Quantifying Co-Deformation Effects in Metallic Laminates by Loading–Unloading–Reloading Tensile Tests

Heterostructured materials such as metallic laminates (LMCs) can be specifically tailored to showcase significantly increased mechanical behavior based on the hetero-deformation-induced (HDI) strengthening effect caused by the co-deformation at the vicinity of interfaces. This study introduces a new approach to quantify these co-deformation effects in metallic laminates by characterizing the behavior of inelastic back strain upon unloading. Experimentally, the inelastic back strain (IBS) is determined by cyclic loading–unloading–reloading (LUR) tensile tests. Compared to a linear rule of mixture (ROM) approximation used as a reference, additional amounts of inelastic back strain were measured for different metallic laminate systems, strongly depending on the dissimilarities of yield strength and elastic moduli of constituents and the interface density in the laminates. Conducting finite element analysis, the distribution of residual plastic strain was investigated for the different metallic laminates used in this study. Based on this, a schematic overview of the spatial distribution of the hetero-deformation zone for metallic laminates with dissimilar yield strength and elastic moduli is derived, summarizing the results of this study. As most mechanical components are subject to cyclic stresses during the application, the method provided in this study to characterize the co-deformation behavior of metallic laminates in the microyielding regime enables valuable insights into mechanisms affecting the cyclic deformation behavior of metallic laminates for future applications.