High strain rate behawior of metals

R J Clifton

Division of Engineering, Brown University, Providence RI 02912

Experimental results on the high strain rate response of polycrystalline

metals are reviewed, with emphasis on the behavior of pure metals. A
strong increase in flow stress with increasing strain rate is reported for
strain rates of approximately 10 5 s _ 1 and higher. This increase is
observed in pressure-shear plate impact experiments at nominally
constant strain rates from 10 5 s _ 1 to 10 6 s _ 1 . To improve understanding of
the increased rate sensitivity at high strain rates, pressure-shear,
strain-rate-change experiments have been conducted on O F H C copper
specimens. These experiments have been analyzed using a conventional
viscoplasticity formulation and an internal variable formulation in which
the hardening rate depends on the rate of deformation. Only the latter
formulation is successful in describing the observed response to the
change in strain rate. This observation is discussed in terms of its
implications for interpreting other dynamic plasticity experiments and
for improved understanding of the underlying dislocation mechanisms.
The enhanced rate sensitivity at high strain rates is concluded to be
related primarily to the rate sensitivity of strain hardening, not the rate
sensitivity of the flow stress at constant structure.

the loading and monitor the nominal stress and strain

1. INTRODUCTION
Plastic flow of metals at high strain rates, studied ex-
tensively for nearly fifty years, has recently attracted re-
newed interest because of the discovery of strong effects
at very high strain rates and because of a growing accep-
tance of the importance of these effects in dynamic failure
mechanisms. Early interest in the subject was stimulated
by military applications, especially armor penetration.
While these applications continue to spur research, the
need to understand dynamic plastic flow has been recog-
nized as being of critical importance in a broad range of
applications, including high-rate forming, high speed ma-
chining, explosive welding, and a variety of safety-related
applications ranging from the crash-worthiness of vehicles
to the retention of flying pieces of broken turbine blades.
From the perspective of failure mechanisms, plastic flow
at high strain rates plays an important role in dynamic
ductile rupture and shear strain localization because of
the high strain rates that occur near the crack tip and in
the shear band, respectively.
Research on high rate deformation of materials has
been directed primarily towards the development of suit-
able constitutive models for describing the plastic behav-
ior of materials in the high strain rate regime. Several
approaches have been followed. One, an experimental ap-
proach pioneered by Kolsky (1949), is to measure the re-
sponse of materials under nominally homogeneous states
of stress by placing a short specimen between two long
elastic bars and using elastic waves in the bars to impose
in the specimen. With this approach, dynamic stress-
strain curves, at constant strain rates, have been obtained
for many metals at strain rates of 10 2 s" 1 to 10 3 s _ 1 (See
Lindholm (1964,1971) and Green ei al (1970)). These
results show that, at a given strain, the flow stress in-
creases with increasing strain rates at the rate of a few
percent per decade of strain rate. Larger increases are
obtained for high purity metals; smaller increases are
obtained for high strength structural alloys. The basic
concepts of the Kolsky approach have been extended to
torsional loading by Duffy, Campbell and Hawley (1971)
and to tensile loading by Harding, Wood and Campbell
(1960), Hauser (1966), Lindholm and Yeakley (1968), and
Nicholas (1980), with no fundamental change in the prin-
cipal observations. Two modifications of the Kolsky ap-
proach have resulted in important new insights. First,
when the specimen dimensions are reduced, and the am-
plitude of the incident stress pulse is raised (bars of higher
yield strength are used to prevent yielding) to achieve
higher strain rates (10 4 s~ ! ), increased strain rate sensi-
tivity is observed (See, e.g., Stelly and Dormeval (1977)).
Second, when the specimen is subjected initially to pre-
straining at a lower strain rate and the strain-rate is in-
creased sharply in so-called "strain-rate jump" tests of
the type introduced by Frantz and Duffy (1972), the
stress-strain curve following the increase in strain rate
lies below the stress-strain curve for a constant strain-
rate test at the higher strain rate. The latter tests have
been interpreted as indicating the lack of a "mechanical
equation of state" relating stress, strain, and strain rate

&
Appl Mech Rev vol 43, no 5, Part 2, May 1990 S9 Copyright 1990 American Society of Mechanical Engineers

