An experimental study of the effect of hardening on plastic deformation at notch tips in metallic single crystals

Experiments to measure the effect of hardening on the plastic deformation field near a notch tip in metallic single crystals were conducted. The specimens were cut from pure Cu and a CuBe alloy (with 1.8-2.0 wt% Be) FCC single crystals. The Cu-2.0wt%Be alloy was selected because its initial hardness and rate of hardening can be modified by heat treatment. The Vickers hardness of the specimens ranged from 87 to 353 kg/mm(2), while the hardening exponents ranged between 10 and 4.5. The experimental results were compared to analytical and numerical solutions from the literature. This comparison shows that the inclusion of elastic regions in the analytical solutions and anisotropic hardening in the numerical solutions results in better agreement with the experiments. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.