Interpretation of hot plane strain compression testing of aluminium specimens

Plane strain compression (PSC) testing is now generally accepted as one of the most reliable methods for the generation of flow stress data and micros tructural investigation of thermomechanical processing. It has been known f or some time that extremely reproducible measurements may be made across di fferent laboratories if a standardised procedure is used. However, particul ar care must be taken with both the experimental procedure and the interpre tation of the measured force-displacement data. The present paper reports i nvestigations that have built on previous work and looked further at the ef fects of spread of the specimen and friction. In deriving reliable flow str ess data, the importance of tool and specimen geometry and consideration of the effects of lubrication and friction are clearly demonstrated. Furtherm ore, the paper demonstrates the current status of the work by presenting th e algorithms behind new software that has been developed for interpretation of raw force-displacement data in a logical and consistent way. MST/3960.