Effect of strain rate on serrated load of indentation in Al-Mg alloy

Abstract

Indentation tests are used to determine the local mechanical properties of materials. Previously, the indentation strain rate was correlated with the strain rate in uniaxial tests based on the hardness, which was the obtained load divided by the cross-sectional area. However, the hardness can be influenced by pile-up of material after indentation. The purpose of this study was to relate the indentation strain rate with the uniaxial strain rate through serration behavior. The material used in this study was 5082 aluminum alloy, whose main alloying elements are aluminum and magnesium, and which is known to exhibit serration at certain temperatures and strain rates. Quasi-static uniaxial tensile tests were performed at strain rates from 10^-4 to 10^-1 s^-1 at room temperature. Micro-indentation using a Berkovich indenter was performed at constant loading rates from 0.7 to 350 mN/s. The loading curvature, which was defined as the load divided by the square of the displacement, was used instead of the hardness to avoid the pile-up effect. As a result, the serrated loading curvature in the indentation tests was obtained as the decreasing loading rate. The effective strain rate, which was defined as the derivative of the load with respect to time divided by two times the applied load, decreased with increasing displacement. The serrated loading curvature changed its behavior as the effective strain rate decreased. It behaved similarly to the serration observed in uniaxial tensile tests. It was found that the indentation strain rate is correlated with the strain rate in uniaxial tensile tests through the serration behavior.