Key issues in cyclic plastic deformation: Experimentation

Cyclic plastic deformation phenomena include the Bauschinger effect, cyclic hardening/softening, strain range effect, loading history memory, ratcheting, mean stress dependent hardening, mean stress relaxation and non-proportional hardening. In this work, different cyclic plastic deformation responses of piping materials (SA333 C–Mn steel and 304LN stainless steel) are experimentally explored. Cyclic hardening/softening is depends upon loading types (i.e. stress/strain controlled), previous loading history and strain/stress range. Pre-straining followed by LCF and mean stress relaxation shows similar kind of material response. Substantial amount of non proportional hardening is observed in SA333 C–Mn steel during 90° out of phase tension-torsion loading. During ratcheting, large amount of permanent strain is accumulated with progression of cycles. Permanent strain accumulation in a particular direction causes cross-sectional area reduction and which results uncontrollable alteration of true stress in engineering stress controlled ratcheting test. In this work, true stress control ratcheting on piping materials has been carried out in laboratory environment. Effects of stress amplitude and mean stress on the ratcheting behaviors are analyzed. A comparison has also been drawn in between the true and engineering stress controlled tests, and massive difference in ratcheting life and strain accumulation is found.

► Eight basic key issues in cyclic plastic deformation for isotropic materials.
► Cyclic hardening/softening behaviors of materials and effect of prior deformation.
► Effect of previous loading histories on subsequent cyclic plastic deformation.
► Engineering and true stress controlled ratcheting behavior and their differences.
► Non proportional hardening during 90° out of phase loading.