High Strain Rate Torsion Properties of Ultrafine-Grained Aluminum

Mechanical properties of most metallic materials can be improved by reducing their grain size. One of the methods used to reduce the grain size even to the nanometer level is the severe plastic deformation processing. Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) is one of the most promising severe plastic deformation processes for the nanocrystallization of ductile metals. Nanocrystalline and ultrafine grained metals usually have significantly higher strength properties but lower tensile ductility compared to the coarse grained metals. In this work, the torsion properties of ECAP processed ultrafine grained pure 1070 aluminum were studied in a wide range of strain rates using both servohydraulic materials testing machines and Hopkinson Split Bar techniques. The material exhibits extremely high ductility in torsion and the specimens did not fail even after 300% of strain. Pronounced yield point behavior was observed at strain rates 500 s⁻¹ and higher, whereas at lower strain rates the yielding was continuous. The material showed slight strain softening at the strain rate of 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹, almost ideally plastic behavior at strain rates between 10⁻³ s⁻¹ and 500 s⁻¹, and slight but increasing strain hardening at strain rates higher than that. The tests were monitored using digital cameras, and the strain distributions on the surface of the specimens were calculated using digital image correlation. The strain in the specimen localized very rapidly after yielding at all strain rates, and the localization lead to the development of a shear band. At high strain rates the shear band developed faster than at low strain rates.     

A High-frequency High-temperature Optical Strain/Displacement Gage

This paper describes an optical method for measuring strain or crack-opening displacement at high frequencies (20 kHz) and high temperatures (590°C) on a near-real-time basis. Two small reflective markers are placed on a smooth specimen or across a crack. When illuminated with a laser, interference fringes are generated; their motion can be monitored with photomultiplier tubes. The data acquisition system acquires 200 points per 50 microsecond cycle. These are processed, displayed, and stored at a rate of 25 Hz. Applications are in the general area of very high cycle (10⁹ cycles or more) fatigue. Demonstration tests at 20 kHz at room temperature with a strain range of 0.45 percent and at 590°C with a range of 0.2 percent are presented along with room temperature displacements up to 0.7 μm across the center of a 1.4 mm long crack.     

Mechanics of the rate-dependent elastic–plastic deformation of glassy polymers from low to high strain rates

A combined experimental and analytical investigation has been performed to understand the mechanical behavior of two amorphous polymers—polycarbonate and poly(methyl methacrylate)—at strain rates ranging from 10⁻⁴ to 10⁴ s⁻¹. This range in strain rates was achieved in uniaxial tension and compression tests using a dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA), a servo-hydraulic testing machine, and an aluminum split-Hopkinson pressure bar. DMA tension tests were used to characterize the viscoelastic behavior of these materials, with focus on the rate-dependent shift of material transition temperatures. Uniaxial compression tests on the servo-hydraulic machine (10⁻⁴ to 1 s⁻¹) and the split-Hopkinson pressure bar (10³ to 10⁴ s⁻¹) were used to characterize the rate-dependent yield and post-yield behavior. Both materials were observed to exhibit increased rate sensitivity of yield under the same strain rate/temperature conditions as the β-transition of the viscoelastic behavior. A physically based constitutive model for large strain deformation of thermoplastics was then extended to encompass high-rate conditions. The model accounts for the contributions of different molecular motions which become operational and important in different frequency regimes. The new features enable the model to not only capture the transition in the yield behavior, but also accurately predict the post-yield, large strain behavior over a wide range of temperatures and strain rates.     

The characteristics of plastic flow and a physically-based model for 3003 Al–Mn alloy upon a wide range of strain rates and temperatures

The uniaxial compressive responses of 3003 Al–Mn alloy upon strain rates ranging from 0.001/s to about 10⁴/s with initial temperatures from 77 K to 800 K were investigated. Instron servohydraulic testing machine and enhanced split Hopkinson bar facilities have been employed in such uniaxial compressive loading tests. The maximum true strain up to 80% has been achieved. The following observations have been obtained from the experimental results: 1) 3003 Al–Mn alloy presents remarkable ductility and plasticity at low temperatures and high strain rates; 2) its plastic flow stress strongly depends on the applied temperatures and strain rates; 3) the temperature history during deformation strongly affects the microstructure evolution within the material. Finally, paralleled with the systematic experimental investigations, a physically-based model was developed based on the mechanism of dislocation kinetics. The model predictions are compared with the experimental results, and a good agreement has been observed.     

