The bauschinger effect and stacking fault energy

Abstract

Cu and Cu—Al alloys were pre-stressed to produce strains of the order of 10⁻⁴ and then reverse strained to study the Bauschinger effect. Under these conditions of pre-stressing cross slip will not occur to any significant degree and variations in the mechanical properties of the alloys reflect differences in the type and nature of the dislocations present.

The results show that the stability of the deformed state is lower the lower the stacking fault energy of the material.

It is proposed that stress-induced changes in the equilibrium separation of the partial dislocations may play a major part in this effect, at very small strains.