Deformation measurements of three types of Portevin--Le Chatelier bands

In this paper a technique based on high-speed digital photography and the digital speckle correlation (DSC) method is used for the quantitative measurement of the displacement and strain fields of various Portevin--Le Chatelier (PLC) bands (types A, B, and C). The experimental results clearly show the nucleation process of a type-B band and the propagation of a type-A band. The results also reveal that there exists an elastic shrinkage deformation outside a PLC band during a large avalanche-like deformation inside the PLC band.