Thermo-mechanical response of nylon 101 under uniaxial and multi-axial loadings: Part I,Experimental results over wide ranges of temperatures and strain rates

A comprehensive study of the thermo-mechanical response of a thermoplastic polymer, nylon 101 is presented. Quasi-static and dynamic compression uniaxial and multi-axial experiments (stress states) were performed at a wide range of strain rates (10⁻⁵ to 5000 s⁻¹) and temperatures (−60 to 177 °C or −76 to 350 °F). The material is found to be non-linearly dependent on strain rate and temperature. The change in volume after plastic deformation is investigated and is found to be negligibly small. The relaxation and creep responses at room temperature are found to be dependent on strain rate and the stress–strain level at which these phenomena are initiated. Total deformation is decomposed into visco-elastic and visco-plastic components; these components have been determined at different levels of deformation. Results from non-proportional uniaxial to biaxial compression, and torsion experiments, are also reported for three different strain rates at room temperature. It is shown that nylon 101 has a response dependent on the hydrostatic pressure.     

Effects of deformed volume, volume fraction and particle size on the deformation behaviour of W/Cu composites

Tungsten/copper (W/Cu) particle reinforced composites were used to investigate the scaling effects on the deformation and fracture behaviour. The effects of the volume fraction and the particle size of the reinforcement (tungsten particles) were studied. W/Cu-80/20, 70/30 and 60/40 wt.% each with tungsten particle size of 10 μm and 30 μm were tested under compression and shear loading. Cylindrical compression specimens with different volumes (D_S = H) were investigated with strain rates between 0.001 s⁻¹ and about 5750 s⁻¹ at temperatures from 20 °C to 800 °C. Axis-symmetric hat-shaped shear specimens with different shear zone widths were examined at different strain rates as well. A clear dependence of the flow stress on the deformed volume and the particle size was found under compression and shear loading. Metallographic investigation was carried out to show a relation between the deformation of the tungsten particles and the global deformation of the specimens. The size of the deformed zone under either compression or shear loading has shown a clear size effect on the fracture of the hat-shaped specimens.The quasi-static flow curves were described with the material law from Swift. The parameters of the material law were presented as a function of the temperature and the specimen size. The mechanical behaviour of the composite materials were numerically computed for an idealized axis-symmetric hat-shaped specimen to verify the determined material law.     

Uniaxial elongational behavior of poly(vinyl chloride) physical gel

A poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC,  M_w = 102×10³)(\mbox{PVC,}\;{\rm M}_{\rm w} =102\times 10^3) di-octyl phthalate (DOP) gel with PVC content of 20 wt.% was prepared by a solvent evaporation method. The dynamic viscoelsticity and elongational viscosity of the PVC/DOP gel were measured at various temperatures. The gel exhibited a typical sol–gel transition behavior with elevating temperature. The critical gel temperature (T_gel) characterized with a power–law relationship between the storage and loss moduli, G^′ and G^″, and frequency ω, G￠=G^￠￠/tan  ( np/2 ) μ wⁿ{G}^\prime={G}^{\prime\prime}{\rm /tan}\;\left( {{n}\pi {\rm /2}} \right)\propto \omega ^{n}, was observed to be 152°C. The elongational viscosity of the gel was measured below the T_gel. The gel exhibited strong strain hardening. Elongational viscosity against strain plot was independent of strain rate. This finding is different from the elongational viscosity behavior of linear polymer solutions and melts. The stress–strain relations were expressed by the neo-Hookean model at high temperature (135°C) near the T_gel. However, the stress–strain curves were deviated from the neo-Hookean model at smaller strain with decreasing temperature. These results indicated that this physical gel behaves as the neo-Hookean model at low cross-linking point, and is deviated from the neo-Hookean model with increasing of the PVC crystallites worked as the cross-linking junctions.     

