Ramberg-Osgood Parameters for

A. J. Rafanelli
63-37 Sn-Pb Solder •f\

2P& Raytheon Company, As part of a fracture properties study, the Ramberg-Osgood parameters were eval- (
Submarine Signal Division,
uated for 63-37 Sn-Pb (tin-lead) solder. This work was a preliminary step in ex-
Portsmouth, Rl 02871
perimentally determining J-integral values via the Hutchinson-Rice-Rosengren
(HRR) power law for hardening materials. Consideration was given to both en-
gineering strain and true strain when plotting the curves. Results disclosed little
effect of either engineering or true strain at linear stress levels. For a strain-hardening
exponent of 1.0, a material constant of 0.9849 was determined.

Introduction
Research is currently being performed to measure/determine
fracture properties of 63-37 Sn-Pb (tin-lead by weight percent,
respectively) solder. In evaluating stress fields at a crack tip,
the energy release rate is a significant parameter. Due to the
elastic-plastic nature of solder, i.e., a plastic zone existing at
the crack tip, the energy release rate is expressed as the J-
integral (Broek, 1987). The J-integral, proposed by Rice (1968),
characterizes the stress-strain field at a crack tip by integrating
a path far from the crack tip and substituting this path for
another close to the crack tip. The integrated path, taken far
enough away from the plastic zone, can be used to analyze
crack tip region behavior since the J-integral is path inde-
pendent (Barsom and Rolfe, 1987).
Basic stress-strain data for 63-37 Sn-Pb solder, tested at
room temperature, disclose a predominantly plastic nature al-
though some elastic behavior is present at approximately 1000
to 3000 psi (Rafanelli, 1989). Accordingly, research has been
initiated to measure the J-integral for this material. The HRR
(Hutchinson, 1968, Rice and Rosengren, 1968) power law for
hardening materials is the approach utilized. Two quantities,
namely a material constant a and a strain-hardening exponent,
n are needed for the HRR analysis. This paper reports on the
experimental results, via use of the Ramberg-Osgood tensile
stress-strain relations, to obtain these two quantities.
Background
Description of the Ramberg-Osgood method and justifica-
tion for its use have been previously discussed in a longer
version of this paper (Rafanelli, 1991). In short, it was deter-
mined that, since the material did not truly conform to Hooke's
law, Young's modulus and the yield strength would be insuf-
ficient to accurately define a stress-strain curve and, conse-
quently, a third parameter is required (Ramberg-Osgood, 1943).
At this point, a brief explanation should be provided to
illustrate the connection between the Ramberg-Osgood relation
and determination of the J-integral via the HRR power law
Contributed by the Electrical and Electronic Packaging Division and presented
at the Winter Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Ga., December 1-6, 1991 of THE AMER-
ICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS. Manuscript received by the EEPD
August 1991. Paper No. 91-WA/EEP-21.
for hardening materials. First, when solder deforms plastically,
strain hardening occurs. Strain or work hardening is an artifact
of plastic deformation. When a metal deforms plastically, the
shear stress needed to produce slip continuously increases as
shear strain increases (Dieter, 1986). Next, recalling that solder
is a hardening material (Lau et al., 1987) application of the
HRR power law is proposed to determine the J-integral. The
HRR power law is expressed as follows (Nigam, 1988):
(1)
«o "b
Since the Ramberg-Osgood equation is:
e a a
—=—+ a o (2)
0
to 0o
one can see that the former Eq. (1) is a simplified form of the
latter (2). This special case is the condition of small non-linear
strain, i.e., a/a0—0 (Broek, 1987). Accordingly, since the HRR
power law is a special case of the Ramberg-Osgood equation,
the material constant a and strain hardening exponent "n"
need to be determined.
Experimentation
The procedure for determining the material constant a and
the strain-hardening exponent n is a combination of experi-
mental and analytical methods. The experimental methodology
was greatly aided by previous work of Nigam (1988) in his
dynamic and elastic-plastic fracture studies of Homalite^-100
polymer, 4340 steel, and 7075-T6 aluminum.
The first step in experimentation was to generate stress versus
strain (engineering) curves. Five samples were tested. Due to
space limitations, however, curves for only one sample are
shown (Fig. 1). Next, engineering strain was converted to true
strain (Dieter, 1986) by use of Eq. (3):
e = ln(e+l) (3)
and stress versus true strain plots were then generated (Fig.
2). Since the material does not follow Hooke's law, the two
parameters, Young's modulus and yield strength, are insuf-
ficient to describe the curve, as previously discussed. Conse-

234/Vol. 114, JUNE 1992 Transactions of the ASME

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 strain (/Jf )
Fig. 1 Stress versus engineering strain (or 63-37 Sn-Pb solder

4000 6000 7000 S000 9000

strain <//f )

