Determining the mechanical constitutive properties of metals as a function of strain rate and temperature: A combined experimental and modeling approach

Abstract

Development and validation of constitutive models for polycrystalline materials subjected to high strain-rate loading over a range of temperatures are needed to predict the response of engineering materials to in-service type conditions. To account accurately for the complex effects that can occur during extreme and variable loading conditions, requires significant and detailed computational and modeling efforts. These efforts must be integrated fully with precise and targeted experimental measurements that not only verify the predictions of the models, but also provide input about the fundamental processes responsible for the macroscopic response. Achieving this coupling between modeling and experiment is the guiding principle of this program. Specifically, this program seeks to bridge the length scale between discrete dislocation interactions with grain boundaries and continuum models for polycrystalline plasticity. Achieving this goal requires incorporating these complex dislocation-interface interactions into the well-defined behavior of single crystals. Despite the widespread study of metal plasticity, this aspect is not well understood for simple loading conditions, let alone extreme ones. Our experimental approach includes determining the high-strain rate response as a function of strain and temperature with post-mortem characterization of the microstructure, quasi-static testing of pre-deformed material, and direct observation of the dislocation behavior during reloading by using the in situ transmission electron microscope deformation technique. These experiments will provide the basis for development and validation of physically-based constitutive models. One aspect of the program involves the direct observation of specific mechanisms of micro-plasticity, as these indicate the boundary value problem that should be addressed. This focus on the pre-yield region in the quasi-static effort (the elasto-plastic transition) is also a tractable one from an experimental and modeling viewpoint. In addition, our approach will minimize the need to fit model parameters to experimental data to obtain convergence. These are critical steps to reach the primary objective of simulating and modeling material performance under extreme loading conditions. During this project, the following achievements have been obtained: 1. Twins have been observed to act as barriers to dislocation propagation and as sources of and sinks to dislocations. 2. Nucleation of deformation twins in nitrogen strengthened steel is observed to be closely associated with planar slip bands. The appearance of long twins through heavily dislocated microstructures occurs by short twins nucleating at one slip band, propagating through the dislocation-free region, and terminating at the next slip band. This process is repeated throughout the entire grain. 3. A tamped-laser ablation loading technique has been developed to introduce high strain rate, high stress and low strains. 4. Both dislocation slip and twinning are present in high strain-rate deformed zirconium, with the relative contribution of each mode to the deformation depending on the initial texture. 5. In situ IR thermal measurements have been used to show that the majority of plastic work is dissipated as heat even under conditions in which twinning is the dominant deformation mode.