Materials Science and Engineering A 462 (2007) 363366

Plastic instability criterion based on energy conversion

Wiera Oliferuk , Micha Maj
etokrzyska 21, 00-049 Warsaw, Poland Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, Swi Received 29 August 2005; received in revised form 6 January 2006; accepted 4 February 2006

Abstract The energy conversion in the plastic deformation process is described by the energy storage rate, dened as the ratio of the stored energy increment to the plastic work increment. The experiment was performed on 304L and 316L stainless steels. It has been shown that during straining the material reaches the state at which the energy storage rate is zero and after that it is negative. This means that a part of energy stored during previous deformation begins to release. The point where the energy storage rate is zero turned out to be the point of Consid` ere stability criterion. Therefore the zero and negative values of the energy storage rate can be used as a plastic instability criterion on the macro-scale and the release of stored energy as an indicator to describe the progressive predominance of damage leading to the fracture of tested materials. 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Stored energy; Plastic work; Plastic instability criterion; Non-homogeneous deformation; Austenitic steel

1. Introduction When a material deforms plastically, a part of the mechanical energy wp expended on the plastic deformation is converted into heat qd while the remainder es is stored in the material. Thus es = wp qd . (1)

The measure of energy conversion at each instant of the deformation process is the rate of energy storage des /dwp . Deformation processes modify the temperature eld in the strained specimen. At the rst stage of plastic deformation the temperature distribution on the specimen surface is uniform. With increase in strain the temperature distribution on the specimen surface becomes non-uniform what corresponds to nonhomogeneous deformation on the macro-scale [1]. It is well known that before the fracture the strain hardening rate d /d ( is the yield stress and = ln(l/l0 ), where l is the instantaneous length of a gauge part of the specimen, and l0 is its initial length) rapidly decreases with strain [2]. Damage mechanisms, as shear banding, appear. According to the Consid` ere construction a tensile specimen will undergo stable deformation up to the point on the stressstrain curve for which the rate of strain hardening d /d is equal to the ow stress [3].

The energy storage rate seems to be inuenced by the damage mechanisms as well. As far as the authors are aware, there is no systematic work done to confront the strain hardening with the energy storage rate, perhaps because the energy storage rate in the non-homogeneous deformation range is difcult to measure. A mention to this problem is included in a paper by Chrysochoos et al. [4]. The present work investigates a change in des /dwp and a change in d /d during uniaxial tensile deformation of austenitic steel in order to nd, on the macro-scale, the plastic instability criterion based on the energy conversion. 2. Determination of the energy storage rate in the homogeneous deformation range The energy storage rate des /dwp can be obtained differentiating the stored energy es as a function of the plastic work wp . The experimental method of stored energy measurement, as in the previous works by Oliferuk et al. [5,6,7], was employed. The specic plastic work wp was derived from the loadelongation curve. The dissipated energy qd (Eq. (1)) was determined by simulation of the specimen heating process during deformation using a controlled electrical power supply r(t1 ) (related to the unit mass) in such a way that the temperature increase over time t1 during the simulation was identical to that measured during tensile testing. When the straining and the simulation are conducted under identical conditions then the heat q, which would have been transferred to the surroundings if the temperature of

Corresponding author. Tel.: +48 22 8261281x177; fax: +48 22 8269815. E-mail address: wolif@ippt.gov.pl (W. Oliferuk).

0921-5093/$ see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.msea.2006.02.465

364

W. Oliferuk, M. Maj / Materials Science and Engineering A 462 (2007) 363366

the unloaded sample had returned to the initial value, is the same in both cases and is equal to q=
0 t

r (t1 ) dt1 ,

r(t1 ) =

I 2 R(t1 ) , m

(2)

where I is the intensity of the electrical current, and R(t1 ) and m are the electrical resistivity and the mass of the gauge part of the specimen, respectively. But qd = q ete , (3)

where ete is the energy associated with thermo-elastic coupling that appears during elastic straining. During homogeneous tensile deformation under the assumption of isotropic linear thermoelasticity, the energy of thermo-elastic coupling is equal to ete = T0 , 0 (4)

