Study of the last part of the stress-deformation curve of construction steels with distinct fracture patterns

The principal mechanical characteristics of construction steels are obtained by tensile testing. Nevertheless, the standards neglect the behaviour of steel beyond the maximum load point and do not define parameters related to the part of the stress-deformation curve that lies between the maximum load point and failure. The necking process that begins when the maximum load is reached makes it somewhat difficult to study the material behaviour beyond that point. However, the ductility of steel is highly affected by this last part of the load-deformation curve. For such a reason, and especially since structural safety is directly related to ductility, a deeper knowledge of this may help in designing safer structures. In this paper, this part of the load-deformation curve is analysed in two construction steels that exhibit distinct fracture patterns: one shows the typical cup-cone fracture surface, while the other shows a flat fracture surface with a dark region inside. An experimental campaign has been carried out with cylindrical specimens of contrasting diameters: 3 mm, 6 mm and 9 mm for each material. The use of a digital image correlation system is shown to be extremely useful in studying the behaviour of steel beyond the maximum load point, with an innovative procedure for identifying the growth of the internal damage that leads to failure in a specimen being developed.