Experimental Investigation of Strain Rate Dependence of Nanocrystalline Pt Films

A new microscale uniaxial tension experimental method was developed to investigate the strain rate dependent mechanical behavior of freestanding metallic thin films for MEMS. The method allows for highly repeatable mechanical testing of thin films for over eight orders of magnitude of strain rate. Its repeatability stems from the direct and full-field displacement measurements obtained from optical images with at least 25 nm displacement resolution. The method is demonstrated with micron-scale, 400-nm thick, freestanding nanocrystalline Pt specimens, with 25 nm grain size. The experiments were conducted in situ under an optical microscope, equipped with a digital high-speed camera, in the nominal strain rate range 10⁻⁶–10¹ s⁻¹. Full field displacements were computed by digital image correlation using a random speckle pattern generated onto the freestanding specimens. The elastic modulus of Pt, E = 182 ± 8 GPa, derived from uniaxial stress vs. strain curves, was independent of strain rate, while its Poisson’s ratio was v = 0.41 ± 0.01. Although the nanocrystalline Pt films had the elastic properties of bulk Pt, their inelastic property values were much higher than bulk and were rate-sensitive over the range of loading rates. For example, the elastic limit increased by more than 110% with increasing strain rate, and was 2–5 times higher than bulk Pt reaching 1.37 GPa at 10¹ s⁻¹.     

Influence of temperature and strain rate on the mechanical behavior of three amorphous polymers: Characterization and modeling of the compressive yield stress

Uniaxial compression stress–strain tests were carried out on three commercial amorphous polymers: polycarbonate (PC), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), and polyamideimide (PAI). The experiments were conducted under a wide range of temperatures (−40 °C to 180 °C) and strain rates (0.0001 s⁻¹ up to 5000 s⁻¹). A modified split-Hopkinson pressure bar was used for high strain rate tests. Temperature and strain rate greatly influence the mechanical response of the three polymers. In particular, the yield stress is found to increase with decreasing temperature and with increasing strain rate. The experimental data for the compressive yield stress were modeled for a wide range of strain rates and temperatures according to a new formulation of the cooperative model based on a strain rate/temperature superposition principle. The modeling results of the cooperative model provide evidence on the secondary transition by linking the yield behavior to the energy associated to the β mechanical loss peak. The effect of hydrostatic pressure is also addressed from a modeling perspective.     

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.     

Finite viscoplasticity of semicrystalline polymers

Summary  A series of uniaxial tensile tests is performed on isotactic polypropylene at room temperature with cross-head speeds ranging from 5 to 100 mm/min. Prior to mechanical testing, injection-molded samples are annealed for 24 h at the temperature 160 ^°C that ensures that the specimens can be drawn up to the Hencky strain of 0.6 without necking. A constitutive model is derived for the viscoplastic behavior of a semicrystalline polymer at finite strains. The stress–strain relations are determined by five adjustable parameters that are found by matching the observations. Fair agreement is demonstrated between the experimental data and the results of numerical simulation. It is shown that the material parameters in the constitutive equations are strongly affected by the strain rate. Received 9 July 2002; accepted for publication 12 November 2002     

Temperature dependent bulge test for elastomers

The bulge test is a particularly convenient testing method for characterizing elastomers under biaxial loading. In addition, it is convenient to utilize this test for validating material models in simulation due to the heterogeneous strain field induced during inflation. During the bulge test the strain field for elastomers covers uniaxial tension at the border to pure shear and equibiaxial tension at the pole. Elastomeric materials exhibit a hyperelastic material behavior, with a dependency on temperature and loading rate. The temperature effect on the mechanical behavior during biaxial loading is considered in the present study. A bulge test setup combined with a temperature chamber is developed in order to characterize this effect, and an exemplary temperature dependent characterization of a poly(norbornene) elastomer is performed with this setup. The equibiaxial stress–strain curves measured at 60 °C, 20 °C and −20 °C are presented.     