Fig. 2 Stress versus true strain for 63-37 Sn-Pb solder

quently, a third parameter is required. Ramberg-Osgood (1943)
proposed the use of the secant yield strength of slope approx-
imating that of the yield strength for 0.2 percent offset. Recall
that the secant yield strength is the ordinate of the intersection
of a line through the origin with slope of mE and the stress-
strain curve, where m is a constant of value between 0 and 1.
For this case, m was chosen equal to 1. Also, the lines used
to determine the Ramberg-Osgood and 0.2 percent offset yield
strengths are denoted as the Ramberg-Osgood and offset yield
strength lines, respectively. Overlaying the Ramberg-Osgood
and offset yield strength lines, the secant yield strength <70 can
be determined for all plots, i.e., stress versus engineering and
true strains. A horizontal line is drawn starting from the in-
tersection of the offset yield strength line and stress-strain curve
to the 7-axis. The ordinate value isCT0-Figure 3 illustrates a
typical construction.
Furthermore, at the intersection of the horizontal line and
Ramberg-Osgood secant yield strength line, a vertical is dropped
to the x-axis. The abscissa value is e0, a Ramberg-Osgood strain
quantity, which is used in the HRR power law and Ramberg-
Osgood relation (Eqs. (1) and (2), respectively).
Analysis
Having determined the Ramberg-Osgood secant yield
strength <J0 and strain e0» the HRR quantities a (material con-
stant) and n (strain hardening exponent) can be calculated.
Recalling Eq. (1):
(1)
eo

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 Ramberg-Osgood
yield strength 1

£7 = s e c a n t y i e l d s t r e n g r.h
secant yield strain
Ramberg -Osgood s e c a i t . plrl
ut 0=
= Ramberc -Osgood s e c a i t y eld strain
f.h
0

strain (//C )

Fig. 3 Typical construction on a stress versus true strain curve to

determine <r0 and <0

Table 1 Summary of Ramberg-Osgood and HRR parameters Table 2 Summary of Ramberg-Osgood and HRR parameters
from stress versus engineering strain data from stress versus true strain data
Sample °o £o E a n Sample oo eo E a n
1 5187 1762 3.19 (10)6 1.1200 1.0 1 5200 2100 2.50 (10)6 0.9522 1.0
2 4750 2062 2.38 (10)6 1.0825 1.0 2 5850 2350 2.00 (10)6 1.1520 1.0
3 5250 1333 4.00 (10)6 1.1253 1.0 3 5400 1750 3.00 (10)6 0.9077 1.0
4 5250 2000 2.67 (10)6 1.0499 1.0 4 5300 2100 2.50 (10)6 0.9179 1.0
5 4750 1762 2.31 (10)6 1.1347 1.0 5 4700 1890 2.50 (10)6 0.9948 1.0
Mean 5037 1784 2.91 (10)6 1.1025 1.0 Mean 5290 2038 2.50 (10)6 0.9849 1.0
1 5187 1762 3.19 (10)6 4.4275 2.0 1 5200 2100 2.50 (10)6 1.9050 1.5
2 4750 2062 2.38 (10)6 4.8430 2.0 2 5850 2350 2.00 (10)6 1.1521 1.5
3 5250 1333 4.00 (10)6 3.3758 2.0 3 5400 1750 3.00 (10)6 1.6175 1.5
4 5250 2000 2.67 (10)6 4.4100 2.0 4 5300 2100 2.50 (10)6 1.8018 1.5
5 4750 1762 2.31 (10)6 4.5354 2.0 5 4700 1890 2.50 (10)6 1.9288 1.5
Mean 5037 1784 2.91 (10)6 4.3183 2.0 Mean 5290 2038 2.50 (10)6 1.6810 1.5
1 5187 1762 3.19 (10)6 2.2280 1.5 1 5200 2100 2.50 (10)6 3.8095 2.0
2 4750 2062 2.38 (10)6 2.2910 1.5 2 5850 2350 2.00 (10)6 6.2425 2.0
3 5250 1333 4.00 (10)6 1.9490 1.5 3 5400 1750 3.00 (10)6 2.8829 2.0
4 5250 2000 2.67 (10)6 2.1520 1.5 4 5300 2100 2.50 (10)6 3.5375 2.0
5 4750 1762 2.31 (10)6 2.2680 1.5 5 4700 1890 2.50 (10)6 3.7401 2.0
Mean 5027 1784 2.91 (10)6 2.1776 1.5 Mean 5290 2038 2.50 (10)6 4.0425 2.0