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 S10 MECHANICS USA 1990
during plastic flow. T h e former tests were interpreted
initially as indicating t h a t at the higher strain rates the
rate controlling mechanism of plastic flow changes from
the thermally activated motion of dislocations past obsta-
cles to the thermal-phonon resisted motion of dislocations
through the clear lattice. T h e experimental techniques
and the principal experimental results for experiments at
strain rates up to 1 0 4 s _ 1 have been reviewed by Hartley
and Duffy (1985) and by Nicholas (1982), who provides
an extensive list of references.
Concurrently, experiments were developed for deter-
mining quite directly the mobility of dislocations in crys-
tals at different stresses and temperatures. Johnston and
Gilman (1959) introduced the so-called "direct disloca-
tion velocity measurement" approach in which specimens
are subjected to a short-duration stress pulse and the dis-
location velocity is estimated from the duration of the
pulse and measurements of the dislocation positions be-
fore and after the pulse loading. This approach was ex-
tended to torsional loading by Pope, Vreeland and Wood
(1967) to obtain more well defined stress states and to
plate impact loading by Kumar and Clifton (1979) to ob-
tain higher dislocation velocities. Such experiments have
shown t h a t the intrinsic resistance of the lattice to the
motion of dislocations increases essentially proportionally
with increasing dislocation velocity according to
rb = Bvd)
where r is the resolved shear stress, b is the Burgers vec-
tor of the dislocation, v^ is the average dislocation ve-
locity, and B is the drag coefficient. Values of the drag
coefficient B obtained from experiments on high purity
crystals are found to be so small that dislocation veloc-
ities approaching elastic wave speeds would be achieved
at stresses which are less than, or comparable to, val-
ues obtained in other high strain rate experiments, such
as Kolsky bar experiments. (For example, from the value
B = 1.7 x 10~ 5 Pa s~ reported for high purity copper by
Jassby and Vreeland (1970), the shear stress r c at which
the dislocation velocity in (1) is equal to the shear wave
speed is r c « 150MPa.) If the intrinsic resistance of the
clear lattice were the primary resistance to the motion of
dislocations at the stress levels of high strain rate exper-
iments, then a sizable fraction of the dislocations would
be moving at dislocation velocities of the order of elastic
wave speeds and the resulting plastic strain rate would
be "much larger than observed in the experiments. Thus,
it appears t h a t even at high strain rates the mobility of
dislocations is strongly affected by the interaction of dis-
locations with such obstacles as impurity atoms, second
phase particles, other dislocations, and grain boundaries.
T h e dynamic plastic response of materials has also
been investigated by stress wave experiments in which
large amplitude waves are propagated in bars, tubes or
plates. Comparisons of predicted and measured wave
profiles have been used to assess the validity of vari-
ous constitutive models and suggest improved models.
Experiments on longitudinal waves in bars, while the
easiest to conduct, have been difficult to interpret un-
ambiguously because the high strain rate region of pri-
mary interest is so near the impact end of the bar t h a t
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Appl Mech Rev 1990 Supplement
three-dimensional effects preclude a reliable interpreta-
tion of the experiments within the framework of a one-
dimensional wave theory. These difficulties are overcome
in plate impact experiments in which plane waves are gen-
erated by the impact of flat, parallel plates. Before wave
reflections arrive from lateral boundaries, the wave prop-
agation through the thickness is one-dimensional. Conse-
quently, one-dimensional wave theory can be used for nu-
merical predictions of wave profiles to be compared with
those recorded in the experiments. Further simplifica-
tion of the analysis is obtained for cases in which the
main platic wave propagates as a steady wave or only
the decay of the elastic precursor is required. Calcula-
tion of steady wave profiles for an assumed constitutive
model (See Johnson and Barker (1969)) requires only the
solution of ordinary differential equations which, for el-
ementary constitutive models, may be solved in closed
form. Also, if the amplitude of the elastic precursor is
sufficiently small t h a t nonlinear elastic compressibility ef-
fects are negligible, then the analysis of the elastic pre-
cursor reduces to the solution of an ordinary differential
equation which, for elementary constitutive models (See
Taylor (1965) and Johnson, Jones and Michaels (1970)),
may also be solved in closed form. Interpretation of elas-
tic precursor decay experiments has proved to be diffi-
cult because steep gradients in the wave profile make it
difficult to measure the amplitude of the precursor accu-
(1) rately and because the amplitude is sensitive to disloca-
tion generation and multiplication at, and immediately
behind, the wavefront (See, e.g. Herrmann, Hicks and
Young (1970) and Meir and Clifton (1986)). Steady wave
profiles have proved to be more useful for examining the
plastic response of materials at very high strain rates,
say 1 0 7 s - 1 . An important conclusion from these exper-
iments is t h a t the flow stress increases strongly but less
than proportionally, with strain rate at these high strain
rates. Grady (1981) reports the shear stress increasing as
the square root of the strain rate. One limitation of the
normal impact experiments is t h a t plastic strains of only
a few percent are generated because the high strain rates
are maintained for very short times.
Larger plastic strains have been obtained by impacting
plates which are parallel, but skewed relative to the di-
rection of approach to produce both pressure and shear
tractions on the impact plane. Such pressure-shear ex-
periments, introduced by Abou-Sayed and Clifton (1977),
have the attractive features that the resulting shear waves
are both sensitive to the shearing resistance of the ma-
terial and relatively easy to interpret because they are
exactly one dimensional, as long as the impacting sur-
faces are flat and parallel. Additionally, these experi-
ments show the effects of non-proportional loading paths
which arise because differences between the wave speeds
for longitudinal and shear waves cause the normal stresses
at any point to change before the shear stress. However,
unlike normal impact experiments in which steady waves
are obtained when the wave-steepening effects of nonlin-
ear elastic compressibility are exactly balanced by the
wave spreading effects of plastic flow, shear waves lack
a wave-steepening effect and, therefore, tend to spread
with distance of propagation (See Chhabildas, Sutherland
 Appl Mech Rev vol 43, no 5, Part 2, May 1990
and Asay (1979), Kim and Clifton (1980), and Gilat and
Clifton (1985)). Correspondingly, the plastic shear strain
rate decreases with distance of propagation. Li (1982),
retaining the pressure-shear impact configuration, over-
came the tendency for the shear strain rate to decrease
by sandwiching a thin specimen between two hard elas-
tic plates in a manner t h a t is analogous to the method
introduced by Kolsky except for the replacement of bars
by plates. Because the wave propagation is one dimen-
sional, except for perturbations due to heterogeneity of
the specimen, there are essentially no end effects. There-
fore, large strain rates (10 5 s~ 1 to 1 0 7 s - 1 ) can be obtained
by reducing the thickness of the specimen to thicknesses
of, say, 250//m to 2.5/zm. In this way, the flow stresses
of pure metals (Al, Cu, Fe) have been shown to increase
strongly with increasing strain rate at strain rates of ap-
proximately 1 0 5 s - 1 and higher (See Klopp, Clifton and
Shawki (1985) and Huang and Clifton (1985)).
Discussion of this strong increase in flow stress with
strain rate at very high strain rates is the principal thrust
of this paper. Does this strong rate sensitivity of the flow
stress indicate t h a t the material response is much like
that of a viscous fluid for which the flow stress depends
strongly on the current strain rate or, instead, does the
response remain like t h a t of a metal for which the flow
stress at a given dislocation structure, depends weakly
on the current strain rate, while the structure depends
strongly on the strain-rate history? First, results of con-
stant strain-rate tests will be summarized. Then, results
of strain-rate change tests will be presented. Interpreta-
tion of strain-rate change tests will be shown to be en-
hanced if the test is analyzed by considering the propa-
gation of the stress increment through the specimen. For
strain-rate decrement tests on O F H C copper the anal-
ysis of this unloading wave will be shown to indicate a
weak dependence of the sensitivity of the flow stress on
the current strain rate. This result will be examined fur-
ther by considering the implications of this behavior for
the interpretation of other impact experiments used to
characterize the plastic response of metals at high strain
rates.
2, EXPERIMENTS
The pressure-shear plate impact configuration shown in
Fig. 1 has been used to study the plastic flow of metals at
strain rates of 1 0 5 s _ 1 to 1 0 7 s - 1 . A detailed description of
OfHC Copper Specimen
Hard S t e e l / Hard Steel
Fiberglass Tube Flyer Plate Target Plate
FIG 1. Schematic of pressure-shear plate impact configura-
tion.
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Clifton: High strain rate behavior of metals S11
the experimental technique, as well as some of the early
results, have been given by Clifton and Klopp (1985).
Without repeating the details, measurement of the skew
angle 9, the projectile velocity, V, and the transverse ve-
locity, vjs(t), of the free surface of the target plate allows
the nominal shear strain rate, j , and the nominal shear
stress, r , to be computed from
T =
2^pC^sVfs' ^
where t>o = VsinO is the transverse component of the pro-
jectile velocity, h is the specimen thickness, and (pc-^s is
the elastic shear wave impedance of the steel target. In-
tegration of the shear strain rate provides a measure of
the shearing deformation which, along with the computed
values for r , can be used to obtain a dynamic stress-strain
curve for the specimen material. After a few reverbera-
tions of waves through the thickness of the specimen, the
stress in the specimen becomes nominally homogeneous
and the "stress-strain curve" becomes representative of
the response for homogeneous deformation at approxi-
mately constant strain rate. Such dynamic stress-strain
curves are shown in Fig. 2 for annealed, commercially
pure, aluminum. Steeply rising portions of the curves
correspond to intervals in which the stress state in the
specimen is not uniform because of insufficient time for
wave traversals through the thickness of the specimen.
An indication of the variation of the rate sensitivity of the
flow stress of aluminum over a wide range of strain rates is
shown in Fig. 3. D a t a points in Fig. 3 are obtained from
experiments at nominally constant strain rate; at lower
strain rates the curves correspond to fixed strain levels
whereas at higher strain rates the flow stress becomes in-
dependent of the accumulated strain (See Fig. 2) and
the d a t a points indicate the plateau stress reached in the
pressure-shear experiments. Such plots indicate t h a t the
increase in flow stress per decade increase in strain rate
is much greater at strain rates of 10 5 s~ 1 and higher than
at strain rates of 10 3 s~ x and lower. Similar behavior has
been reported by Klopp, Clifton and Shawki (1985) for
high purity iron and by Huang and Clifton (1985) for
O F H C copper.
To gain better understanding of the origins of the strain
rate sensitivity at high strain rates, strain-rate change ex-
periments have been conducted on O F H C copper in the
pressure-shear plate impact configuration as a means for
probing the response of the material at different levels of
stress and strain rate, but at nominally the same dislo-
cation structure. T h e experimental configuration is the
same as that shown in Fig. 1 except that the hard steel
flyer plate is replaced by a two-plate assembly consisting
of a hard steel plate backed by a high strength aluminum
alloy (7075-T6). T h e t-X diagram for this experiment
is shown in Fig. 4. T h e specimen is subjected initially
to the high shearing rate imposed by the bounding steel
plates as shown in Fig. 5 by the points 2 and 3 repre-
senting the stress and particle velocity at the two faces
of the specimen. When shear waves reflected from the
low impedance aluminum plate reach the specimen, the
 S12 MECHANICS USA 1990 Appl Mech Rev 1990 Supplement