The rheological characterisation of bread dough using capillary rheometry

An Australian hard wheat flour–water dough has been characterised using parallel plate and capillary rheometers over an extensive range of apparent shear rates (10^− 3–10³ s^− 1) relevant to process conditions. Torsional measurements showed that the shear viscosity of the dough increased with strain to a maximum value and then decreased, suggesting a breakdown of the dough structure. Both torsional and capillary experiments revealed the shear-thinning behaviour of the dough. The wall slip phenomenon in capillary rheometry was investigated and found to be diameter dependent and occurred at a critical shear stress of approximately 5–10 kPa. A two-regime power law behaviour was observed, with the power law index approximately 0.3 in the low shear rate range increasing to 0.67 in the high shear rate range. Pressure fluctuation was observed in the capillary data and increased with shear rate, in particular, at shear rates approaching 10⁴ s^− 1. The results demonstrate that capillary rheometry is a viable means of rheologically testing dough at high shear rates provided pressure fluctuation is carefully monitored and capillary rheometry corrections, including wall slip, are accounted for.     

A Phenomenological Constitutive Model for Describing Thermo-Viscoplastic Behavior of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloy Under Hot Working Condition

In order to predict the high-temperature deformation behavior of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy, the hot compression tests were conducted in the strain rate range of (0.001–0.1)s⁻¹ and the forming temperature range of (573–723) K. Based on the experimental results, Johnson-Cook model was found inadequate to describe the high-temperature deformation behavior of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy. Therefore, a new phenomenological constitutive model is proposed, considering the coupled effects of strain, strain rate and forming temperature on the material flow behavior of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy. In the proposed model, the material constants are presented as functions of strain rate. The proposed constitutive model correlates well with the experimental results confirming that the proposed model can give an accurate and precise estimate of flow stress for the Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy investigated in this study.     

A technique for measuring the dynamic behavior of materials at high temperatures

A new experimental technique has been developed for the performance of high temperature, high-strain-rate experiments in the compression Kolsky bar (split-Hopkinson pressure bar or SHPB). The new technique (referred to as the High-Temperature Compression Kolsky Bar or HTCKB) uses an infra-red spot-heater to rapidly heat the specimen to the desired temperature, a!nd an electropneumatic actuation system to minimize the development of temperature gradients in the sample. The technique is cheap and relatively easy to implement and yet provides accurate, repeatable results. As an illustration of the application of the technique, we have examined the high-temperature response of the BCC metal vanadium at high-strain rates. Stress–strain curves are obtained for the material at strain rates of 4 × 10³ s⁻¹ and at temperatures ranging from 300 to 1100 K (27–800°C). Quasistatic (10⁻³ s⁻¹) experiments have also been performed on vanadium over a slightly smaller range of temperatures, and the results are compared with the new high-temperature, high-strain-rate data. It is observed that the rate of thermal softening is a function of the strain rate. These results illustrate the importance of including the coupling between temperature and strain r!ate in thermoviscoplastic constitutive models.     

Measurements and model predictions of transient elongational rheology of polymeric nanocomposites

Transient elongational rheology of two commercial-grade polypropylene (PP) and the organoclay thermoplastic nanocomposites is investigated. A specifically designed fixture consisting of two drums (SER Universal Testing Platform) mounted on a TA Instruments ARES rotational rheometer was used to measure the transient uniaxial extensional viscosity of both polypropylene and nanoclay/PP melts. The Hencky strain rate was varied from 0.001 to 2 s^− 1, and the temperature was fixed at 180°C. The measurements show that the steady-state elongational viscosity was reached at the measured Hencky strains for the polymer and for the nanocomposites. The addition of nanoclay particles to the polymer melt was found to increase the elongation viscosity principally at low strain rates. For example, at a deformation rate of 0.3 s^− 1, the steady-state elongation viscosity for polypropylene was 1.4 × 10⁴ Pa s which was raised to 2.8 × 10⁴ and 4.5 × 10⁴ Pa s after addition of 0.5 and 1.5 vol.% nanoclay, respectively. A mesoscopic rheological model originally developed to predict the motion of ellipsoid particles in viscoelastic media was modified based on the recent developments by Eslami and Grmela (Rheol Acta 47:399–415, 2008) to take into account the polymer chain reptation. We show that the orientation states of the particles and the rheological behavior of the layered particles/thermoplastic hybrids can be quantitatively explained by the proposed model.     

