Author’s Accepted Manuscript

Effects of vibration direction on the mechanical

behavior and microstructure of a metal sheet
undergoing vibration-assisted uniaxial tension

De’an Meng, Xuzhe Zhao, Shengdun Zhao,

Qingyou Han
www.elsevier.com/locate/msea

PII: S0921-5093(18)31635-6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2018.11.115
Reference: MSA37235
To appear in: Materials Science & Engineering A
Received date: 31 October 2018
Revised date: 21 November 2018
Accepted date: 22 November 2018
Cite this article as: De’an Meng, Xuzhe Zhao, Shengdun Zhao and Qingyou Han,
Effects of vibration direction on the mechanical behavior and microstructure of a
metal sheet undergoing vibration-assisted uniaxial tension, Materials Science &
Engineering A, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2018.11.115
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Effects of vibration direction on the mechanical behavior and microstructure of a metal sheet

undergoing vibration-assisted uniaxial tension

De’an Menga,b*, Xuzhe Zhaob*, Shengdun Zhaoa, Qingyou Hanb

a School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, P.R. China

b School of Engineering Technology, Purdue University, 401 N. Grant Street, West Lafayette,

IN 47906, USA.

[email protected] (De’an Meng)

[email protected] (Xuzhe Zhao)

*Corresponding author.

1
Abstract:

Ultrasonic vibration can cause softening and hardening during metal deformation, and this concept

has been widely exploited in micro-forming. Recently, it was found that low-frequency vibration

with micro-amplitudes caused the similar effects and it also varied with the vibration direction. This

study investigated the effects of applying vibration in three directions (transverse, normal, and

rolling denoted as TD, ND, and RD, respectively) on the mechanical behavior and microstructure of

a commercial steel sheet during tensile deformation. Uniaxial tension test results showed that

superimposed vibration in TD caused a significant stress reduction, and superimposed vibration in

ND/RD resulted in a modest stress increase. Residual softening was observed in all three cases

when vibration was removed and the tensile test was continued. Strain field estimation and electron

backscatter diffraction revealed that vibration in TD caused localized plastic deformation,

aggravated the deformation process, and the formation of a large number of low-angle grain

boundaries. Vibration in ND/RD don’t have any effect on the localized plastic deformation. But the

oscillatory stress was able to enhance the dislocation movements, promoted dislocation annihilation,

and decreased dislocation density and the fraction of low-angle boundaries. Vibration softening and

hardening effects were proved by the crystal plasticity theory and variation of activation energy and

shear strain rate. Residual softening induced by vibration in TD was attributed to the plastic

deformation in the “softer” region of the specimen. Compared with the normal tension, the decline

of the dislocation density caused the residual softening in ND/RD. These results provide a

fundamental understanding of low-frequency vibration-assisted forming.

Keywords: vibration direction; vibration softening; vibration hardening; residual softening

2
I. INTRODUCTION

Vibration-assisted forming (VAF) is a well-established technique for metal forming. VAF has been

widely investigated and utilized in many different shaping processes because its advantages in

lowering flow stress, reducing the friction force at the die–specimen interface, and improving

surface quality. Ultrasonic vibration-assisted forming (UVAF) has elicited the considerable attention

and it also was applied in drawing [1], welding [2], extrusion [3], forging [4] and other fields due to

its significant softening and hardening effects on metallic materials. Nevertheless, the remarkable

effects of UVAF are only suitable for micro-forming and this effect can be weaken by increasing the

specimen size. It is rarely used in ordinary plasticity forming, which requires large forming force.

Kirchner et al. [5] and Meng et al. [6] observed that vibration softening effect occurs over a wide

frequency range and becomes increasingly sensitive with an increase in vibration amplitude. The

rapid development of servo press and servo hydraulic systems makes it possible to superimpose

low-frequency vibration with micro-amplitude in bulk or sheet forming. This technique is called

low-frequency vibration-assisted forming (LVAF). The softening and hardening effects in UVAF

also appear in LVAF. LVAF with lower cost and larger excitation force is more suitable and capable

than UVAF when used in practical industries that require large forming force.

