Toward Understanding Size-Dependent Plasticity of Nanolayered Metallic Composites

Abstract

Deformation and fracture behaviors of Cu/Au and Cu/Cr multilayered composites with different length scales were investigated by using instrumented-indentation and three-point-bending methods. It is found that with decreasing the length scale (layer thickness and grain size), both multilayers tend to produce plastic instability via localized shear banding under indentation load in spite of high hardness they have, while quasi-brittle fracture under relatively low fracture stress prevails at three-point-bending test. Especially, the compressive flow stress and the tensile fracture stress exhibit inverse trend of variation with the length scales, which implies different mechanisms. Such length scale dependent deformation and plasticity were analyzed concerning size and interface effects under different stress state.