Effect of strain rate on room temperature tensile properties of CuCrZr alloy

The precipitation hardened commercial Cu-0.5 to 1.5Cr-0.02 to 0.20Zr (UNS number C18150) alloy with high strength, good electrical and thermal conductivities is used for applications in space, nuclear, automotive, electrical, and commercial industries. There is scant data on the behavior of this material with strain rate for tensile testing to obtain accurate and consistent results in an expeditious manner. Thus, tensile testing was carried out at room temperature over five different strain rates in the range of 4.16X 10^-5 s^-1 to 1.25X10^-3 s^-1 at ambient temperature. The alloy was in the as-forged and solution treated & aged condition showing recrystallized structure with annealing twins and a nominal grain size of about 300µm. The strain rate sensitivity index “m” was determined to be low. Based on the value of “m” and other analysis of the variation of flow stress and fracture studies, strain rate was defined.