In the LVAF shaping process, the specimen and mold can contact and separate hundreds of time

during each processing procedure because of the superimposition of vibration on the top or bottom

dies. Many scholars have focused on the development of LVAF technology. Polyakov et al. [7] used

a press equipped with rotating unbalanced inertia to perform vibration-assisted forging. Vertical

oscillatory load in the frequency range of 10–40 Hz caused the degree of deformation to increase

and pressure to decrease. When the frequency and amplitude increased, the degree of deformation

increased. But the resistance to deformation was reduced by this trend. Ali et al. [8] applied a pulsed

blank holder force at a frequency of 0–10 Hz to the blank deep drawing process. The authors found

that a good product without tearing and wrinkles could be acquired by using pulsed blank holder

force at an ultra-low frequency (<1 Hz). Maeno et al. [9] developed a vibration-assisted plate

compression process to prevent a sharp increase in load by using a servo press. Elastic recovery

between the die and plate caused the liquid lubricant to be automatically fed in the gap due to
3
vibration, which significantly improved the lubrication condition. Similar results were also reported

by Matsumoto et al. [10], who proposed a new method to improve the friction condition of deep

hole forming by utilizing a servo press and combining pulsed and stepwise modes. Deep holes with

high accuracy were produced using this method. Behrens et al. [11] developed a hydraulic actuator

to superimpose oscillation in sheet–bulk forming. Forming force reduction and geometric accuracy

improvement were obtained by the experiments using superimposed oscillation. Kirchner et al. [5]

described a new technology called cushion-ram pulsation for deep drawing on a servo press. A low

frequency value between 10 and 50 Hz was superimposed to the blank holder and press punch.

Meng et al. [12] also presented an active control system with a fuzzy algorithm to produce an

accurate pulsated blank holder force. Halicioglu et al. [13] demonstrated a prototype of a servo

press with programmed ram motion. The results revealed that a soft ram motion with 20 strokes per

minute enabled to result in high velocity with large thickness and improve the surface quality on the

material.

These previous studies have shown that LVAF has been successfully applied in various material

forming processes, especially in sheet forming. However, most of these studies focused on external

appearance, such as forming force reduction and surface quality improvement. The internal change

in the material has been disregarded and the forming mechanism under vibration condition is less

discussed. In UVAF, the internal microstructure and mechanical behavior have been affected greatly

by the ultrasonic solid wave. Liu et al. [14] reported ultrafine grained pure copper material was

obtained during ultrasonic vibration-assisted upsetting. The pure copper grain size was sharply

decreased to 100-300 nm from initial grain size ~ 50 μm. Bagherzadeh et al. [15] combined

ultrasonic vibration with the equal channel angular extrusion and the 1050 sample was nearly

equiaxed grains with an average size ~ 2 μm. Therefore, ultrasonic vibration will greatly change the

internal structure of the metal material during plastic deformation. Forming force reduction is

considered due to flow stress reduction resulting from energy absorption by dislocations. Siu et al.

[16] and Dutta et al. [17] reported the similar results, which pointed out that the effects of

ultrasound on metal can be interpreted by its capability to enhance dislocation dipole annihilation,

and these results were obtained from simulation and experimentation, respectively. Since the only
4
 difference between LVAF and UVAF is vibration frequency, we believe the material microstructure

in LVAF also can be altered by vibration energy. Moreover, the metal sheets are generally

manufactured through a rolling process and it shows a significant anisotropy in transverse (TD),

rolling (RD), and normal directions (ND). Results may vary significantly when vibration is applied

in different directions. Therefore, further research on vibration direction should be performed to

investigate the mechanisms of LVAF in microstructure and mechanical behavior.

In this paper, a low-frequency vibration-assisted tension test was conducted on DC04 metal sheet.

Two specialized setups for superimposing vibration in different directions were designed to

investigate the effects of vibration on mechanical behavior and microstructure. The digital image

correlation (DIC) method [18] was adopted to calculate the full-field strain of the specimen surface.

The cross-sectional deformation microstructure was analyzed through electron backscatter

diffraction (EBSD). And a basic explanation for softening and hardening effects was proposed after

analyzing the results of DIC and EBSD.

II. MATERIALS AND EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

The material investigation in this study was a commercial DC04 metal sheet (produced by Baosteel),

which was widely used in automobile panels due to its excellent performance in stamping and

drawing. The thickness of the DC04 sheet was 1 mm, with an average grain size of 20 µm. The

chemical compositions of DC04 are listed in Table 1. Flat uniaxial tension samples were extracted

in RD from the sheet material. The original gauge length and width were 25 and 10 mm,

respectively (Fig. 1). Vibrations in three directions, namely, RD, TD, and ND, were superimposed

during the uniaxial tension test.

