Microscopic Surface Change of Polycrystalline Aluminum during Tensile Plastic Deformation

Roughening on free surface of polycrystalline metal during plastic deformation is closely related to the inhomogeneous deformation in the respective grain at the surface. Uniaxial tensile tests are carried out on annealed pure aluminum sheet specimens with various averaged grain sizes. The roughening is measured by a 3-dimensional stylus instrument to examine the roughness change in both sides of specimen surfaces at each strain. The irregularities on one side are reversed on the backside, when the averaged grain size is as large as the thickness of the specimen. Discussions are made on the relation between the surface shapes of both sides adopting the cross correlation factor. The strains of respective grains are also measured from the grain boundary shape before and after plastic deformation. There are some deviations in the strains of the grains and their standard deviation increases with the applied strain.