Tensile ductility of ultra-fine grained copper at high strain rate

In this paper, ultra-fine grained copper fabricated by equal channel angular pressing method and annealed coarse grained copper were tensioned under both quasi-static and dynamic loading conditions using an electronic universal testing machine and the split Hopkinson tension bar respectively. The rapture surface of specimen was also observed via a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The experimental results show that the ductility of polycrystalline copper decreases remarkably due to the grain refinement. However, with the increase of applied strain rate, ductility of the UFG-Cu is enhanced. The fracture morphologies also give the evidence of enhanced ductility of UFG-Cu at high strain rate. It is believed the enhanced ductility of UFG materials at high strain rate can be attributed to the restrained dislocation dynamic recovery.