Table 1. Chemical composition of DC04 steel

C% max Mn% max Al% min P% max S% max

0.08 0.40 0.02 0.025 0.02

5
 Fig. 1. Illustration of sample dimensions and vibration directions applied on the metal sheet

Two low-frequency vibrators were designed to generate oscillation in TD, ND, and RD, as shown in

Fig. 2. Vibrator-a (Fig. 2(a)) generated vibration in TD and ND. The mechanism of this setup has

been introduced in our previous work [6]. With the help of amplifier, the vibration in the horizontal

direction was considerably larger than that in the vertical direction. At the current position,

Vibrator-a generated oscillation in ND. When the clampers rotated at 90°, it could generate

vibration in TD. The vibration amplitude and frequency could be altered by adjusting the eccentric

disk numbers and vibration motor speed, respectively. Vibrator-b (Fig. 2(b)) could generate

vibration in RD. In this setup, the eccentric shaft driven by a servomotor rotated rapidly. The

vibration amplitude and frequency could be adjusted by changing the thickness of the spacer and

altering the motor speed, respectively. A force sensor recorded the dynamic tension force profile

with a high sample time (up to 1,000 Hz). A contact vibrometer, UT315 (minimum of 1 μm), was

used to measure the steady-state vibration amplitude at the top of the clamper. Single CCD camera

was employed to measure the material deformation through the DIC method. Blaber et al. [18]

developed a high-quality free software named Ncorr to calculate the full-field strain based on DIC

method. The in-plane displacement and strain characteristics in a local region were obtained using
6
this software.

The vibration-assisted tensile deformation test was conducted with the setup shown in Fig. 2. The

following cases were considered: (1) uniaxial tension without vibration, (2) uniaxial tension with

vibration in ND, (3) uniaxial tension with vibration in RD, and (4) uniaxial tension with vibration in

TD (i.e., samples 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively). An Instron testing machine was operated at a constant

speed of 1.5 mm/min, and this operation resulted in a quasi-static material strain rate of 10-3s-1.

When the sample engineering strain reached 0.05, the vibrator started to work and superimposed

oscillation to the bottom of the sample for 2s. Two experiments were carried out. The first

experiment was to record the engineering stress–strain curve of the vibration-assisted tension test.

And the second experiment was designated to observe the microstructure. Each case was tested

three times to eliminate the noise. In the first experiment, the tension test did not stop until the

sample reached its limit. Then, the engineering stress–strain curve was recorded. In the second

experiment, the tension test terminated when the strain reached 0.06. Then, the sample was prepared

for microstructure observation. In these experiments, vibration frequency was fixed at the maximum

value of 50 Hz to acquire a sufficient excitation force. A moderate amplitude was selected to avoid

problems because an extremely large amplitude damages the material, and an extremely small

amplitude was insufficient. For Vibrator-a, three eccentric disks were used (1 minimum, 6

maximum), and the no-load test indicated that the vibration amplitude was 0.310 mm. The vibration

amplitude for Vibrator-b was similar to that for Vibrator-a. A spacer with 0.15 mm thickness was

used to obtain a no-load amplitude of 0.303 mm for Vibrator-b.

7
 Fig. 2. Schematic of the vibration-assisted tensile deformation setup

All samples tested in the second experiment were prepared for optical observation and EBSD

analysis. Sections were cut across the sample width in TD and polished with sandpaper to a

2000-grit finish. Slice samples were etched with 4% nitric alcohol solution to show the grain

boundaries. Then, metallographical observation was performed with a Nikon LV150 microscope.

Slice samples for EBSD were ground to 2000 grit and electropolished using 6% perchloric acid

solution (320, 56, and 24 ml of ethanol, distilled water, and perchloric acid, respectively) for 30 s

with a DC voltage of 24V and current of 0.45A. EBSD scans were obtained with 70° samples by

applying an accelerating voltage of 20 KV and a working distance of 13 mm. All sections were

scanned in a square grid measuring 150×150 μm with a step size of 0.45 μm.

