Texture and grain-size effects on cyclic plasticity in copper and copper-zinc

A study of plastic strain controlled fatigue of copper and copper-zinc shows that polycrystalline Cu-30%Zn does not display true cyclic saturation and that texture has a major effect on the cyclic stress-strain (CSS) behaviour, whereas grain size has a minor effect. The self-consistent Sachs estimate of the CSS curve for polycrystalline Cu-30%Zn lies within 20% of the experimental curve for plastic strain amplitudes up to about 5 × 10−3, as compared with 1 × 10−3 for copper. The increased range of validity of the Sachs model is correlated with slip planarity.