150.0 y ° 2 . Q 5 x l 0 3 s " ' l S H 0 T 81-10

Second Window
100.0
w
w
CD
4—'

co
CO
<D 50.0 First Observed Signal
-C

co

0.0
0.00 0.05
Shear Strain
FIG 2. Dynamic stress-strain curves for 1100-0 aluminum (Li
(1982)).
shear stress is reduced sharply and, once a uniform state
of shear stress is established again in the specimen, the
shear strain rate is reduced strongly, as indicated by the
small separation between points 6 and 7 in Fig. 5. The
shear strain rate can be obtained during this time (i.e.
during the second window of Fig. 4) by replacing the
numerator in (2) by (vjsi — vj^) as shown in Fig. 5.
With this configuration, strain rate change tests can be
carried out, starting at strain rates of 1 0 5 s _ 1 or higher
for l p s , followed by substantially lower strain rates for
approximately l//s.
For the strain-rate-change experiments as well as for
recent constant strain rate experiments, the experimen-
tal technique has been upgraded to improve the resolu-
tion of the transverse particle velocity. The pitch of the
diffraction grating placed on the rear surface of the tar-
get to enable the measurement of the transverse displace-
ment by means of the transverse displacement interferom-
eter (TDI) introduced by Kim, Clifton and Kumar (1977)
has been reduced from 200 lines/mm to as many as 1000
lines/mm by using a holographic technique to make the
OFHC Copper
0.10 0.15 FIG 4. Time-distance diagram for the pressure-shear,
strain-rate-change experiment.
gratings. T h e o u t p u t of the T D I is monitored by a LeCroy
Waveform Digitizer which records 10,000 d a t a points at
intervals of 0.742 ns. T h e recorded fringes are scaled to
uniform amplitude and then reduced using a fast Fourier
transform, low-pass filtering, and multi-point differenti-
ation to obtain the velocity-time profile. Details of the
d a t a reduction procedure as well as the specimen prepa-
ration procedures are given in a forthcoming paper by
Tong, Clifton and Huang (1990). For the experiments de-
scribed here, the specimens are O F H C copper foils with
a thickness of 25 /zm and a grain size which is initially 5-
10 fim, but which becomes approximately 40-50 /-im after
diffusion bonding to the target. Although the grain size is
greater than the thickness of the specimen the measured
response is a measure of average behavior over differently
oriented grains because the responses of many neighbor-
ing grains contribute to the measured motion at the rear
surface of the target.
Figure 6 shows results from one of the strain-rate
change tests. T h e strain-rate history is given by the down-
ward sloping curve, which begins when uniform stress
is established in the specimen. T h e stress-time profile
shows a decrease in shear stress when the sharp decrease
in strain rate occurs. Stress-time profiles are also shown
in Fig. 6 for a viscoplastic power law model (See Table

8. H»
140.0
0-- 26.6*
8" 33.7*
Shear Stres ; (MPa)

120.0

100.0

80.0

60.0

40.0

20.0
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
Shear Strain Rate (1/s, Log)
FIG 5. Stress-velocity diagram for the shear stress and trans-
FIG 3. Rate sensitivity of the flow stress in 1100-0 aluminum verse particle velocity in the pressure-shear, strain-rate-change
(Li(1982)). experiment.

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 Appl Mech Rev vol 43, no 5, Part 2, May 1990 Clifton: High strain rate behavior of metals S13

TABLE I. Model parameters for OFHC copper

Elastic: p c 2 2 = p = 44 G P a ,

pcx2 = 202 GPa, p = 8940 k g / m 3

£ 150 Viscoplastic Model:

th
7 = 7(7-, 7) = 7Jl +i 7g2-
where
60-

0 250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750

7i = To
Ta + {Ts - Ta){\ - 6 TO)
Time After Shear Wave Arrival (ns)

FIG 6. Stress-time profiles and strain-rate history for a 72 = imi")^ •

strain-rate-change test on OFHC copper (V = 0.112 mm//is,
8= 14.5°, h = 25n m).
Parameter values:
I) in which the material parameters are chosen to obtain
close agreement with the measured response in constant
strain rate experiments. This model does not provide a ra = 80 MPa, TS = 265 MPa,
satisfactory description of the response in the strain-rate
change test. Indeed, the measured and predicted pro- 7o = 0.2, m = 0 . 2 ,
files differ qualitatively at early times after the arrival of
the unloading wave: the former is continuous and slowly 7o = 5 x 10 5 s - \ m* = 0.75, j m - 3 x 10 6 s " 1 .
varying while the latter falls precipitously. These differ- I n t e r n a l V a r i a b l e M o d e l : Eqs. (21) - (25)
ences are discussed more fully in the section on Analysis.
At this point it is sufficient to note that the behavior is Parameter values:
contrary to the predictions of conventional viscoplasticity
and suggests the need for considering other constitutive 7o = l x l 0 5 s - 1 , m = 0.05,
models.

