Influence of Inhomogeneous Deformation on Tensile Behavior of Sheets Processed Through Constrained Groove Pressing

Constrained groove pressing (CGP) is a severe plastic deformation technique to produce the ultra-fine grained sheet. The inhomogeneous strain distribution and geometry variation induce differential mechanical properties in the processed sheet. The improved mechanical properties of CGP sheets is due to the composite effect of weak and strong regions formed by geometric and strain inhomogeneities. Weaker regions exhibit large strain, lower yield strength, and higher strain hardening compared to stronger regions. The estimation of mechanical properties is influenced by these defects leading to the difference in the mechanical properties along different orientations. Experimental investigation revealed that the commonly used tensile samples cut perpendicular to the groove orientation exhibit variation in thickness along the gauge length affecting the results from tensile tests. To further understand the effect of geometric variation, a typical CGP specimen was reverse engineered and finite element (FE) simulation was performed using the actual geometry of the CGP processed specimen. The strain distribution from FE simulation was validated experimentally using the digital image correlation data. Based on the numerical and experimental studies, miniature specimens were designed to eliminate the geometric effects from the standard parallel specimen. Miniature parallel specimens showed lower yield strength and total elongation compared to the standard specimens. However, the statistical scatter of total elongation of the miniature specimens was much less than that of the standard specimens, indicating better repeatability. Probably this is the first study to quantify the contribution of composite geometric effect in the mechanical properties of CGP.