Issue 35

W. Ozgowicz et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 35 (2016) 11-20; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.35.02 12 conditions of plastic deformation is indispensable for an optimal formation of the structure and properties of the investigated alloys and for programming the technology of the industrial plastic working of the products [1÷3]. Many alloys of iron and nonferrous metals indicate the phenomenon of heterogeneous deformation (Cu, Al, Ti, Ni) at elevated or high temperature in the course of tensile or compression tests in the form of irregularities on the work- hardening curve. This effect of plastic instability is often determined as “jerky flow” or “serration” and in literature it is called Portevin – Le Chatelier effect (PLC) [4, 5]. The characteristic oscillations of the stress on the work – hardening curve in the range of the plastic flow differ in their shape and size, depending mainly on the temperature and strain rate [6]. The PLC effect has been know for many years, although so far it has not been fully explained [7]. This effect is mainly investigated from the viewpoint of material factors, taking into account the microstructural conditions of the initiation of the localized plastic deformation resulting from the formation and propagation of the shearing bands and rheological factors, connected with the mechanics of plastic deformation in various thermodynamic and physico-chemical conditions. Investigations concerning or the PLC effect base both on traditional methods and mechanical tests of uniaxial stretching or compression, and also on modern methods , as for instance the digital correlation of the image or acoustic emission AE [8,9]. The method AE belongs to the group of passive methods, because the apparatus of AE does not emit signals, nor does it affect the physical state of the tested objects. It depends on the detection of automatically occurring effects in the monitored object and analyzes this acoustic signal, resulting from the propagation of elastic waves generated in the mechanically loaded material due to the fast release of the energy accumulated in them. The release of elastic energy is connected with the formation of instantaneous local metastable states caused by various phenomena is a sub- microscoping scale, as for instance the diffusion of atoms in the crystallographic lattice, or in macroscopic scale – the formation of twins of deformation or nucleation of cracking. The shape of the signal AE is influenced by many factors, namely the chemical composition and microstructure of the investigated alloys, the size of the grains, heat treatment, the temperature of the process and the strain rate as well as the state of precipitations and the texture of the material. AE measurements are in comparison with other methods, characterized by a high sensitivity in recording the physical phenomena [10]. The aim of the present paper is to apply methods of acoustic emission in mechanical tests of uni-axial stretching of tin bronze of the type CuSn6P from industrial smelting, indicating distinctly a tendency to instability of plastic flow at elevated temperature of deformation due to the effect PLC. The integral purpose of these investigations is to determine the relation existing between the PLC effect and the AE generation and the phenomena of intercrystalline cracking of the investigated alloy at an elevated temperature of the tensile test. E XPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE he investigated material was standardized tin bronze CuSn6P provided from industrial smelting, in the form of a rod cast continuously (Wertli’s process) with a diameter of 11.6 mm and the chemical composition presented in Tab. 1. No. Denomination of the alloy and kind of analysis Chemical composition in % of mass Sn P Bi Pb Sb As S Fe Cu 1. CuSn6P ladle analysis 6.70 0.42 0.010 0.080 0.010 0.025 0.003 0.018 bal. 2. CuSn6P PN-EN 1982:2008 5.5÷7 0.01÷0.4 - 0.02 - - - 0.1 bal Table 1 : Chemical composition of the bronze used (mass %). Static tensile tests were carried out at an elevated temperature and a strain rate (   ) amounting to about 1.2·10 -3 s -1 , applying for this purpose the testing machine ZWICK Z 1200 in the range of loading up to 100 kN, making use of the digital recording of the tensile curves. The values of the force was recorded in the entire range of measurements with an accuracy of 0.5 %. The samples were preheated within the range of the temperature of stretching (20÷400  C) in a MAYTEC furnace, recording the temperature with an accuracy of ± 4  C. The temperature chamber permits to run the tests at a temperature from 123 K to 873 K. For testing spherical samples were used 4 mm in diameter and 62 mm long, with threaded heads. The deformation was recorded on a length of measurements amounting to l o = 27 mm. Measurements and AE recording were accomplished in the course of tensile testing, by means of a piezoelectric sensor, T