/?o = 8 x 10 5 s - 1 , mh = 0.515,
3. ANALYSIS

T 0 (0) = 60 MPa, v = 1-940,

Whenever the stress state in the high-strain-rate,
pressure-shear experiment is uniform through the thick-
ness of the specimen, the stress and strain rate in the spec- r s 0 = 73 MPa, j s l = 1 x 105 so - l
imen can be obtained directly from the measured particle
velocity by means of Eqns. (2), (3) and the analogous
equations m,i 0.05, 7»2 = 2 x 10 6 s-

urj - ufs
(4) ms2 = 0.2, 7 3 3 = 1.5 x 10 6 „-l

a
= 2^Cl)5t'^s' (5) ms3 = 0.525, A = 175, n = 0.75.

for the normal strain rate, e, and the normal stress a. In

Eqns. (4) and (5), u0 — Vcos# is the normal component of for determining the plastic response at fixed structure,
the projectile velocity, ujs is the normal component of the as in the strain rate change experiment, because that re-
velocity of the free surface of the target plate and {pc\)s sponse occurs before the stress becomes uniform through
is the elastic longitudinal wave impedance of the steel tar- the thickness of the specimen.
get. Even when the stress state is not uniform through Stress waves in the plastically deforming specimen sat-
the thickness of the specimen, the recorded motion of the isfy the m o m e n t u m conservation equations
free surface of the target plate is useful for interpreting
the behavior of the specimen at high shear strain rates. ex = Pout, (6)
However, relating the recorded motions to the material rx = Povt, (7)
response of the specimen requires a full analysis of the
wave propagation in the specimen for an assumed consti- and the compatibility equations
tutive model. Such an analysis is particularly important f* = u
x, (8)

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 S14 MECHANICS USA 1990
It - vx,
where subscripts denote partial differentiation and po is
the initial density of the material. T h e coordinate X cor-
responds to the coordinate, say Xi, in the direction of
wave propagation. T h e shearing deformation occurs in
the X\ — X2 plane. In addition, the stresses and strain
rates satisfy constitutive equations t h a t describe the elas-
tic/viscoplastic response of the material. Such equations
have been formulated by Ramesh and Clifton (1990) for
finite deformations in pressure-shear for isotropic materi-
als in which both the elastic and plastic deformations are
finite and by Klopp (1987) for face-centered-cubic metal
crystals in which the plastic deformation and rotation are
finite, but the elastic strains are infinitesimal. However,
here the complexities of finite deformations are put aside
to focus attention on the strain hardening issues that are
of primary interest in the strain-rate-change experiments.
Furthermore, the strains are small over the times of the
principal interest during, and following, the reduction in
strain rate.
Governing equations for infinitesimal deformations in
pressure-shear have been presented and solved numeri-
cally by Gilat and Clifton (1985) and Gilat (1988) for
interpreting waves generated by pressure-shear impact.
These equations consist of equations (6-9) and the con-
stitutive equations
1
*/- ^ f
£« = T h e hardness measure To is assumed to evolve during
—-at
P0C1 + ${T,TQ^ da'
—
It -r,+$(r,r0): , (11)
P0C2 or
where c\, ci are, respectively, the elastic longitudinal and
shear wave speeds in the specimen, <&(r, r 0 ) is a viscoplas-
tic strain rate function t h a t corresponds to the second
invariant of the plastic strain rate tensor, i.e.
$ = 7P = (2c,- i e, 7 )
where the convention of summation over repeated indices
is used and superposed dots denote the material time
derivative which, for the infinitesimal strain description
considered here, is equivalent to the partial derivative ( ) t .
The function $ depends on an equivalent shear stress r
defined by
,1
T=(nSijSijY' (13)
where s,-;- denotes the stress deviator ffij — go^iA'j, and
a reference stress TQ that represents the strain hardened
state of the material. T h e function / is a flow poten-
tial /(cr, r, <722,<T33,) where cr22 and 0-33 are the normal
stresses on planes transverse to the direction of wave prop-
agation. These normal stresses are evaluated by integra-
tion of the equations
r -^22 - ^(0-33 + <?•) + $ ( r , r 0 )-^-— = 0,
E ' (9(722
033 ^(*22 + <r)+*(T,T0)^-
Jb 0(733
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Appl Mech Rev 1990 Supplement
(9)
0 .05 .10 .15 0 .05 .10 .15 0 .05 0 .05 .10 ,15 .20
Shear Strain
FIG 7. Strain-rate jump experiments in torsion on thin-walled,
OFHC copper specimens (Senseny, Richman and Duffy
(1975)).
which ensure t h a t the total strain rates e22 and e 33 are
zero as required by the geometry of pressure-shear im-
pact; E and v in (14) and (15) are Young's modulus and
Poisson's ratio, respectively. For the calculations reported
here, isotropic hardening is assumed. With this assump-
tion the flow potential / is the Huber-Mises function
(16)
/ 0 « j ) = (2S>'is0") = -
(10)
plastic deformation according to
TO = H(TQ,JP)JP (17)
where H(TO,JP) is a hardening rate function which, along
with <£>(r, To), is to be determined from a series of exper-
iments. The form of the functions $ ( r , ro) and H(TQ,JP)
can be suggested by considering specific mechanisms of
plastic flow and strain hardening as done by Follans-
(12) bee and Kocks (1988), Zerilli and Armstrong (1987) and
Klepaczko (1988). However, in view of the lack of cer-
tainty of the mechanisms at high strain rates, and the
inherent difficulties of extending dislocation-based mod-
els to polycrystalline materials, the functions <3?(r, r 0 ) and
H(TO,JP) are represented here by simple, empirical ex-
pressions. T h e stress TQ is identified as the flow stress,
at the current dislocation structure, or "hardness", for de-
formation at a reference plastic strain rate 70. T h a t is,
the hardness or reference flow stress TQ is defined by an
idealized experiment in which the rate of plastic defor-
mation is changed instantaneously to the reference strain
rate 70; the corresponding change in flow stress is from r
to TQ. For this definition of To it follows t h a t in a test at
a constant plastic strain rate equal to the reference strain
rate, the stress TQ and the plastic strain rate 70 satisfy
7 0 = $ ( r 0 , r 0 ) . Consequently, the function $ is required
to satisfy $7- -f <3>To = 0 along f = T0. This constraint is
satisfied by taking $ to depend only on the "overstress"
T—r0 or the "fractional overstress" T/TQ. From strain-rate
(14)
j u m p tests in which the strain rate is increased quickly
from 2 x 1 0 _ 4 s _ 1 to 3 x 1 0 2 s _ 1 it appears, as shown
= 0, (15) in Fig. 7, that a fractional overstress model provides a
 Appl Mech Rev vol 43, no 5, Part 2, May 1990 Clifton: High strain rate behavior of metals S15

better description. Furthermore, the quotient r/r0 is a the plastic strain rate function is modified to have the
suitable dimensionless variable for describing the driving form
force on dislocations when the primary resistance to their V Tn /
motion is provided by the stress fields of dislocation con- -) = (23)
TO V m m I
figurations which have been developed during the prior i + 0(£) h

