Investigation of PLC band nucleation in AA5754

Highlights: ► Simultaneous propagation of bands in transverse and longitudinal directions. ► PLC band nucleation at the back front of Lüders bands. ► Characteristic time of critical strain decreases with strain rate. ► Simultaneous existence of two type-B bands at specimen shoulder. - Abstract: The purpose of the present work is the experimental investigation of the nucleation of PLC deformation bands in the aluminium alloy AA5754. The PLC bands are investigated using both mechanical methods and infrared (IR) thermography. The latter employs a high-speed IR camera which captures local changes of radiated power resulting from mechanical dissipation and heating due to the nucleation of PLC bands. The resulting IR images are used to determine spatio-temporal power field variations via image subtraction. Furthermore, band trajectories obtained from the IR images are used to study possible correlations between the spatio-temporal evolution of stress and radiated power in the specimens and PLC band development.