Plastic Behaviour of Green Powder Metallurgical Compacts

The results of monotonic and cyclic uniaxial compression tests, in which the deviatoric component of the stress is predominant, carried out on green and recrystallized iron compacts with different levels of density are presented and discussed in order to analyse the macro and micro-mechanisms governing the mechanical behaviour of non-sintered PM materials. The plastic deformation of the particles, especially at the contact areas between neighbouring grains, produces an internal friction responsible for the main features observed in the behaviour of green metallic compacts. These results show important discrepancies with the plasticity models, Cam-Clay and Drucker-Prager Cap.