deformation. T h u s , $ ( 7 , TO) is taken to have the form

$(r,7- 0 ) = 7o</>(r/r 0 ),
where <j> satisfies ^(1) = 1.
To account for the strain rate dependence of strain
hardening, an elementary model is introduced to relate
the hardening rate under any loading history to the hard-
ening rate at a corresponding point of a constant strain
rate test at the current strain rate. The hardening rate
function is chosen to be consistent with the observation
that dynamic stress-strain curves at the essentially con-
stant shear strain rates of pressure-shear impact experi-
ments reach a plateau level at large strains and remain
constant thereafter. To account for thjs_saturation of the
stress, the strain hardening rate H(TQ,JP) is taken to have
the form
H(r0^) = h{^^-^))
To
where the exponent m/t (m/j > m) and the coefficient
/? (0 < P < 1) are introduced to model an enhanced rate
(18)
sensitivity of the flow stress at the highest strain rates en-
countered in the calculations. This equation agrees with
(20), except at large values of 7 / r 0 where the second term
in the denominator becomes dominant and reduces the
calculated strain rate. At sufficiently large strain rates
the strain rate function becomes
To
$(r,r0) = (24)
To ensure t h a t the stress difference in (21) remains pos-
itive, the coefficient (3 and the parameter m;, are chosen
such t h a t the curves representing the flow stress at con-
stant structure do not intersect the curve TS(JP) of (22)
within the regime of stresses and strain rates t h a t are of
interest in the calculations. To this end, the coefficient /?
(19) is taken to decrease with increasing TQ according to

where TS(JP) is the saturation stress at the plastic shear ro(0)

P = Po (25)
strain rate j p and 70 is a reference strain. The function h TO
is taken to satisfy h(0) = 0 to ensure t h a t the hardening
rate vanishes as the shear stress approaches the saturation where /?o,P are positive parameters and ro(0) is the ini-
stress for the current strain rate. tial value of ro. T h e additional parameters introduced by
these modifications are also given in Table I. T h e depen-
T h e choice of the reference strain rate can be made
dence of the saturation stress or steady-state stress on
arbitrary by requiring the functions <f> and h to be homo-
the strain rate is shown in Fig. 8, along with the rate
geneous functions of their arguments. Thus, the plastic
sensitivity at constant structure given by (18) and (23).
strain-rate function <f> and the strain hardening rate h are
T h e dashed curves indicate the rate sensitivity of the flow
taken to be, respectively,
stress without the modification (23) for high strain rates;
similarly, the limiting behavior (24) at high strain rates
v_ ) V ) '
(20) is given by the dotted curves. Although the modifica-
r
o r
o tion (23) was motivated by computational considerations,
the general features of the curves at high strain rates are
and believed to be representative of material behavior. Pa-
rs(yP) rameter values /?o, m /j>p, T o(0) for the modification are
h( n
-)=^(r,(T")-r) 7o . m
(21)
To constrained by the requirement t h a t the measured and
where m,n,A are constants and 70 has been replaced by
(^To") - "" to ensure t h a t the stress-time history r(t) for a
given strain-rate history jp(t) is independent of the refer-
ence strain rate. T h e function rs(jP)), based on results of
pressure-shear experiments on O F H C copper at constant
shear strain rate, is approximated by

^ ( T P ) ) = T30 + T (22)
• • • £ \7s
(!

Values for the exponents m„; and the dependent param-

eters T,i,j,i which provide the best fit of experimental
data for O F H C copper are given in Table I, along with
values for the parameters m,n,A. 0 2 4
Strain Rate (1/s, Log)
To avoid the use of unacceptably small time steps at
early times when large overstresses and, correspondingly, FIG 8. Modeled rate dependence of the flow stress at fixed
very large plastic strain rates are predicted by the model, structure and the steady state stress for OFHC copper.

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 S16 MECHANICS USA 1990 Appl Mech Rev 1990 Supplement

300'

600

;S 400-

IX.
a>

200-

100

2 4
Strain Rate (1/s, Log)
FIG 9. Modeled rate dependence of the hardening rate at
fixed structure for OFHC copper.
computed stress-time profiles match reasonably well at
early times before the stress becomes uniform through
the thickness of the specimen.
T h e hardening rate (21) is shown in Fig. 9. At fixed
structure, the hardening rate increases with increasing
strain rate. T h e break in each curve occurs at the strain
rate for which the transition occurs in the strain rate
sensitivity, according to the curves shown in Fig. 8.
Although there is insufficient experimental d a t a to con-
strain the hardening rate function for the highest strain
rates shown, good agreement of computed and measured
stress-time profiles appears to require the hardening rate
to level off or even decrease at strain rates above, say,
1 0 7 s - 1 . T h e preceding modifications affect the solution
significantly only during early times when the strain rate
is much greater than the nominally constant strain rate
achieved at later times. T h u s , these modifications have
negligible effect on the comparisons in the regimes of pri-
mary interest in these experiments.
A computed stress-time history for the transmitted
stress in a pressure-shear, constant-strain-rate plate im-
6.0 9
3.0 to
a:
o> 200 c duced by the longitudinal unloading wave reflected from
'<t>
250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750
Time After Shear Wave Arrival (ns)
FIG 11. Comparison of measured and computed stress-time
histories for a strain-rate-change experiment on an OFHC cop-
per foil (V = O.112mm//is,0 = 14.5°, h = 25/im).
pact experiment on O F H C copper at a relatively high
impact velocity is shown in Fig. 10. T h e calculations are
made using the internal variable model of Table I and a
second order accurate difference method (see e.g. Ran-
ganath and Clifton (1972)). To eliminate numerical diffi-
culties associated with shock wave fronts, a risetime of 1
ns is given to the loading at the impact face. T h e numer-
ical solutions indicate that a homogeneous state of stress
is established after approximately 100 ns. Before the cal-
culated stress state becomes homogeneous, the agreement
between the predicted and measured stress-time profiles
is not fully satisfactory. This lack of agreement indicates
t h a t the model underestimates the plastic strain rate in
the initial high stress regime. After the stress becomes
uniform through the thickness, the main features of the
experimental curves are captured by the model.
T h e same model for O F H C copper has also been used
to interpret the results of strain-rate-change experiments.
In this case the calculations were modified to include the
waves reflected from the interface between the steel flyer
plate and the aluminum backup plate. Comparison of
the measured and computed stress-time profiles for one of
the strain-rate-change experiments is shown in Fig. 11.
The strain-rate history is given by the downward slop-
ing curve, which begins at the time when the calculated
stress in the specimen becomes uniform. The stress-time
profile shows a small dip in the shear stress at the time
(t «s 500ns) when the normal stress in the specimen is re-

160-
2.0 W the front of the aluminum backup plate. Computation-
ally this dip corresponds to a non-proportional loading
effect (See Fig. 12). Sharp unloading of the normal stress
moves the stress state to a point on a neutral loading path
F 60- of constant r . Reloading along a similar p a t h , but with
slightly increasing r , restores the s t a t e of stress to nearly
250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750
that of simple shear.
Time After Shear Wave Arrival (ns)
T h e principal feature of interest in Fig. 11 is the stress-
FIG 10. Stress-time history for a pressure-shear experiments time profile at times beginning at t « 960ns when the
on an OFHC copper foil at nominally constant strain rates unloading shear wave arrives. At this time the mea-
{V = O.18O5mm/>s,0 = 22.0°, h = 25/im). sured nominal shear strain rate decreases sharply (again,

