Development of a hardware and software complex for automation of measurements in the study of the electroplasticity effect

The electroplasticity effect consists in increasing the plasticity of metals by passing high-density current pulses without noticeable heating due to the release of Joule heat. This effect is used in small and medium metallurgical processing, increasing the efficiency of such production processes as rolling, drawing, stamping, etc. The question of the physical nature of the electroplasticity effect still remains unresolved, which encourages laboratory studies on model samples. For this purpose, a hardware and software complex has been developed for studying the electroplasticity effect on wire samples stretched by dead load. Due to the large length of the samples, the installation allows for recording small deformations of the wire with high accuracy, which allows for monitoring the thermal expansion of the samples during the release of Joule heat. The tensile force is measured using an elastic element with glued strain gauges, the wire elongation during deformation is measured by the optical ruler, the profile of the pulse current passed through the sample is measured by a Hall sensor, and the voltage across the capacitor bank is monitored using a voltmeter. The digitized data are transmitted to recording equipment that allow real-time monitoring of all the necessary parameters of the experiment, such as tensile stresses and deformation of the sample, the maximum current density in the pulse, and its duration. This made it possible to speed up the experiment and improve the accuracy of measurements by eliminating the human factor. As an example, the results on the effect of pulse current parameters on the electroplasticity of M1 copper wire were obtained. It is shown that pulses of shorter duration but with higher current density lead to greater plastic deformation of wires, under the condition of equal Joule heating. Thus, the way of athermal increase of copper plasticity due to the effect of pulsed current is shown.

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