A Novel Approach for Monitoring Plastic Flow Localization during In-Situ Sem Testing of Small-Scale Samples

A novel method is proposed for monitoring the plastic flow localization during in-situ scanning electron microscopy (SEM) testing of small-scale AISI 316 L stainless steel. Stress-strain behavior of the material was obtained using a hybrid numerical-experimental (HNE) approach. By repeatedly illustrating each pair of sequentially taken SEM surface images throughout the deformation history in alternating order in form of a video, location of the material points which are not moving during the deformation can be detected. At the initial stages of deformation these points are located on the geometrical symmetry line of the test sample, however; when uniform straining limit of the material is reached, the locations of the stationary material points reveal the plastic localization regions. The current results clearly prove the feasibility of the presented method in monitoring primary plastic localization events through in-situ SEM tensile testing.