The Behaviour of 2169 Steel Under Uniaxial Stress and Uniaxial Strain Loading

Abstract

A series of plate impact and uniaxial stress compression experiments have been undertaken on 2169 steel, a nitrogen strengthened austenitic stainless steel. The shock experiments ranged from impact stresses of 3.7–17.8 GPa, recording the wave profiles of the shock and spall behaviour observed at the rear target surfaces. Target and impactor configurations were varied to observe the effects of tensile strain-rates achieved at spall planes. Spall strength was observed to vary linearly with impact stress and tensile strain-rate although was less rate sensitive than 300 series steels suggestive of an influence of the shock induced microstructure on void nucleation. A fourth power relationship between strain-rate in the shock front and shock stress was observed similar to many other materials. The linear coefficient A relating the two is discussed in terms of dislocation mobility. Uniaxial stress compression experiments were undertaken on two grain sizes of the same material at a range of strain-rates from ~10−4 to 103 s−1. The data is consistent with other published data on 2169 steel showing a clear grain-size dependence on flow stress and higher flow stresses than other common austenitic steels.