On the Material Characterization of an Aluminium Alloy Using Different Specimens and Identification Methods

Abstract

The validity of material properties obtained from uniaxial tension tests using different specimen types and measurement techniques is investigated in this paper. Four different specimen geometries were tested, including round axisymmetric and rectangular flat samples of different sizes. This gave a significant variation in both size and shape of the specimens. The specimens were strained in tension to fracture, and different measurement techniques were applied to measure the deformation of the specimens during loading. This involved an extensometer, a laser micrometre, digital image correlation (DIC) and edge tracing. Cauchy stress versus logarithmic strain curves were obtained from the experimental data, and little spread was seen between the different test series. The data were further used to calibrate a work-hardening relation for the material, and it was found that the fitted curves differed mainly for strains beyond diffuse necking.