Viscosity of Cryoprotective Agents Near Glass Transition: A New Device,Technique, and Data on DMSO,DP6, and VS55

The low strain-rate viscosity of glass-forming cryoprotective agents (CPAs) in the vicinity of the glass transition is studied experimentally. Data on the mechanical behavior in this regime is necessary to the long-term goal of developing planning tools for cryopreservation via vitrification (vitreous means glassy in Latin); such tools will provide guidelines for reducing thermal stress with its devastating effects. While the flow behavior of some glass-forming CPAs is well documented in the literature for the upper part of the cryogenic temperature range (where the CPA has a comparatively low viscosity), it is the flow behavior near the glass transition temperature (where the CPA behaves as nearly a solid with an extremely high viscosity) which is critical to the analysis of stress that develops in the cryopreserved material. If the elevated viscosity limits the material’s ability to flow—in order to accommodate the thermal strain resulting from large temperature gradients, especially at the high cooling rates necessary to form glass—structural damage may follow. Information on the behavior of the CPA in the lower part of the cryogenic temperature range is largely unavailable. A new measurement device is presented in this study, in which a solid rod is pulled from a long narrow cup containing a CPA, producing an essentially one-dimensional and isothermal field of flow. The viscosity and relaxation time of the CPA is inferred from measurements of the resulting load on the rod when extracted at a constant velocity. The current study reports on experimental data near glass transition of 7.05 M DMSO, a reference CPA solution, and the CPA cocktails VS55 and DP6.     

Quantitative Stereovision in a Scanning Electron Microscope

Accurate, 3D full-field measurements at the micron-level are of interest in a wide range of applications, including both facilitation of mechanical experiments at reduced length scales and accurate profiling of specimen surfaces. Scanning electron microscope systems (SEMs) are a natural platform for acquiring high magnification images for stereo-reconstruction. In this work, an integrated methodology for accurate three-dimensional metric reconstruction and deformation measurements using single column SEM imaging systems is described. In these studies, the specimen stage is rotated in order to obtain stereo views of the specimen as it undergoes mechanical or thermal loading. Simulations and preliminary experimental studies at 300× demonstrate that (a) spatially-varying image distortions can be removed from images using a non-parametric distortion model, (b) the system can be reliably calibrated using distortion-corrected images of a planar object and grid at various orientations and (c) specimen rotation variability during the measurement phase can be controlled so that baseline strain errors are within the range of ±150 με. Benchmark rigid body motion experiments using calibrated SEM views demonstrate that all components of strain in the reconstructed object have a mean value around O(10⁻⁴) and a random spatial distribution with standard deviation ≈ 300 micro-strain.     

A shear-compression specimen for large strain testing

A new specimen geometry, the shear-compression specimen (SCS), has been developed for large strain testing of materials. The specimen consists of a cylinder in which two diametrically opposed slots are machined at 45° with respect to the longitudinal axis, thus forming the test gage section. The specimen was analyzed numerically for two representative material models, and various gage geometries. This study shows that the stress (strain) state in the gage, is three-dimensional rather than simple shear as would be commonly assumed. Yet, the dominant deformation mode in the gage section is shear, and the stresses and strains are rather uniform. Simple relations were developed and assessed to relate the equivalent true stress and equivalent true plastic strain to the applied loads and displacements. The specimen was further validated through experiments carried out on OFHC copper, by comparing results obtained with the SCS to those obtained with compression cylinders. The SCS allows to investigate a large range of strain rates, from the quasi-static regime, through intermediate strain rates (1–100 s⁻¹), up to very high strain rates (2×10⁴s⁻¹ in the present case).