III. RESULTS

A. Microstructure characterization

3.1 3D microstructure

The material used in this study was a typical commercial cold-rolled strip. Fig. 3 shows the 3D

microstructure of the underformed DC04 sheet metal. Through a multi-pass rolling process, the

grains were crushed into ellipsoids, and exhibited a long-strip shape viewed from TD and RD. A

8
large number of small grains were generated during the final rolling and shaping procedure. Fig. 3(b)

shows the tension deformation behavior of DC04. The average yield stress at 0.2% offset was 220

MPa, with an ultimate strength of 298 MPa and an elongation of 45%.

Fig. 3 (a) Original 3D microstructure of DC04 (b) Engineering stress–strain curves for DC04 at

room temperature

3.2 Effects of vibration in different directions on flow stress

A series of vibration-assisted uniaxial tension tests with different vibration directions was conducted

with setups (a) and (b) shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 4 presents the stress–strain curve obtained from the

vibration-assisted tensile test. When the vibration was applied in TD by Vibrator-a, a significant

flow stress reduction was observed. Blaha et al. [19] first reported flow stress decline during single

crystal zinc tension test by superimposing ultrasonic vibration. This softening phenomenon was

referred as ultrasonic softening effect. Similarly, this effect in this paper can also be called vibration

softening. When the vibration reached its lowest point, stress increased and fluctuated with the

strain increase. Once the vibration stopped, the stress returned to its normal value after a short

elastic deformation process. However, the subsequent stress was lower than that in the tension test

without vibration for a long period. This phenomenon is called residual softening. Vibration

softening and residual softening are the most common phenomenon in ultrasonic-assisted tensile

deformation. However, when we changed the vibration direction into RD, no significant vibration

softening effect was observed. Instead, vibration hardening effect occurred, as depicted in Fig. 4(b).

During the vibration excitation period, the maximum stress value was larger than that without

vibration. When vibration was removed, residual softening appeared in the subsequent tensile test.
9
Similar results were obtained with vibration in RD when the tension test was conducted with

vibration in RD by using setup (b). Vibration hardening and residual softening effects also appeared

in the tensile test. We summarized the softening and hardening effects revealed in the

vibration-assisted tensile test, and mean values are shown in Table 2. Vibration in TD resulted in a

significant flow stress reduction, and vibration in ND/RD caused a slight hardening effect. Residual

hardening was observed in all of the tensile tests regardless of the vibration direction. However,

vibration in TD exerted the most significant influence on the residual softening effect.

10
 Fig. 4. Engineering stress–strain curve of the tensile test with low-frequency vibration in different

directions: (a) vibration applied in TD, (b) vibration applied in RD and (c) vibration applied in ND

Table 2 . Softening and hardening effects in the vibration-assisted tensile test

Vibration direction During vibration application After vibration removal

TD 23.7% softening 14.1% softening

ND 7.2% hardening 3.4% softening

RD 8.4% hardening 3.8% softening

3.2 Effects of vibration in different directions on strain fields

As shown in Fig. 2, a CCD camera was used to measure strain fields via the DIC method. DIC

techniques provide full-field deformation information and can be used to detect localized plastic

deformation during vibration-assisted tensile tests. Fig. 5 presents the strain fields of samples 1–4

during the tension test. Red and blue areas represent the maximum and minimum deformation,

respectively. The darker the color is, the larger the strain value is. The legend shows the maximum

value of strain. The sampling frequency of the CCD camera was 20 fps during the experiment. To

compare the change in strain field under different vibration directions, four strain levels, namely,

0.05 (before vibration application), 0.06 (after vibration removal), 0.1, and 0.15, were considered.

The selected levels were used to examine the effects of vibration direction on strain fields. Fig. 5(a)

shows the change in strain in the tensile test without vibration. No significant stress concentration

occurred, and the deformation was uniform. Figs. 5(b), 5(c), and 5(d) present the tensile test results

by superimposing vibration in ND, RD, and TD, which are corresponding to samples 2, 3, and 4,
11
respectively. Fig. 5(d) shows that when the TD vibration was superimposed on the tensile test, a

significant local deformation appeared at the bottom of specimen 4. At the same strain level of

ε=0.06, the maximum strain of sample 4 was 0.096, which was considerably larger than that of

sample 1 0.068, as shown in Fig. 5(a). However, local deformation and stress concentration

diminished gradually in the subsequent deformation test. When the strain reached 0.15, the stress

concentration became unrecognizable. The DIC results obtained from vibration applied in ND and

RD were different from those in TD, as shown in Figs. 5(b) and 5(c). When vibration was applied in

ND and RD, no significant local plastic deformation was found at the strain of 0.06. The maximum

strains of samples 2 and 3 were 0.068 and 0.074, respectively, indicating that local deformation did

not occur under the condition of vibration-assisted deformation in ND and RD.

