Effect of grain size on the acoustic emission generated during the plastic deformation of aluminum

Abstract

Acoustic emission signals from polycrystalline Al 1100 samples during plastic deformation were analyzed with respect to the strain rate and grain size. A kinematic model is proposed to account for the observed behavior. An experimental acoustic emission parameter, equivalent to the average energy of the acoustic events, correlates satisfactorily with the computed energy of moving dislocations during the deformation process. Both energies attain a maximum value for a certain grain size and are directly dependent on the strain rate.