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 Appl Mech Rev vol 43, no 5, Part 2, May 1990
this shear strain rate should not be viewed as a uniform
strain rate for homogeneous deformation of the specimen
until the stress becomes uniform through its thickness).
The measured stress-time profile for the transmitted shear
stress decreases gradually for approximately 600ns before
the first arrival of unloading waves from lateral bound-
aries. Computed stress-time profiles based on the consti-
tutive model described above are shown as dotted curves
with the lighter and darker dots corresponding, respec-
tively, to the stress at the front and rear faces of the
specimen. T h e model predicts correctly that the trans-
mitted shear stress does not drop sharply when the un-
loading wave arrives. This prediction requires that the
negative j u m p in stress at the front face of the specimen
be fully attenuated during the propagation of the unload-
ing wavefront through the specimen. The attenuation of
this j u m p can be analyzed by considering the ordinary
differential equations
dr dv >MT,T0)T
~P0C2
~dt 2f
which hold along the characteristics X = c 2 at the lead-
ing and trailing edge of the j u m p . Taking the difference
between these two relations on the two sides of the j u m p
and eliminating the j u m p in particle velocity [v] by using
the j u m p condition [r] = — P0C2H o n e obtains
d[r] Poc2 $(r,r0)i
dt IT
where square brackets denote the j u m p in the enclosed
quantities across the wavefront. Thus, the rate of atten-
uation of the stress j u m p [r] is proportional to the dif-
ference between the plastic shear strain rate on the two
sides of the wavefront. T h e hardness measure TO does not
change across the wavefront because the instantaneous
response of the material is elastic. Therefore, the attenu-
ation of [r] is a measure of the rate sensitivity of the plas-
tic flow at fixed structure. From (27), strong attenuation
occurs when a sharp decrease in the shear stress at fixed
structure causes a strong decrease in strain rate. Such be-
havior occurs for the strain-rate history dependent model
260-
"•••..'•-., f = 236 MPa
200-
150-
f = 221 M P a \ \
100-
v W
II \ \\
50-
0-
-300
-ii, -200
,
-100
r I
0 100
,U-
200
(CV CT„)/V3 (MPa)
FIG 12. Stress trajectory at the rear surface of the specimen
in the strain-rate-change experiment of Fig. 11.
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Clifton: High strain rate behavior of metals S17
described above because the behavior at fixed structure
is described by a small value of the rate sensitivity pa-
rameter m.
For conventional viscoplastic models the hardening
is assumed to depend only on the accumulated plastic
strain, not the rate at which it is introduced. In this case
h does not depend on the strain rate •yf and h = ft(ro)
becomes simply the slope of the stress-strain curve at a
reference strain rate. For such models the hardness ro can
be expressed as a function of the accumulated strain, re-
sulting in the usual viscoplastic formulation in which the
plastic strain rate is a function of the current stress and
the accumulated plastic strain. When a model of this type
is used to describe the behavior of O F H C copper in the
tests at constant strain rate the rate sensitivity parameter
must have the much larger value m = 0.2 in order to fit
the observed increase in flow stress with increasing strain
rate. For this value of m the calculated stress-time pro-
files for the strain-rate change test, shown in Fig. 6, show
a sharp decrease in the transmitted stress at the arrival of
(26)
the shear wave of unloading. This drop in shear stress in-
dicates t h a t , according to (27), the discontinuity in shear
stress is not attenuated sufficiently because the change in
plastic strain rate across the wavefront is too small. Sim-
ilar behavior has been observed in all strain-rate j u m p
tests in O F H C copper. Thus, it appears that the strong
rate sensitivity observed in constant strain rate tests on
O F H C copper must be attributed primarily to the rate
sensitivity of the evolution of hardness, not to the rate
(27)
sensitivity of the flow stress at constant structure.
4. DISCUSSION
Comparison of the experimental and computational re-
sults for the strain-rate change experiment indicates that
the large increase in flow stress in pressure-shear experi-
ments at very high strain rates is due largely to the strong
rate sensitivity of the hardening rate. Although the com-
parisons are made using simple empirical expressions for
the hardening rate and the flow rate at fixed structure,
this overall conclusion does not depend sensitively on the
form of these functions. Quite generally, the lack of a
step-like decrease in the transmitted shear stress in the
strain-rate change experiments is a strong indication that
the flow stress decreases much less slowly with decreas-
ing strain rate than indicated by the measured increase in
the saturation stress with increasing strain rate. Related
indications of the influence of the rate of deformation on
the hardening rate appear in other investigations of the
dynamic plastic flow of fee metals. Pioneering research
related to the detection and modeling of such effects in
O F H C copper has been conducted by Follansbee, Kocks
and co-workers (See, e.g., Follansbee and Kocks (1988)).
Their approach consists of conducting quasi-static and
split Hopkinson pressure bar experiments over a range of
strain rates and probing the hardness developed by mea-
300
suring the so-called "mechanical threshold stress" of the
deformed samples at 0 K. T h e y report large increases in
the hardening rate at strain rates of 1 0 3 s - 1 and higher.
They model the behavior with a dislocation mechanics
based model in which the dislocation density is assumed
 S18 MECHANICS USA 1990
to be constant and the rate controlling process is the ther-
mally activated motion of dislocations past obstacles. In
their early work the hardening rate increased as strongly
as linearly with increasing strain rate at high strain rates.
Recent evidence indicates that the linear increase may be
too strong, but t h a t a hardening rate which increases with
the square root of strain rate at high strain rates may be
acceptable (See Tonks and Johnson (1989)).
Strain-rate j u m p experiments in the torsional Kolsky
bar configuration can also be interpreted as indicating
that the hardening rate increases with'increasing strain
rate. After the j u m p in strain rate the stress is less than
the stress in a constant strain rate test at the higher strain
rate. Furthermore, the initial strain hardening slope after
the j u m p tends to be larger than the slope, at the lower
strain rate, prior to the j u m p . Both of these features of
the curves are in qualitative agreement with predictions of
a strain-rate history dependent model with an enhanced
hardening rate at high strain rates.
Plastic waves in bars and tubes may also be interpreted
as indicating strain rate history effects. Rate indepen-
dent analyses of the wave profile often provide quite good
agreement with the experimental profiles, provided t h a t
the reference stress-strain curve is taken to be a "dynamic
stress-strain curve" with a higher hardening rate, espe-
cially initially, than t h a t observed in quasi-static exper-
iments. Plastic wave profiles for long bars and tubes,
subjected to constant velocity impact, consist of an elas-
tic precursor, a main plastic wave, and a final constant
state region. T h e main plastic wave propagates essen-
tially as a simple wave in which a given level of particle
velocity or strain propagates at a constant velocity, as
predicted by a rate independent theory. However, unlike
the predictions of a rate independent theory, the main
plastic wave makes a smooth transition to the final con-
stant state. These observations are qualitatively consis-
tent with the predictions of strain-rate history sensitive
models of the type presented here. T h e interpretation
of the constant state region differs from t h a t of conven-
tional viscoplastic models of the "overstress" type. Ac-
cording to such models a constant state is approached