The esl / wp value is the average rate of energy storage in the range of deformation corresponding to the plastic deformation work wp . If wp = wp2 wp1 , then wp = wp1 + ( wp /2). All parameters included in Eq. (9) can be determined experimentally, and in particular the heat qh dissipated by the specimen as a result the plastic deformation work wp can be determined using the method mentioned in Section 2. The ( T)h and ( T)l values measured under non-adiabatic conditions are lower than the values measured under adiabatic conditions and ( T)l is more lowered than ( T)h , because ( T)l relates to the higher temperature. Then the n value estimated can be only lower than the n under adiabatic conditions. It gives the overestimated value of the esl (see Eq. (8)). The presented approach allows estimating the highest value of the energy storage rate. The real rate of energy storage cannot exceed this value. 4. Experiments Two groups of specimens made from austenitic steels 316L and 304L were strained using a MTS-810 testing = 4.3 103 s1 . machine at a constant deformation rate The steels were initially annealed at 1100 C and water quenched. The dimensions of the gauge part of specimens were 25 mm 10 mm 1.5 mm. In the course of the deformation process, the tensile force, elongation and temperature distribution on the sample surface as functions of time were measured and recorded. The temperature distribution on the specimen surface was determined on the basis of infrared (IR) radiation power emitted by the strained specimen. The radiation power was measured by an IR camera. On the basis of the mechanical and thermo-mechanical characteristics, the strain hardening rate and the energy storage rate as the function of the true strain in the homogeneous range of plastic deformation as well as in the nonhomogeneous one were obtained (Fig. 1). It is seen that before the fracture the energy storage rate es / wp rapidly decreases with strain and then becomes negative for both tested materials. This shows that the energy converted into heat is higher than the work done during the corresponding increment of plastic deformation. It is possible only if a part of the energy stored during previous deformation begins to release. The energy storage rate es / wp = 0 at = 0.36 for the 316L steel and at = 0.46 for the 304L steel. It is easy to notice that the es / wp = 0 nearly corresponds to the point on the stress-strain curve at which the Consid` ere stability criterion d /d = is satised (at = 0.35 for the 316L steel and at = 0.43 for the 304L steel, see Fig. 1). This result provides the physical conrmation of the Consid` ere criterion. As mentioned before, the real value of energy storage rate can be lower than the measured one what causes the discrepancy between the strain corresponding to Consid` ere criterion and the strain at which es / wp = 0 (see Fig. 1). When the energy storage rate reaches 0, the material loses the ability to store energy. Henceforth, although energy is still supplied, the internal energy of specimen, under isothermal conditions, decreases leading to the fracture. This marks the onset of plastic instability. Accordingly the condition es / wp 0 can be used as a plastic instability criterion on the macro-scale. The

where is the coefcient of linear thermal expansion, T0 the initial absolute temperature and 0 is the density of the tested material. From Eqs. (1)(4) the stored energy is obtained as es = wp
0 t

r (t1 ) dt1

T0 . 0

(5)

This method of the stored energy measurement is applicable only within the homogeneous (on the macro-scale) deformation range. 3. Estimation of the energy storage rate in the non-homogeneous deformation range Let us mark as qh , esh increments of the heat and the stored energy in the homogeneous range of straining which correspond to the given increment of plastic deformation work wph . The increments of the same parameters in the non-homogeneous range of strain corresponding to the assumed increment of plastic deformation work wpl = wph = wp are marked as ql , esl , respectively. Then wp = qh + esh and wP = ql + esl . (6)

Denote ( T)l /( T)h = n, where ( T)h and ( T)l are the increments of the average temperature of the gauge part of specimen in the homogeneous and the non-homogeneous ranges of deformation, corresponding to the increment of the plastic deformation work wp . Measuring ( T)l and ( T)h , the n ratio can be determined. Having regarded the measurement under non-adiabatic conditions and neglecting the effect of the microstructure on the specic heat, one may put: ql > n. qh Substitute Eq. (7) into (6), so one obtains esl < esl < wp wp n q h , wp n q h . wp (8) (9) (7)

W. Oliferuk, M. Maj / Materials Science and Engineering A 462 (2007) 363366

365

Fig. 2. The stacking-faults imaged by TEM in the 316L steel deformed to = 0.43 (the tensile direction is marked).

