About the yield plateau under sign-variable loading

During tension of samples of low-carbon steels and some other plastic materials, the sharp yield point and the yield plateau are fixed on the deformation diagram. In this case, Chernov-Luders bands appear on the surface of the sample in the local section, which then propagate along the tension axis. The physical nature of the sharp yield point is established: the drop in the load after reaching the (upper) yield limit occurs as a result of dislocations being an extraction out of the cloud of the embedded atoms and vacancies (Cottrell's cloud). At the occurrence of the sharp yield point , the plastic strain is limited to a small area. When the sample deformation increases, the plasticity zone (the yield plateau is marked on the diagram at this time) expands, and the stress-strain state in this zone becomes almost homogeneous, if we do not consider its boundary with the elastic region. At the end of the yield plateau, the entire sample experiences a uniform plastic deformation, excluding its ends (galtels). From this point on, the strain diagram shows the of material hardening; presumably, this hardening occurred from the very beginning, but was hidden under the yield plateau. This is evidenced by the resulting strain-induced anisotropy. After unloading the sample, when the plastic strain front (in the form of Chernov-Luders bands) has not yet passed through the entire sample, and the Bauschinger's effect is observed with the subsequent change in the stress sign. The fact that after the occurrence of the sharp yield point , the plastic strain is not localized in a certain volume, similar to what occurs during the neck formation, but spreads along the sample, serves as proof of the material hardening due to plastic deformation immediately after the load falls. Therefore, if the plastically deformable part of the sample did not have a hardening of the material due to the plastic strain growth, it would not be able to spread to the elastic part of the sample. This paper presents the experimental data of the sign-variable torsion of the thin-walled tubular samples of steel 45 in the annealed state. The deformation atdiagram of the occurrence and development of the yield plateau in distinct sections along the length of the test sample is obtained. The material hardening diagram hidden under the yield plateau is reconstructed using the well-known Masing's principle.