as the overstress vanishes. The stress and strain in the
constant state region satisfy the quasi-static stress-strain
curve which serves as the reference curve in determining
the overstress. However, experiments indicate that the
locus of stress and strain states in the constant state re-
gions for a series of experiments at increasing impact ve-
locities is a curve which lies above the static stress-strain
curve. Similarly, if the strain-time profiles are used in a
rate independent theory to predict the reference stress-
strain curve from the measured velocities of propagation
of different strain levels, the predicted curve lies above
the static stress-strain curve. Such deviations from the
static stress-strain curve, while not great at the nomi-
nal strain rates of 10 2 s~ 1 t h a t characterize plastic wave
experiments in bars and tubes, are of the type expected
when the hardening rate increases with increasing strain
rate. For the model described here, the nominally con-
stant state region is reached as the reference stress in-
creases and the flow stress decreases until the effective
strain rate becomes negligible on the time scale of the
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Appl Mech Rev 1990 Supplement
experiment. Modifications of the functions used for the
flow rate and the hardening rate may be necessary at
these lower strain rates; however, the principal elements
of the strain-rate history dependent modeling presented
here appears to provide an attractive framework for rein-
terpreting plastic waves in bars and tubes.
Unloading waves in plastic wave experiments offer fur-
ther possibities for examining the validity of various con-
stitutive models for dynamic plastic flow. According to
a rate independent theory, unloading occurs elastically
and the unloading wave speeds are required to satisfy in-
equalities which, for example, require the speed of the
unloading wave marking the end of a plastic pulse propa-
gating along a bar to travel at a speed t h a t , as shown by
Lee (1953), is greater t h a n the plastic wave speed at the
state from which unloading is occurring and less than the
elastic wave speed. According to a rate dependent theory
of the conventional overstress type, there is no restriction
on the unloading wave speed and unloading waves are
relatively smooth because plastic flow continues during
unloading until the flow stress is reduced to that of the
quasi-static stress- strain curve. Experiments by Bodner
and Clifton (1967), for example, indicate t h a t the speeds
of unloading waves are consistent with the inequalities
of the rate independent theory and t h a t unloading waves
have relatively sharp wavefronts as predicted by such a
theory. Viscoplastic models with weak rate sensitivity
exhibit similar behavior. Strain-rate history dependent
models of the type presented here would result in unload-
ing wave behavior t h a t is similar to the predictions of a
viscoplastic theory with the exception t h a t the unload-
ing wave would be sharper because the rate sensitivity at
constant structure, which appears to be more appropriate
for unloading, is less t h a n the total rate sensitivity during
the evolution of hardening structures.
Another means of probing the flow stress of a mate-
rial that has been subjected to very high strain rates is
to examine the strength of the elastic release wave that
can be propagated through the material in its shocked
state. Such experiments are conducted by normal impact
of a plate specimen by a somewhat thinner flyer plate.
T h e amplitude of the release wave, generated by reflec-
tion of the incident compressive wave at the rear surface
of the flyer and propagating through the shocked mate-
rial at the elastic longitudinal wave speed, is interpreted
as a measure of the yield strength of the material in the
shocked state. This experiment is similar to the strain-
rate-change experiments in t h a t the material is subjected
to high rate deformation for a short time, followed by
rapid unloading. However, the strain rate has been re-
duced to a small value before the unloading wave arrives
and the unloading wave is so strong t h a t the unloading
causes plastic flow in the reverse direction. Thus, such ex-
periments provide primarily a probe of material response
under reverse loading, or an indication of the Bauschinger
effect for a material with a dislocation structure that was
generated at high strain rates. Such information is im-
portant for an overall understanding of hardening at high
strain rates, but it is not easily related to the unloading
behavior in the pressure-shear, strain-rate-change exper-
iment discussed here.
 Appl Mech Rev vol 43, no 5, Part 2, May 1990
Inclusion of the rate sensitivity of the hardening rate
in the description of rate dependent plastic flow was in-
troduced by Mecking and Kocks (1981). They introduced
the rate sensitivity of strain hardening as a means for de-
scribing dynamic recovery of fcc metals. Subsequently,
Follansbee and Kocks (1988)and Follansbee (1988) ex-
tended this model to describe the plastic flow of OFHC
copper at high strain rates. They related the hardness of
the current dislocation structure to the so-called mechan-
ical threshold stress, defined to be the extrapolated yield
stress at 0 K. The flow stress at constant structure was
taken to depend weakly on the strain rate, in accord with
the rate controlling process being the thermally activated
motion of dislocations post obstacles. The hardening rate
was taken to increase strongly with increasing strain rate.
This behavior was established experimentally; no physi-
cal mechanism was offerred as an explanation for the ob-
served rate sensitivity of the hardening rate.
Clifton (1989) attempted to explain the rate sensitivity
of OFHC copper at high strain rates by relating the final
flow stress to the dislocation cell structure of the recovered
specimen. This cell structure consists of nearly equi-axial
cells with relatively thick walls as shown in Fig. 13. The
final flow stress was found to agree reasonably well with
the value obtained from the relation
_ 10.5pb
T =-=--,
D
reported for polycrystalline copper by Staker and Holt
(1972); the average dislocation cell diameter is repre-
sented in (28) by D. The agreement was remarkable in
two respects: (i) the constant in the equation is approxi-
mately the value obtained by considering the bowing of a
dislocation between two obstacles spaced at a distance of
FIG 13. TEM micrograph of dislocation cdl structure for
pressure-shear impact experiment on OFllC coppcr spccimcn
(V == O.076mm//ls, 8 == 14.5°, h == 26Jlm, -yP ~ 1.1 X IO~S-I).
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Clifton: High strain rate behavior of metals S19
approximately 0.3D and (ii) the same equation relates T
and D values over twelve decades of strain rate, ranging
from creep rates to the very high rates of the pressure-
shear impact experiments; the corresponding range in the
values of T and D is more than an order of magnitude.
These two observations suggest that a deformation mech-
anism related to dislocations bowing out from cell walls
and sweeping across the cell is a primary mechanism of
plastic flow in copper over a wide range of strain rates.
To relate the rate of deformation for such a mechanism
to the applied stress one can express the rate of shearing
on a slip system due to the passage of a dislocation across
a cell as
. Ab
(29)
1= V.6.t'
where A is the area swept by the dislocation, per volume
V, per time .6.t. If the cell is assumed to be spherical and
the volume V is taken to be the volume in which only
one dislocation cell is active simultaneously, then V can
-3 r.;
be represented as V = N D / V 2 where N is the number
of close-packed cells of diameter D which comprise the
volume V. If the area A is taken to be the area of a
diametral plane of the sphere, then
. rrV2b
(30)
(28) 1= 4N D.6.t)
where .6.t is the time for a dislocation to sweep across the
cell. If i' and D can be determined from experiments, then
(30) can be used to estimate the product N .6.t. Now, the
shear rate i' for a slip system is related to the macroscopic