Fig. 1. The stressstrain curve, the energy storage rate and the strain hardening rate as a function of true strain for: (a) the 316L austenitic steel (four specimens) and (b) the 304L austenitic steel (one specimen). The vertical broken lines indicate the strain at which Consid ere criterion is satised.

release of the stored energy may be connected with evolution of damage mechanisms, which are superimposed on the dislocation movement. Thus the negative value of the energy storage rate can be used also as an indicator to describe the progressive predominance of damage leading to the fracture of the material. 5. Microstructure Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was performed on sections prepared from the deformed 316L specimen with the strain corresponding to the small negative value of the energy storage rate. It has been found that predominant elements of microstructures are stacking faults and twins facilitated by the low stackingfault energy of 316L (Figs. 2 and 3). These twins have formed prior to the large deformation within the shear bands. In the area of strong strain localization the twins were distorted by shear bands (Fig. 4). The development of shear bands seems to be a main damage mechanism. The microstructure inside and in the vicinity of shear band was different from that far away from the band. Regions composed of nanosized grains inside and in the vicinity of the band have been observed (Fig. 5). The grains are 20 nm and they are equiaxed. For comparison, the average grain size of the annealed material was 30 m. The presented TEM images of the microstructure are similar to the

Fig. 3. The twins imaged by TEM in the 316L steel deformed to = 0.43.

micrographs obtained by Meyers et al., where the grain subdivision was caused by mutual rotations of grain segments in order to ensure compatibility of plastic deformation [8]. This has been attributed to a rotational recrystallization mechanism,

Fig. 4. Twin distorted by shear band in the 316L steel deformed to = 0.43.

366

W. Oliferuk, M. Maj / Materials Science and Engineering A 462 (2007) 363366

reaching the 0 value and then becomes negative for both kinds of the tested austenitic steels. This means that a part of the energy stored during previous deformation begins to release. Hence, under isothermal conditions, the internal energy of the tested material decreases. It has been noted that the 0 value of the energy storage rate nearly corresponds to the point on the stressstrain curve at which the Consid` ere stability criterion d /d = is satised. This result provides the physical conrmation of the Consid` ere criterion. Thus the zero and negative values of the energy storage rate can be used as an plastic instability criterion on the macro-scale and the negative value of the energy storage rate as an indicator to describe the progressive predominance of damage leading to the fracture of a material. On the basis of TEM microstructure observation it has been concluded that the decrease in the internal energy of the strained austenitic steels is accompanied by shear banding and rotational dynamic recrystallization. References
Fig. 5. The shear band and its vicinity imaged by TEM in the 316L steel just before fracture. The grain subdivision is seen (the tensile direction is marked). [1] W. Oliferuk, S.P. Gadaj, M.W. Grabski, Mater. Sci. Eng. 70 (1985) 131141. [2] Z.S. Basinski, M.S. Szczerba, J.D. Embury, Philos. Mag. A 76 (1997) 743752. [3] A.G. Consid` ere, Annales des Ponts et Chausses Ser. 6 9 (1885) 574. [4] A. Chrysochoos, J.M. Murracciole, B. Wattrisse, in: A. Benallal (Ed.), Continuous Damage and Fracture, Elsevier, Paris, 2000, pp. 4151. atnicki, M.W. Grabski, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 161 (1993) [5] W. Oliferuk, W.A. Swi 5563. atnicki, M.W. Grabski, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 197 (1995) [6] W. Oliferuk, W.A. Swi 4958. [7] W. Oliferuk, A. Korbel, M.W. Grabski, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 220 (1996) 123128. [8] M.A. Meyers, Y.B. Xu, Q. Xue, M.T. P` erez-Prado, T.R. McNelley, Acta Mater. 51 (2003) 13071325. [9] M.A. Meyers, U. Andrade, A.H. Chokshi, Metall. Mat. Trans. 26A (1995) 28812893. [10] M.A. Meyers, G. Subhash, B.K. Kad, L. Prasad, Mech. Mater. 17 (1994) 175193. [11] M.C. Mataya, M.J. Carr, G. Krauss, Met. Trans. A 133A (1982) 1263.

which was proposed by [9,10]. Mataya et al. [11] were the rst to analyse the ne-grain structure within shear bands in stainless steel; they identied the mechanism for the formation of these grains as dynamic recrystallization. During dynamic recrystallization process the internal energy of material, under isothermal conditions, diminishes. Thus the negative value of the energy storage rate seems to be a macroscopic manifestation of rotational dynamic recrystallization accompanying the shear banding. 6. Concluding comments It has been shown that during development of macroscopic strain localization the energy storage rate rapidly decreases