Size effects on deformation behavior of C5210 phosphor bronze thin sheet

To investigate the effects of thickness and grain size on mechanical and deformation properties of C5210 phosphor bronze thin sheets, samples with different grain sizes were obtained through annealing heat treatment at different temperatures; and then tensile tests of samples with different thicknesses and grain sizes were conducted at room temperature. The results show that yield strength increases with decreasing thickness from 800 to 50 μm, but work hardening exponent and total elongation decrease, and a modified model was proposed to describe the relation between yield strength and thickness; yield strength decreases as the grain size increases, but work hardening exponent shows an increasing trend, total elongation increases to a peak and then decreases. Fracture morphology of tensile specimens was observed by SEM, which indicates that all tensile specimens are ductile fracture. The dimple intensity increases as the specimen thickness increases but reduces with the specimen grain size increasing.