Bauschinger Effect in Explosively Loaded Mild Steel

Abstract

Experimental results are presented which indicate that the Bauschinger effect is operative in cold‐worked SAE 1018 steel for the extreme strain rates (∼10⁶/sec) associated with explosive loading. For approximately 20% prior tensile cold work the compressive dynamic yield stress for a propagation distance of 1.905 cm is about 8.8 kbars as compared to 15.7 kbars for annealed material. For heavily cold‐worked metals, which generally exhibit the Bauschinger effect, the results indicate that neglect of the Bauschinger effect under explosive loading conditions can lead to serious errors in the interpretation and extrapolation of experimental results. In the case of metals in annealed or slightly worked states, neglect of the Bauschinger effect in the elastic‐plastic model for shock loading and unloading may not be justified.