Analysis of the dynamic behaviour of tungsten in post-necking regime

The pure tungsten exhibits high melting point, good strength and stability at extremely high temperature and excellent resistance to thermal shock. Other important characteristics are hardness, high resistance to corrosion and good electrical and thermal conductivities. Due to this combination of properties, tungsten can find applications in several fields, among which aerospace and automotive industries, metal working processes, military and nuclear technologies. In this study, the investigation of the mechanical behaviour of two batches of pure tungsten at different temperatures and strain-rates in tensile loading condition was performed. Due to the high temperature for the brittle-to-ductile transition (BDT) it was not possible to test the material under the temperature of 250 °C. Tests were performed at 1 s-1 and 103 s-1 reaching a maximum temperature of 1200 °C. Due to the complex material behaviour and the wide range of strain, strain-rate and temperature investigated, only a local fit of the material behaviour was performed by using an inverse method based on FE simulations.