The combined effect of grain size and strain rate on the dislocation substructures and mechanical properties in pure aluminum

Abstract

The effect of grain size on the development of dislocation substructures has been studied as a function of strain rate. Pure aluminum rods with grain diameters of 70, 278, and 400 μm were deformed in tension at room temperature to various percent strains at strain rates of 0.01, 0.25, 2.5, and 5/min. It has been confirmed that the smaller grain size results in higher flow stress in this strain-rate range. The cell size strengthening described by the modified Hall-Petch (MHP) equation is applicable to samples with 70 and 278 μm grain sizes at all four strain rates used in this study, while 400 μm grain sizes show deviation from this because of inhomogeneities developed in the microstructure. The influence of strain rate on the slope of the MHP plots, for a grain size of 70 μm, is such that at lower strain rates, the slope does not change much, but at higher strain rates, there is an increase in the slope value. At all strain rates, the values of slopes from the MHP plots of the smaller grains are higher than for the larger grains.