Studies in Large Plastic Flow and Fracture : With Special Emphasis on the Effects of Hydrostatic Pressure

In the course of experiments extending over many years on the effect of high hydrostatic pressure on the properties of matter, in which the pressures were often deliberately pushed to the breaking point of the containers, I have had occasion to observe many fractures under unusual conditions. These fractures were often of an unanticipated nature and might be positively contrary to expectations based on engineering experience in a lower range of stresses. At first my interest in these fractures was a secondary one, and I was mainly concerned with attempting to understand the phenomena only insofar as was necessary for the design of my pressure apparatus. With the accumulation of material, however, and in particular with the discovery of the enormous effect of hydrostatic pressure in increasing ductility and in extending the domain of strainhardening in steel, my interest grew in the subject for its own sake. Many experiments were therefore made with the explicit purpose of understanding better the nature of both the phenomena of fracture under conditions of high stress and the phenomena of the large plastic flow which often precedes such fractures. A number of these investigations were made during the war with practical applications in mind. The wartime investigations raised other questions which were later pursued further for their own interest. In this book I present a coordinated exposition of all this experience under rather unusual conditions. I hope that, apart from any intrinsic interest, it may assist in leading to a better understanding of the difficult problems of flow and fracture, many of them still unsolved, in the narrower range of conditions more usually encountered in practical situations. Frontmatter -- Foreword -- Preface -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part I. Tests Under Hydrostatic Pressure -- Chapter 1. The Effect Of Nonuniformities Of Stress At The Neck Of A Tension Specimen -- Chapter 2. The Tension Of Steel Under Pressure -- Chapter 3. Two-dimensional Tension Under Pressure -- Chapter 4. Tension Tests Under Pressure On Materials Other Than Steel -- Chapter 5. Simple Compression Under Hydrostatic Pressure -- Chapter 6. Brinell Hardness Under Hydrostatic Pressure -- Chapter 7. Punching Under Pressure -- Chapter 8. The Collapse Of Thick Hollow Cylinders Of Steel Under External Pressure -- Chapter 9. The Effect Of External Pressure On Cavities In Brittle Materials -- Chapter 10. Wire Drawing And Extrusion Under Pressure -- Part Ii. Other Tests Involving Large Deformations -- Chapter 11. Simple Compression -- Chapter 12. Volume Changes In The Plastic Stages Of Simple Compression -- Chapter 13. Two-dimensional Compression -- Chapter 14. Mixed Compression -- Chapter 15. Torsion Combined With Simple Compression -- Chapter 16. Shearing Combined With Approximately Hydrostatic Pressure -- Part Iii. Plastic Flow And Fracture After Prestraining -- Chapter 17. Simple Tension After Prestraining In Tension -- Chapter 18. Simple Tension After Prestraining In Simple Compression -- Chapter 19. Simple Tension After Prestraining In Two-dimensional Compression -- Chapter 20. Simple Compression After Prestraining In Tension Under Pressure -- Chapter 21. Simple Compression After Prestraining In Simple Compression -- Chapter 22. Simple Compression After Prestraining In Two-dimensional Compression -- Chapter 23. Torsion After Prestraining In Tension Under Pressure -- Part Iv. General Survey -- Chapter 24. Gathering Up The Threads -- Index Percy Williams Bridgman. Mode Of Access: Internet Via World Wide Web. In English. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II it was discovered that an enormous increase in the ductility of ordinary steel results when it is exposed to high hydrostatic pressures. This work was continued during the war but the reports of it were then classified and postwar publication of this research was fragmentary and not easily accessible. This is a reprint of a work by Percy Bridgman that originally appeared in 1952 describing in detail these experiments on the behavior of materials, particularly steel, under very high pressure. As well as being of purely scientific interest, the book provides a better understanding of the difficult problems of flow and fracture, many of them still unsolved, in the narrow range of conditions more usually encountered in practical situations.