Investigate the formation of Lüders

bands and some factors that effect the

onset and propagation of Lüders
bands
MATS3003
Zihao Niu
What is Lüders bands
“Lüders bands, also known as “slip bands” or “stretcher-strain marks,” are localized bands of plastic
deformation in metals experiencing tensile stresses, common to low-carbon steels and certain Al-Mg alloys” [1]

Tensile test
- Lüders bands shown as inhomogeneous deformation on the
surface of the bulk material
- extends across the entire bulk material in the form of one
Figure 1 – ASTM E8 fractured dogbone test specimen exhibiting
single or multiple plastic bands. [3] Lüders lines on steel specimen. [4]

Stamping process in production

External stress applied to the steel material
↓
Localized plastic deformation in specific areas of the workpiece
↓
Activate dislocation sources may be generated from the localized
stress concentrations
↓
Fig.2– Lüders bands emerging after lids (ends) stampingprocess.
[2] Emergence of Lüders band
 Mechanism of Lüders band formation
“The mechanism that stimulates their appearance is known as “dynamic strain aging,” or the
pinning of dislocations by interstitial atoms (in steels, typically carbon and nitrogen), around
which “atmospheres” or “zones” naturally congregate.” [1]

• Initial stage of plastic deformation starts at the

upper yield point.
• Material deformed by a lower applied stress (lower
yield point)
• increase of stable local deformation region (Lüders
band)
• The region propagates until it fills gauge region,
sample deformation can happend
• global plastic deformation starts → conventional Figure 4: Measured strain
plastic deformation → ductile fracture distribution of a tensile test
(shape memory alloy) during
loading and unloading shows
moving Lüders bands. The
measurement was performed with
Figure 5: The process of Luders bands form and propagation a LIMESS Digital image
(well annealed low carbon steel alloy) correlation system.
 Factor that affect the onset and propagation of Lüders
bands -Grain size
Generally, Lüders strain will increase if grain size decrease
↓ Note: The Hall–Petch
relation predict that grain
inverse Hall-Petch-like relationship size decreases the yield
This phenomena was explained by the idea that grain refinement influences the rate at which strength increases

dislocations multiply during straining, which in turn influences the Lüders strain.

For Fig.7:
• Assumption:
I. length increase (Δl) produced by the formation
of one Lüders band is same
II. total deformation region (H) of the gauge
length is same
• Total length increase △lSGS> △lLGS
• Lüders band width (w) is equivalent to the grain size
→ the increase in Lüders strain with decreasing grain
Fig. 7. Schematic diagrams for explaining the size be attributed to the thinner Lüders band width
difference of Lüders strain on grain size [7]
Fig. 6. Enlarged drawing of (w). [7]
Lüders strain, The solid green
line in the figure represents
the length of Lüders strain, -As grain size decrease, the upper and lower yield stress increase.
expressed by strain, in %. [6]
Factor that affect the onset and propagation of Lüders
bands -Grain size
• After the critical grain size → Lüders strain decreases rather with decreasing grain
Example shown in Fig.8, the Lüders strain increase as the grain size decrease until reach sample’s critical grain
size (0.57μm), then as the grain size decrease, the Lüders strain decrease. [7]

after sample’s
1<2<3 critical grain 4<3
4 size (0.57μm),
3
2 • This is attributed to the faster saturation in dislocation density
with decreasing grain size after the critical grain size
1
• For the onset of Lüders band, Fig.2. also shows that as grain size
decrease, the upper and lower yield stress increase.

Fig. 8. The dependence of stress-strain curve on grain size and

strain rate: (a) Fe-21Ni steel [7]
 Factor that affect the onset and propagation of Lüders
bands -loading conditions
According to literature [8]:
• Under the ideal condition, double Lüders bands would synchronously initiate from both ends of the
specimen and then propagated until they meet with each other.
• This phenomenon rarely happened in the real uniaxial tension test since it was inevitable that the
fixing force acting on the two ends of specimen, as well as some geometrical imperfections of
specimens, would introduce a certain level of additional stress concentration.
• If there was a certain level of difference of stress concentration between the two ends of the
specimen, only a single Lüders band formed and propagated through the whole strip. Otherwise,
double Lüders bands occurred but the propagation pattern was asymmetrical.

Fig. 9. Experimental records of the propagation of Lüders bands: (a) a single band; (b) double bands. [8]
Factor that affect the onset and propagation of Lüders
bands -alloy composition
• One of the reason of Lüders band formation: dislocation pinning with grain boundaries or solute atoms
• Cottrell and Bilby [9]:
“the Lüders band formation in iron was accounted for by the pinning of dislocations by the solute
interstitials such as C and N atoms, which tend to form atmospheres around them.”
• In Al-Mg Alloys → repeated pinning of dislocations with Mg atoms. [10]
Mechanism: -Mg atoms are larger than Al atoms,
-they occupy lattice sites in the core of dislocations,
-energy state becomes lower,
-the force necessary to move the dislocations is increased, restricting the dislocation movement.
Fig.10 . Relation
between percent
strain and Mg
contents and the E.g. From an experiment (Choi et al., 1998) [10], result shown
magnitude of
serrated yield (Δσ)
in Fig.10, the magnitude of stress drop was increased with
deformed at room increasing strain and with increasing Mg contents.
temperature. [10]
Factor that affect the onset and propagation of Lüders
bands -Specimen Thickness
• According to Cai et al., 2016, an experiment demonstrate a thickness dependence of the Lüders effect.
• The results revealed that both the strain and velocity depend on the specimen thickness:
As specimen thickness↓, strain↑, velocity ↓
• Figure 11 shows that the Lüders strain, i.e., the length of the Lüders
plateau decreases with increasing specimen thickness.
The inset indicates that the Lüders strain, i.e., the length of
the Lüders plateau formed during straining (serrated flow
with numerous stress drops)

• The dependence of the Lüders band

velocity on the specimen thickness
was subsequently explored. The final
result shown in Fig.c: Lüders band
Figure 11. Engineering stress-strain curves obtained at 9.09
× 10−4 s−1 for specimens with different thicknesses. [11] velocity increase as specimen
thickness increase.

Fig.12. Dependence of the Lüders band velocity and the

Lüders strain on the specimen thickness, at a fixed strain
rate of 9.09 × 10−4 s−1. [11]
Thank you for listening
Reference
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[Link]
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ResearchGate; Elsevier BV.
[Link]
ng
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[10] Choi, I., Jin, S., & Kang, S. (1998). Effects of Microstructure and Alloy Contents on the Lüders Line Formation in Al-Mg Alloys. Scripta Materialia, 38(6), 887–892.
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[‌ 11] Cai, Y.-L., Yang, S.-L., Fu, S.-H., & Zhang, Q.-C. (2016). The Influence of Specimen Thickness on the Lüders Effect of a 5456 Al-Based Alloy: Experimental Observations. Metals,
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