New Frontiers in Dynamic Recovery Testing of Advanced Composites : Tailoring Microstructure for Optimal Performance

Abstract

To design the microstructure of materials by suitable synthesis and processing for optimal performance, it is necessary to relate the microstructure to the properties of the material. This requires recovery experiments with time-resolved measurements. Dynamic recovery experiments, until recently, have been a challenge to researchers. However, through a series of innovations, several techniques have been developed and perfected at the Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials (CEAM), at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), which provide powerful tools for performing dynamic recovery tests on a broad class of materials, from metals and metal composites to ceramics and their composites, over a broad range of strain rates. This paper summarizes these new techniques. In addition, a brief account of a recent breakthrough in computational plasticity is given.