12
 Fig. 5. Strain field calculated with the DIC method

3.3 Effects of vibration in different directions on microstructure

For samples 1, 2 and 3, no obvious local plastic deformation occurred during the strain period 0.05

to 0.06, and the samples were stretched uniformly. Therefore, the sampling point could be selected

randomly. We chose the middle symmetry plane perpendicular to RD EBSD for observation. For
13
sample 4, since only the lower region was deformed in the period superimposing vibration, the

sampling point was located in the bottom region. All sampling points were in the planes

perpendicular to the RD direction. Band contrast maps with grain boundaries and interior

misorientation maps were calculated with the orientation information obtained from the EBSD scan,

as shown in Fig. 6. During grain detection, grain boundaries with a misorientation of more than 15°

were named high-angle grain boundaries (represented by black lines), and those with a

misorientation of less than 15° were classified as low-angle grain boundaries. Low-angle grain

boundaries were subdivided into 2°–5° (represented by red lines) and 5°–15° (represented by blue

lines) for further distribution analysis of grain boundaries. Figs. 6(a)–6(d) present EBSD maps of 6%

deformation of DC04 without vibration (sample 1), 6% deformation of DC04 with vibration in ND

(sample 2), 6% deformation of DC04 with vibration in RD (sample 3), and 6% deformation of

DC04 with vibration in TD (sample 4), respectively. Fig. 6(a) shows that most of the grain

boundaries were high-angle boundaries, and only a small amount of red lines appeared around these

boundaries. Thus, a few subgrains boundaries were generated when the material deformed to a

strain of 6%. When vibration was superimposed in ND and RD, the maps of grain boundaries

showed that almost no red lines appeared, and the interior misorientation was considerably less than

15°. When vibration in TD was applied on sample 4, a large number of low-angle grain boundaries

formed and accumulated around the high-angle boundaries (Fig. 6(d)). Due to the plastic

deformation and the continuous vibration, the ‘length’ of the low-angle grain boundaries was

gradually increased. The dislocation patterns had a tendency to merge into a low-energy state

spontaneously and gradually formed a block with low-angle grain boundaries. The original grains

were tend to be divided into different blocks, which could be called subgrains. As shown in Fig 6(d),

the white ellipse circled the low-angle grain boundaries that were growing, and the yellow ellipse

circled the low-angle grain boundaries that completely crossed the grain. All of that could be

regarded as subgrain boundaries. Take the large grain circled by white bold line as an example,

there are two grown subgrain boundaries, named j and k, and one growing subgrain boundary,

named i. As can be seen from Fig. 6(d), grain boundaries, i, j and k, divided the original grain into

four different subgrains, numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4. The interior misorientation maps revealed the
14
formation of subgrains within grains. Fig. 6(d) shows that the area filled with red color had a

misorientation near 15° and was likely to become a new subgrain. Figs. 6(b) and 6(c) present the

same results in the interior misorientation maps, and no subgrains formed in samples 2 and 3.

However, sample 4 had a large number of red-color regions, indicating that severe deformation

occurred and lead to subgrains formation inside the grain. These results are further proof that

vibration in TD can significantly aggravate plastic deformation. Fig. 7 presents the fractions of

grain boundaries in 2°–5°, 5°–15°, and > 15° for different samples. Vibration in ND/RD resulted in

a decrease in low-angle grain boundaries in samples 2 and 3 compared with sample 1. However,

vibration in TD caused a sharp increase in the fraction of low-angle boundaries.

