Abstract
In this paper, finite element analyses were conducted to investigate the stress and strain states resulting from varying the deformation of stainless steel 316L under biaxial loading. To that end, a biaxial specimen geometry was designed in collaboration with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to achieve large and uniform strain values in the central pocket region. Special care was taken to ensure that the specimen design could be readily manufactured with available resources. Simultaneously, the specimen design criteria required an acceptable strain uniformity in a sufficiently large pocket section to allow for accurate deformation and austenite to martensite phase fraction measurements. This demonstrates the concept of altering the final material properties through stress superposition. Numerical results show that nearly linear curves were observed in the strain path plots. The minimum uniform deformation area for the 4:1 case had a radius of ∼1 mm, which is sufficient for experimental analyses, e.g., digital imaging correlation and electron beam backscatter diffraction. As an application for such heterogeneous materials, patient specific trauma fixation hardware, which are surgically implanted to set broken bones during healing, require high strength in areas where screws are located, i.e., martensite phase, yet low weight elsewhere.
