Size effects on plastic deformation behavior in micro radial compression of pure copper

Micro radial compression tests were carried out on cylindrical specimens of pure copper polycrystals with different grain sizes. Experimental results indicated that phenomena of decreasing forming force, increasing scatter of forming force and more irregular surface topography occurred with the increase of grain size. A modified surface model based on dislocations pile-up in surface layer grains, and a flow stress scattering formulation based on standard deviation and grain size distribution were proposed to analyze size effects on forming force in micro compression. The inhomogeneous deformation of surface layer grains was discussed by the main deformation manner of rotation. A good agreement with the experimental results was achieved.