shear rate i'P by i' = i'P / K, where K, is a dimensionless pa-
rameter which can be estimated by making an assumption
regarding the orientation of the grain relative to the im-
posed shearing deformation. At large deformations it is
likely that the grain has rotated to a symmetry orien-
tation in which two or more slip systems are favorably
oriented for slip and have the same resolved shear stress.
With this assumption, the value of K, is approximately 2
and the value of N .6.t obtained from the measured values
of i'P and D is approximately 5 ns.
The time .6.t has been estimated (Clifton (1988)) by
considering the time required for a dislocation to sweep
across a cell when its motion is opposed by internal stress
fields due to other dislocations and the resistance of the
lattice. The resolved shear stress TR(X) acting on a central
segment of a dislocation as it sweeps across a cell can
be regarded as a superposition (motivated by Mughrabi
(1975))
TR(X) + TGW(X) + TID(X)
T
+ TLT(X) + TLR(X), (31)
where the quantities on the right side are the resolved
shear stress due to, respectively, the applied shear stress
T, the multipole dislocations in the cell wall, the imping-
ing dislocation from a neighboring cell, the line tension
of the bowed dislocation, and the long range stress field.
These terms and their superposition are shown schemat-
ically in Fig. 14. The stress field TGW(X) due to mul-
tipoles is a short range field that decays quickly on the
 S20 MECHANICS USA 1990
2.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
Normalized Distance
FIG 14. Schematic of the resolved shear stress at the center
of a curved dislocation as it sweeps across the diameter of a
dislocation cell.
scale of distances comparable to cell wall thicknesses. T h e
remaining terms vary sufficiently slowly that the driving
stress on the dislocation becomes quite uniform once the
dislocation escapes from the region where the stress is
dominated by TCW(X)- T h e time At required for the re-
mainder of the sweep can be estimated by replacing Uj
in (1) by dx/dt and integrating along the motion of the
dislocation as a central segment sweeps across the diame-
ter D, driven by the stress TR(X); a relativistic correction
is used for B to limit the maximum dislocation velocity
to the shear wave speed C2. The resulting value for the
time At is approximately 0.25 ns and the corresponding
estimate for N is 20, which is comparable to the number
N = 12 of cells in contact with a given cell in a close
packed array of spherical cells. Accounting for the escape
of the dislocation from the wall can be expected to in-
crease At and reduce N to a value that may be nearer
to 12. This observation suggests that, under nominally
steady conditions, each impinging dislocation would (on
the average) cause one, and only one, dislocation to sweep
across an adjoining cell. If N were much less than 12, then
there would be a significant probability for more than one
dislocation to be sweeping across a cell at the same time.
Intersection of these dislocations would lead to entangle-
ments and refinement of the cell structure, resulting in in-
creased hardness. T h e fraction of dislocations becoming
entangled would increase with increased strain rate, caus-
ing the hardening rate to increase with increased strain
rate.
Whether or not the rate sensitivity of the hardening
rate is related to the kinetics of dislocation entanglements
in the nominal 1 "' clear regions of dislocation cells has not
been establish _ feed, the existence of a dislocation
cell structure at high strain rates is viewed as unlikely
by those who regard such structures as low energy con-
figurations to which the dislocations relax after the ap-
plied stress is removed. Holt (1970) provided support
for the idea that dislocation cell structures correspond
to low energy configurations by an analysis of the inter-
action of parallel screw dislocations. He showed t h a t a
minimum energy configuration requires a modulated dis-
location density and t h a t the wavelength of the modu-
lation is inversely proportional to the square root of the
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Appl Mech Rev 1990 Supplement
dislocation density. By identifying the wavelength with
the cell diameter of the dislocation cell structure t h a t ul-
timately forms he concluded t h a t the cell diameter is in-
versely proportional to the square root of the dislocation
density. In this way the proportionality of the flow stress
to the inverse of the cell diameter, as given in (28), corre-
sponds to the flow stress being proportional to the square
root of the dislocation density. Such a model allows for
rate dependence of the hardening rate only if the dislo-
cation density in a sample that has been deformed to a
given strain at high strain rates is greater than the dislo-
cation density in a sample t h a t has been deformed to the
same strain at low strain rates. This possibility is allowed
0.8 0.9 1.0 in contemporary models of strain hardening by includ-
ing rate dependent dynamic recovery through dislocation
climb and subboundary migration (See Kocks (1976) and
Gottstein and Argon (1986)). Neither dislocation climb
nor subboundary migration appear to be suitable recov-
ery mechanisms for explaining the rate sensitivity of the
hardening rate at the high strain rates considered here
because insufficient time is available for the diffusion re-
quired for dislocation climb and because the mobility of
the relatively wide dislocation cell walls is expected to
be negligible for the temperatures and pulse durations of
the experiments. Thus, new mechanisms for the rate de-
pendence of the hardening rate appear to be required for
high strain rates; a mechanism based on an increased rate
of entanglement appears to be a possibility, b u t further
research is required to evaluate its viability.
5. CONCLUDING REMARKS
Based on the experiments and analysis considered herein
it appears t h a t some reasonably clear indications of es-
sential features of the modeling of the plastic flow of high
purity metals at high strain rates have emerged. In addi-
tion, some attractive directions for further research can be
identified. Such essential features and directions include
the following.
1. T h e rate sensitivity of the hardening rate is an es-
sential feature of the description of plastic flow over
a wide range of strain rates.
2. At high strain rates the rate sensitivity of the flow
stress at constant structure is considerably less than
the rate sensitivity of the hardening rate.
3. In constant strain rate tests at high strain rates the
flow stress saturates at modest strains. This behavior
suggests t h a t a nominally steady dislocation struc-
ture evolves in such experiments and that the charac-
terization of this structure and its relationship to the
strain rate sensitivity of the saturation stress would
be a fruitful direction for further research.
4. A successful model for the increased hardening rate
at high strain rates may result from an analysis of the
kinetics of dislocation entanglements where the rate
of formation of such entanglements increases with in-
creasing strain rate.
 Appl Mech Rev vol 43, no 5, Part 2, May 1990
5. Strain-rate change experiments are important in
probing the plastic response of materials at nomi-
nally constant structure. When these experiments
are conducted in the pressure-shear plate impact con-
figuration for which one- dimensional wave theory
applies, the comparison of computed and measured
wave profiles at early times after the arrival of the
wavefront of the strain-rate change is especially valu-
able in assessing the validity of proposed models.
Acknowledgements
The author is especially grateful to Wei Tong who
conducted the pressure-shear, strain-rate-change experi-
ments and did the associated calculations. A full account
of this research will be presented as his PhD thesis. The
author is also grateful to John Jarrell for the TEM mi-
crographs of dislocation cell structures in the deformed
OFHC copper specimens and to the Office of Naval Re-
search for their support of this research.
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