15
Fig. 6. Grain boundaries and interior misorientation maps of samples 1–4

16
 Fig. 7. Fraction of high- and low-angle grain boundaries for samples 1–4

IV. DISCUSSIONS

Figs. 4, 5, and 6 show that different results were obtained when it was changed the vibration

direction. Vibration softening only occurred temporarily during the application of low-frequency

vibration in TD. When it was changed vibration direction to ND and RD, vibration hardening

appeared instead. Once the vibration was removed, residual softening occurred in the following

yield stage. Frequency and amplitude were almost the same during the application of vibration in

TD, ND, and RD. These results prove that vibration softening and hardening are actual physical

phenomena that are not due to the force sensor response hysteresis.

The difference between the results of sample 4 and those of samples 2 and 3 can be simply

explained by the geometry property, as shown in Fig. 8. A tensile specimen has two types of section

modulus. The vibration loaded in ND and RD has the same section modulus. The section modulus

in TD, ND, and RD can be expressed by the following equations.

ba 2
S ND  S RD  , (1)
6
ab2
STD  (2)
6

where a and b represent the specimen thickness and width, respectively. In this study, the values of

a and b were 1 and 10 mm, respectively. Equations 1 and 2 indicate that STD is 10 times of SND/ SRD.

During vibration assisted tensile test, the specimen could be treated as an elastic beam fixed at the

17
top and freed at bottom. We simulated the deformation process only under vibration load in

different directions by ANSYS, as shown in Fig. 9. The vibration load is simplified as displacement,

and the value is half of vibration amplitude. Under the same vibration amplitude, the maximum

strain in gauge area for samples 2, 3 and 4 are 8.86e-5, 1.35e-3 and 2.11e-3, respectively. Vibration

in TD caused a larger strain than vibration in ND/RD and this deformation is more tend to plastic.

The vibrational energy could be delivered to the plastic deformation area and caused the flow stress

reduction. By contrast, samples 2 and 3, due to a small section modulus, deformed elastically in ND

and RD, and most of the vibrational energy was not absorbed by the material. The measurement

results of strain fields shown in Fig. 5 also indicate that severe local deformation occurred at the

bottom of the specimen during the TD vibration-assisted tension test, which also verifies that the

vibration in TD can induce localized plastic deformation.

Fig. 8. Section modulus with different vibration directions

18
 Fig. 9 Simulation results for specimen under load in different directions

The section modulus difference in ND, RD, and TD provides a superficial explanation for the

different results in the vibration-assisted tensile test. Yao et al. [20] proposed a modeling framework

for the acoustic plasticity based on the crystal plasticity theory. The acoustic softening effect was

modeled based on the thermal activation theory. Similarly, crystal plasticity theory also can be used

to interpret the softening and hardening effects during low-frequency vibration assisted tension

deformation. The crystal plasticity framework, including thermal activation and dislocation kinetics

models, can simulate the stress–strain behavior. Taylor [21] presented the relationship between

polycrystal stress/strain and single-crystal shear stress using a simple equation, which is expressed

as

M     , (3)

where M is the Taylor factor, which is assumed constant in this study;  and  denote the flow

stress and critical resolved shear stress, respectively; and ε and γ represent plastic and shear strains,

respectively. τ can be expressed as

kT ln( 0 /  p )
  ˆ[1  ], (4)
F
where ˆ signifies a material threshold dependent on dislocation density. k refers to the

Boltzmann constant, T is the Kelvin temperature,  0 denotes the pre-exponential factor, and  p

represents the shear plastic strain rate. F symbolizes the activation energy for overcoming the

obstacle. By combining Equations 2 and 3, flow stress  can be expressed as

19
 kT ln( 0 /  p )
  Mˆ[1  ]. (5)
F
Factors T ,  p , and F are variables that may be affected by low-frequency vibration. However,

no significant temperature change was observed in our study or other researcher’s works. The

vibration softening effect was not involved in the thermal softening mechanism. The vibration

softening and hardening effects were mainly attributed to the changes in  p and F . Assuming

that M ,ˆ, k , T ,  0 are constant, flow stress  decreases as shear strain rate  p increases and

activation energy F decreases. The results in Figs. 4–6 show that the vibration in RD and ND

was not effectively transmitted to the deformation region, and activation energy F was

minimally affected. However, the shear strain rate of the specimen under the vibration condition

was considerably larger than that in the quasi-static condition, such that the flow stress increased as

the strain rate increased, as shown in Fig. 10. Vibration in TD affected F and  p . The vibration

energy was transferred well to the plastic deformation zone and provided additional energy for

surmounting the obstacle, leading to a decrease in activation energy F . The shear strain rate also

increased during the vibration-assisted tensile test in TD. Fig. 4(a) shows that the flow stress

decreased significantly due to F decrease and  p increase. In addition, the effect of the

decrease in activation energy on flow stress reduction was more effective than that of the shear

strain rate rise on flow stress increase. The effects of different vibration directions on flow stress

can be simply expressed as

 ND/ RD  f  p , F     , (6)

 TD  f  p , F      . (7)

Equations 5–7 offer a basic explanation for vibration softening and hardening during

vibration-assisted tension test in TD, RD, and ND.

