Effects of zinc on static and dynamic mechanical properties of copper-zinc alloy

The effects of adding alloy element zinc on the static and dynamic mechanical properties of copper-zinc alloy were investigated. Tensile and low cycle fatigue behaviors of the C11000 copper and H63 copper-zinc alloy were obtained by using a miniature tester that combined the functions of in situ tensile and fatigue testing. A piezoelectric actuator was adopted as the actuator for the fatigue testing, and the feasibility of the fatigue actuator was verified by the transient harmonic response analysis based on static tensile preload and dynamic sinusoidal load. The experimental results show that the yield strength and tensile strength of the C11000 copper are improved after adding 37% (mass fraction) zinc, and H63 copper-zinc alloy presents more obvious cyclic hardening behavior and more consumed irreversible plastic work during each stress cycle compared with C11000 copper for the same strain controlled cycling. Additionally, based on the Manson-Coffin theory, the strain-life equations of the two materials were also obtained. C11000 copper and H63 copper-zinc alloy show transition life of 16832 and 1788 cycles, respectively.