An arbitrary value of e is selected for each set of curves. Values
of E are best selected along the linear portion of each curve.
(The stress-engineering strain and stress-true strain groups of
curves are referred to as sets.) For the selected value of e, a
corresponding value of a is determined from each curve. Se-
lecting a value for n, an iterative approach is used to determine
a. For this study, each set of curves underwent three sequences
of iterations for « = 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0. Each curve underwent
a minimum of five iterations. Tables 1 and 2 summarize the
HRR quantities for the stress-engineering strain and stress-true
strain cases. The results for each set of five curves are averaged
for each value of n. Values of elastic modulus E are also shown
for informational purposes. (Data in Tables 1 and 2 are for
all five samples.)
The arbitrary selection of e along with its corresponding
value of a proves to be of little influence since it is chosen
from that portion of the stress-strain curve with constant slope.
However, the effectiveness of value selections for n is mani-
fested by the quality of curve fits for stress versus a theoretical
strain elh as generated by rearranging the Ramberg-Osgood
equation, i.e.,
e,h = eoa[a/a0]" (4)
Figures 4 and 5 illustrate the stress versus Ramberg-Osgood
theoretical strains overlayed upon the experimentally derived
stress-engineering strain and stress-true strain curves, respec-
tively. (Again, curves for one sample only are shown.) Ob-
viously no one value of n (and subsequently a) can be selected
to perfectly fit each curve. Thus, the final values of n and a
selected are those in which the most data falls on or near the
experimental curve (Nigam, 1988). The curves suggest that the
n=l.O case is best. However, additional values of n, e.g.,
1.0<«<1.5, would appear to provide improved curve fits.
Inspection of Figs. 4 and 5 suggest little difference between
engineering and true strains with respect to Ramberg-Osgood
and HRR Power Law parameters.
Conclusions
Results of stress-strain testing have disclosed little or no
effects of engineering strain as opposed to true strain in gen-
erating Ramberg-Osgood and HRR parameters for 63-37 tin-

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 0 •ffl-n = 1.0 Of= 1.1200

^ -mi = 1 . 5 0!= 2.2280

© =*-n = 2 . 0 CX= 4.4275

9000 10000 11000 12000 13000

rain (/j£ )

Fig. 4 Ramberg-Osgood plots overlayed on stress versus engineering

strain curve

stress
(psi) • A
0 A
4000 -
A 0

0 / A o
3000 - 0/ A Q

-J A o
A e
2000 -
E/A Q

Fig. 5 Ramberg-Osgood plots overlayed on stress versus true strain

curve

lead solder. To date, the data also suggest that accuracy of
the HRR strain-hardening exponent can be improved for values
between 1.0 and 1.5. However, since the data track relatively
well for a strain-hardening exponent n = 1.0, the material con-
stant a is determined to be 0.9849 (mean value of the five
curves).
Acknowledgment
The author would like to thank Dr. Arun Shukla of the
Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics Department
at the University of Rhode Island for his help and guidance
during this research. Appreciation is also extended to Frank
Liotine, Andrew Moniz, Charles Clarke, Benjamin Brewer,
Phil Thornton, D. Allberg, M. McCormick, and the Raytheon
Company for their help and support. Finally, special thanks
to Mrs. Barbara Medeiros for preparing and typing this man-
uscript.
References
Barsom, John M., and Rolfe, Stanley, T., 1987, Fracture and Fatigue Control
in Structures, Second Edition, Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, pp.
574, 575.
Broek, David, 1987, Elementary Engineering Fracture Mechanics, Martinus
Nijhoff Publishers, Boston, MA, p. 79.
Dieter, George, E., 1986, Mechanical Metallurgy, Third Edition, McGraw-
Hill Book Company, New York, NY, pp. 73-74, 139.
Hutchinson, J. W., 1968, "Plastic Stress and Strain Fields at a Crack Tip,"

Journal of Electronic Packaging JUNE 1992, Vol. 114/237

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 Journal of Mechanics and Physics of Solids, Vol. 16, Pergamon Press, pp. 337-
347.
Lau, J., Harkings, G., Rice, D., and Krai, J., 1987, "Thermal Fatigue Re-
liability of SMT Packages and Interconnections," 1987 IEEE International Re-
liability Physics Symposium.
Nigam, Himanshu, 1988, Experimental Studies in Dynamic and Elastic-Plastic
Fracture, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI.
Rafanelli, Anthony, J., 1989, "Tensile Testing of 63-37 tin-Lead (Sn-Pb)
Solder at Room Temperature," Raytheon Company Industrial Engineering
Council Journal, Raytheon Company, Lexington, MA.
Rafanelli, Anthony, J., 1991, "Ramberg-Osgood and HRR Power Law Re-
lations for 63-37 Sn-Pb Solder," ASME Winter Annual Meeting, Paper 91-
WA/EEP-21.
Ramberg, Walter and Osgood, William R., 1943, "Description of Stress-
Strain Curves by Three Parameters," Technical Notes National Advisory Com-
mittee for Aeronautics No. 902, Washington, D.C.
Rice, J. R., 1968, "A Path Independent Integral and the Approximate Analysis
of Strain Concentration by Notches and Cracks," ASME Journal of Applied
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Rice, J. R., and Rosengren, G. F., 1968, "Plane Strain Deformation Near a
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