests show that subsequent dynamic loading on a statically prestrained specimen causes an increase in the flow stress in steel and a decrease in the flow stress in titanium.     

Elasto-visco-plastic modeling of mild steels for sheet forming applications over a large range of strain rates

A physically based elasto-visco-plastic constitutive model is presented and compared to experimental results for three different mild steels. The experiments consist of tensile tests ranging from quasi-static conditions up to strain rates of 10³ s^?1 as well as quasi-static simple and reverse shear tests at different amounts of pre-strain. Additional two-step sequential mechanical tests (Bauschinger and orthogonal effects) have been performed to further evaluate the ability of the model to describe strain-path changes at moderate/large strains. The model requires significantly fewer material parameters compared to other visco-plasticity models from the literature, while being able to describe some of the main features of the strain-rate sensitivity of mild steels. Accordingly, the parameter identification is simple and intuitive, requiring a relatively small set of experiments. The strain-rate sensitivity modeling is not restricted to a particular hardening law and thus provides a general framework in which advanced hardening equations can be adopted.     

Rubber-like behaviour of poly(ethylene oxide) solution in elongational flow

The behaviour of an aqueous poly(ethylene oxide) sucrose solution and of a suspension of glass beads in a similar solution has been examined in elongational flow using a spinline rheometer. Over the accessible strain-rate range of ca. 1 to 10 s^?1 these fluids behaved essentially as elastic materials whereas, at similar strain rates in shear, they show shear-thinning behaviour.     

Compression-impact testing of aluminum at elevated temperatures

This paper presents and experimental technique for determining compressive stress-strain curves well into the plastic range of relatively soft metals at strain rates from 300 to 2000 sec^?1 at six temperatures from 30 to 550° C. More than 100 curves were obtained on annealed 1100° F aluminum. The strain-rate dependence in these tests could be fitted quite well either by a power function (log-log plot) or by a semilogarithmic plot, but the power function gave a better correlation of the present data with that obtained at lower strain rates by Alder and Phillips.¹     

Stress-strain relationships for spruce wood: Influence of strain rate,moisture content and loading direction

The influence of strain rate, moisture content and loading direction on the stress-strain relationships for spruce wood has been investigated. The strain rates were approximately 8×10⁻³ s⁻¹, 17s⁻¹ and 1000 s⁻¹, and the states of moisture content were those corresponding to oven dry, fiber saturated and fully saturated. Compressive loads were applied along the principal directions of the stem of the tree, i.e., radially, tangentially and axially. The low and medium strain-rate tests were performed with the aid of a servohydraulic testing machine, while the high strain-rate tests were carried out using the split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) technique. Magnesium or steel bars were used in the different SHPB tests in order to reduce impedance mismatch for the different directions of the wood specimens. The strain rate was found to have large influence on the behavior of the wood, especially under the condition of full saturation, where water transport in the deforming specimen is of major importance.