Strain hardening behaviour of powder metallurgy alloys

A model to describe the strain hardening behaviour of porous alloys, produced by powder metallurgy, is presented. It accounts for the influence of the matrix strain hardening ability, the initial porosity content and the pore geometry, and its predictive ability is verified with reference to sintered iron and an Fe–0·3%C sintered alloy. The necessity to introduce in the model a parameter able to account for the internal notch strengthening effect exerted by pores is emphasised. This parameter is found to be dependent on the sintering degree of the materials.