Room Temperature Straining Behaviour of Iron-Silicon Alloys

Abstract

A series of iron-silicon alloys were produced to study the mechanical behaviour at room temperature of alloys ranging from 3.3 to 6.5 wt% Si. Cast samples were machined into compression specimens to be tested in a servo-hydraulic computer driven testing machine at a constant rate of strain, polytetrafluoroethylene tape was used to reduce the effect of friction while testing. Constitutive equations were fit from the stress-strain data. It was possible to establish a relationship between the parameters used in the constitutive formulation and the amount of silicon added. Metallographic observation of deformed specimens revealed the presence of twins in the material. It was found that the twin density increased with the amount of deformation and silicon. A relationship between the stress for saturation and the distance between the twins was established.