Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Science & Engineering A journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/msea Characterizing the elastic and plastic properties of the multilayered Al/Brass composite produced by ARB using DIC D. Rahmatabadi a , A. Shahmirzaloo a , M. Farahani a,* , M. Tayyebi b , R. Hashemi a a School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran b Department of Materials Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran ARTICLE INFO Keywords: ARB DIC Al/Brass composite Elastic modulus Anisotropy coefficient ABSTRACT In the present study, for the first time, Young's modulus, anisotropy coefficient in the rolling direction and other elastic and plastic parameters of multi-layered Al/Brass composite produced by ARB process were assessed by DIC method. DIC as a non-contact accurate and powerful method for measuring deformation and strain field of material can calculate various material parameters such as anisotropy and Young's modulus. Anisotropy and Young's modulus are the basic parameters in the design of structures and manufacturing analysis, especially forming processes, in the calculation of spring back. Multi-layered Al/Brass composite has been fabricated using the ARB process. Moreover, the microstructure and mechanical properties have been determined by optical microscopy (OM), micro-hardness measurements and tensile tests equipped by 2D DIC system. Results have shown that the proper bonding between the Al/Brass interfaces was made in the primary sandwich and became stronger by increasing the imposing strain. Also, after the primary sandwich, plastic instability was observed in the brass layer. In addition, the structure for the primary sandwich was transformed from lamellar to wavy for the final pass. The tensile strength and microhardness of both layers have increased severely and continuously but after initial sandwich the rising trend has decreased. Results of DIC showed that by increasing the number of ARB passes, the young modulus increased, but the trend of anisotropy coefficient variation was exactly the same for all three ARB passes. As a result, after a rising and the sinusoidal oscillation, the anisotropy coefficient gradually decreased. Theoretical models were also used in order to estimate the elastic modulus of Al/Brass composite. The outcome results have shown that there is no good agreement between theoretical relations and experimental data for calculation the elastic modulus, because the theory relations are based on the volume of composite materials and it is not suitable for materials with a layered structure. 1. Introduction In recent years, the using of lightweight materials and metal matrix composites (MMC) have increased for reducing the weight of the structure and increasing the efficiency of the system in various in- dustries [1,2]. Of course, the use of light materials and MMC such as aluminum, magnesium and titanium alloys and their composites, in addition to having low density proportional to the place used, requires other properties such as strength, corrosion resistance, abrasion and formability [3,4]. Accumulative roll bonding (ARB) process is one of the new methods that can improve their various properties of light al- loys and composites such as strength and hardness up to several times the raw materials [5–8]. ARB processes are a subset of severe plastic deformation (SPD) processes that have assimilated the attention of many researchers over the past two decades. One of the factors that makes ARB process preferable from other forms of SPD methods such as equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) [9,10], pure shear extrusion (PSE) [11], accumulative back extrusion (ABE) [12], friction stir pro- cessing (FSP) [13] and high pressure torsion (HPT) [9] are its unique features and benefits [6,8,14–16]. These benefits include continuous production, lack of mold and expensive equipment, simplicity and in- dustrialization [6,8,14,15,17]. During these years, many materials and composites have been produced using this method [5,7,18–21]. The produced materials have excellent mechanical and microstructural properties that can be used in various industries. These properties can be multiplier increase in strength, microhardness, fracture toughness, and desirable formability with ultrafine grained and nanostructures [5–7,18,22–24]. So, the ARB process is an exceptional process for the production of ultrafine-grained and nanostructured materials such as alloys, MMCs and MMCs reinforced by ceramic particles with excellent https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2019.03.002 Received 23 November 2018; Received in revised form 27 February 2019; Accepted 1 March 2019 * Corresponding author. E-mail address: mrfarahani@ut.ac.ir (M. Farahani). Materials Science & Engineering A 753 (2019) 70–78 Available online 06 March 2019 0921-5093/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T i An update to this article is included at the end