The characteristics of plastic flow and a physically-based model for 3003 Al-Mn alloy upon a wide range of strain rates and temperatures

The uniaxial compressive responses of 3003 Al-Mn alloy upon strain rates ranging from 0.001/s to about 10⁴/s with initial temperatures from 77 K to 800 K were investigated. Instron servohydraulic testing machine and enhanced split Hopkinson bar facilities have been employed in such uniaxial compressive loading tests. The maximum true strain up to 80% has been achieved. The following observations have been obtained from the experimental results: 1) 3003 Al-Mn alloy presents remarkable ductility and plasticity at low temperatures and high strain rates; 2) its plastic flow stress strongly depends on the applied temperatures and strain rates; 3) the temperature history during deformation strongly affects the microstructure evolution within the material. Finally, paralleled with the systematic experimental investigations, a physically-based model was developed based on the mechanism of dislocation kinetics. The model predictions are compared with the experimental results, and a good agreement has been observed.