Dynamic deformation of aluminium and copper at elevated temperatures

TLDR: In this article, the authors investigated the rate sensitivity of two annealed face-centred cubic metals, aluminium and copper, at elevated temperatures to determine their rate sensitivity, and the results indicate that hot compression is a thermally-activated process.

Abstract: T he mechanical behaviour of two annealed face-centred cubic metals, aluminium and copper, at elevated temperatures has been investigated experimentally to determine their rate sensitivity. The results indicate that hot compression is a thermally-activated process. The experimental value of the activation energy for aluminium obtained from the present work is almost similar to that for creep and self-diffusion. This indicates that hot dynamic compression may be a diffusion-controlled thermally-activated process. However, the experimental activation energy of 74 kcal/mole obtained from the present work for copper is higher than that observed both for creep and self-diffusion. Experimental evidence (D. Hardwick and W.J. McG. Tegart in 1961) suggests that recrystallization is the rate-controlling process in dynamic deformation, while in creep it is usually recovery in the form of sub-grain formation. For aluminium specimens the dislocation density decreases with increasing temperature; for increasing strain rate the dislocation density remains almost constant, while the size of dislocation cells diminishes. If the dislocation density did not change substantially, one should conclude (as did L. Taborský in 1969) that the rise in flow stress caused by high strain rate is due to the reduction of the size of dislocation cell structure and by the increased rate of movement of the moving individual dislocations.