20
 Fig. 10 Engineering stress-strain curve under different strain rate
The stress–strain curve (Fig. 4) shows that residual softening occurred in all cases. However, the

reasons for residual softening varied. Samples 2 and 3, with the application of vibration in ND and

RD, had similar results in DIC and EBSD maps. Comparison of samples 2 and 3 with sample 1

showed that at the strain of 0.06 (Fig. 5), vibration did not cause aggravation or weakening in

macroscopic deformation. Moreover, in the EBSD results, almost no low-angle grain boundaries

were detected in samples 2 and 3, and the interior misorientation of grains was less than that in

sample 1. This result may be attributed to enhanced dipole annihilation and increased dislocation

mobility due to an oscillatory stress wave. As a result, the dislocation density in samples 2 and 3

was less than that in sample 1 at the strain of 0.06, and the work hardening effect weakened. Siu et

al. [16] also successfully simulated the phenomenon that dipole annihilation was enhanced due to

vibration. When vibration was applied in TD, local deformation occurred in sample 4, and the

vibration energy was mainly transmitted to the bottom of the sample, as shown in Fig. 5. The

maximum strain and stress in the localized deformation area were 0.096 and 204 MPa, respectively.

The maximum stress did not exceed 248 MPa at strain 0.05. Therefore, plastic deformation only

occurred at the bottom of the sample when vibration was applied. The work hardening effect in this

area was more severe than that in the other areas. When the vibration was removed and the tension

test was continued, plastic deformation occurred in a “softer” region. Fig. 5(d) shows that the

deformation region diffused from the bottom to the middle, and the deformation became

homogeneous. The residual softening in TD was caused by non-uniform deformation.

21
 Fig. 11 Sketch diagram for dislocation annihilation under oscillated stress

V. CONCLUSIONS

The effects of vibration in TD, ND, and RD on the mechanical behavior and microstructure of

DC04 low-carbon steel were investigated. Two special setups were designed to implement a

vibration-assisted tension test in the three directions. The vibration was found to produce different

effects to mechanical behavior and microstructure. The findings can be summarized as follows:

(1) Simultaneous application of low-frequency vibration in TD caused vibration softening effect

and vibration in RD/ND resulted in vibration hardening effect.

(2) Residual softening occurred in all cases during re-yield period after vibration removal, and the

maximum load drop after vibration treatment in TD is more significant than other cases.

(3) Vibration in TD caused localized plastic deformation and aggravated the deformation process.

But vibration in ND/RD did not cause any non-uniform deformation.

(4) The low-angle grain boundaries increased greatly after vibration treatment in TD, and inside the

grains showed a big trend toward subgrain boundaries formation. However, vibration in RD/ND

caused the proportion of low-angle grain boundaries drop and dislocation density decrease.

Vibration softening, hardening and residual softening effects could be interpreted via crystal

plasticity theory and dislocation movements. The activation energy was lowered greatly by

superimposing vibration in TD, which resulted in vibration softening. However, vibration in

ND/RD only increased the shear strain rate, and leaded to vibration hardening. Residual softening

induced by vibration in TD is attributed to non-uniform deformation and the specimen deformed in

a ‘softer’ region after vibration removal. Compared with vibration in TD, vibration in ND/RD was

more likely to cause elastic deformation and promote dislocation annihilation. And it leaded to the
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decrease of dislocations density. The results in this study presented the understanding of how

low-frequency vibration in different directions affects the mechanical behavior and microstructure

of a material during plastic deformation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China for Key Program

(Grant no. 51335009) and the Industrial Science and Technology Research Project of Shaanxi

Province, China (Grant No. 2015GY125). The authors also thank to the Xi’an Jiaotong University

Instrument Analysis Center for their help and support in EBSD images.

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