Micro-scale full-field strain measurement on a stainless steel sample elasto-plastically tested

Abstract

This study deals with the characterisation of the mechanical behaviour of an austenitic stainless steel at the micrometric scale in its elasto-plastic domain. For that, the full-field “grid method”, adapted to this scale, is implementeded. The images of the grating are recorded thanks to a white-light interferometric microscope. The results show that the strain localization is in accordance with the microstructure. Some considerations about the average strain within different grains of the steel sample are made to show how the plastic deformation begins locally before the global yield point.