Self-heating of rolled ZnCuTi sheets

Self-heating effect for thermomechanical forming processes turns out to be dramatically significant for material with a very low melting point, such as zinc alloys. Zinc low melting point temperature (419.54°C) accentuates metallurgical effects when it is formed in cold or warm manufacturing processes. During deformation, self-heating can therefore induce a relative softening in the behavior law (that could improve formability) which competes with the conventional plastic hardening of the material. Hence, the correct identification of zinc material behavior has to account for both softening and hardening phenomena. This paper studies the effect of plastic work energy in the material identified by means of tensile tests by combining digital image correlation and infrared thermography technique.