Accepted Manuscript

Investigation on ultrasonic volume effects: stress superposition, acoustic soft-

ening and dynamic impact

Jun Hu, Tetsuhide Shimizu, Ming Yang

PII: S1350-4177(18)30652-7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultsonch.2018.05.039
Reference: ULTSON 4197

To appear in: Ultrasonics Sonochemistry

Received Date: 27 April 2018

Revised Date: 22 May 2018
Accepted Date: 31 May 2018

Please cite this article as: J. Hu, T. Shimizu, M. Yang, Investigation on ultrasonic volume effects: stress
superposition, acoustic softening and dynamic impact, Ultrasonics Sonochemistry (2018), doi: https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.ultsonch.2018.05.039

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Investigation on ultrasonic volume effects: stress superposition,
acoustic softening and dynamic impact
Jun Hu *, Tetsuhide Shimizu, Ming Yang
Graduate School of System Design, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 6-6, Asahigaoka, Hino-shi 191-0065,
Tokyo, Japan

*Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +81 42 585 8440.

E-mail address: johnnyhu1992@gmail.com

Abstract

Conventional high power ultrasonic vibration has been widely used to improve manufacturing
processes like surface treatment and metal forming. Ultrasonic vibration affects material properties,
leading to a flow stress reduction, which is called ultrasonic volume effect. The volume effect contains
multi-mechanisms such as stress superposition due to oscillatory stress, acoustic softening by easier
dislocation motion and dynamic impact leading to extra surface plastic deformation. However, most
researches ignored the stress superposition for the convenience of measurement, and few studies
considered ultrasonic dynamic impact since the relatively low ultrasonic energy in macro scale. The
purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics and mechanisms of different ultrasonic volume
effects in micro-forming. A 60 kHz longitudinal ultrasonic-assisted compression test system was
developed and a series of ultrasonic-assisted compression tests at different amplitudes on commercially
pure aluminum A1100 in micro-scale were carried out combining the surface analysis by SEM, EDX and
micro-hardness test. Three different ultrasonic volume effects, stress superposition, acoustic softening
and dynamic impact, were confirmed in the ultrasonic-assisted compression tests. In order to
quantitatively predict stress superposition, a hybrid model for stress superposition is developed
considering the elastic deformation of experimental apparatus in practice, the evolution of the modeling
results fitted well with the experimental results. With low ultrasonic amplitude, stress superposition and
acoustic softening occurred because vibrated punch contacted with the specimen all the time during
compression. However, with higher amplitude, due to the extra surface plastic deformation by larger
ultrasonic energy, forming stress was further reduced by the ultrasonic dynamic impact. A possible
method to distinguish the effects of dynamic impact and acoustic softening is to analyze the waveform
of the oscillatory stress in the process. In the case of ultrasonic dynamic impact effect, a higher amount
of oxidation was observed on the specimen surface, which could be the result of local heating by surface
plastic deformation and surface friction when the vibrated punch detached from the specimen. The
findings of this study provide an instructive understanding of the underlying mechanisms of volume
effects in ultrasonic-assisted micro-forming.

Keywords: Ultrasonic vibration; Volume effect; Stress superposition; Acoustic softening; Dynamic
impact; Aluminum

1. Introduction
 Due to the increasing demand on micro technical parts, micro forming is considered as a promising
technique for the mass production miniature parts [1]. However, the feature size of these micro parts is
in micro size, much smaller than those in macro scale, a critical challenge so-called size effect leading to
enhanced forming stress, higher friction coefficient and lower forming dimension, prohibits the
application of micro-forming [2]. Ultrasonic/high-frequency vibration assistance, as an effective
approach to obtaining micro parts with higher product quality, has been attracting a large amount of
attention.

Since the report by Blaha and Lengenecker in 1955 that ultrasonic vibration could significantly reduce
the yield stress in tensile test of Zinc single crystal [3], lots of researches have been devoted to the field
of ultrasonic/high frequency vibration-assisted forming such as surface finishing [4, 5], micro-blanking
[6], micro-coining [7], stress relief [8], extrusion [9] and deep drawing [10]. It is shown that ultrasonic
vibration brings helpful effects in metal forming, such as surface effect of friction reduction [11] and
volume effect of stress reduction [12]. The surface effect is caused by the apparent reduction of average
friction force between contact surfaces due to the reversal of friction vector in a cycle [13]. The volume
effect is the ultrasonic-induced stress reduction on materials, including elastic wave-induced stress
superposition Δ , and real stress reduction Δ caused by variation of material properties, which are
shown in Fig.1. Stress superposition is the apparently average stress reduction due to cyclic loading and
unloading in ultrasonic frequency [14], which can be obtained by subtracting the average stress from
oscillatory peak stress. The real stress reduction is obtained by subtracting the oscillatory peak stress
from the original stress without vibration, consisting acoustic softening and dynamic impact. Acoustic
softening is described as a static reduction of yield stress because of the increased dislocation motion
[15] and dynamic impact is the dynamic plastic deformation due to the repeated impact of tools with
high instantaneous speed against the material [16, 17].
 Fig.1. Schematic diagram of stress reduction due to ultrasonic excitation

Stress superposition is just the cyclic elastic deformation of the material, which has no Influence on
material properties, so this effect must be separated when volume effects are studied. However, owing
to the simplification of the measurement method, in most researches only the average stress but rather
the oscillatory stress was measured [18-21], which ignored the stress superposition effect and mixed the
different ultrasonic volume effects. Although in a few researches oscillatory stress was measured and
stress superposition was separated [22-24], the ultrasonic vibration was only applied at a certain strain
for a short time but rather the entire process, which prohibited the deeper understanding of the
mechanisms of ultrasonic volume effects. Consequently, there is a need to set up a valid physics-based
model to predict the stress superposition and investigate the characteristics of acoustic softening and
dynamic impact, separately during the whole process.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics and mechanisms of different ultrasonic
volume effects in micro-forming. So, in this study, compression tests were conducted on commercially
pure aluminum (JIS A1100) under different ultrasonic amplitudes. Meanwhile, the oscillatory force was
recorded by oscilloscope for the analysis of stress superposition evolution. For this purpose, a special
setup for ultrasonic-assisted micro-compression tests was designed and manufactured. After that,
characteristics and mechanisms of different ultrasonic volume effects were discussed.

2. Experimental procedures

As shown in Fig. 2, a novel ultrasonic-assisted micro-compression test system, which consists of a

desktop miniature servo press machine, ultrasonic vibrator, die tool assembly and data collection
module is developed in this study. The desktop miniature servo press machine, designed by Micro
Manufacturing LLC, has the maximum and minimum speed of 300 and 0.001mm/s respectively, as
shown in Fig. 2(a). The ultrasonic vibrator includes two horizontal and symmetrical ultrasonic
transducers, a horn and a connected punch. The transducers convert electrical energy to mechanical
vibration energy with a signal frequency of 60kHz. The horn amplifies ultrasonic vibration, and the
punch further amplifies vibration, which delivers ultrasonic energy to the specimens during compression
tests. The die tool assembly is mounted to the crosshead of the servo press machine with the vibrator
assembled inside. In addition, the data collection module is made up of a dynamic load cell mounted
under the lower die, signal amplifier, oscilloscope and data recorder.
 Fig. 2. Configuration of ultrasonic-assisted micro-compression system, (a) Appearance of desktop
miniature servo press machine and (b) Schematic illustration of the micro-compression system.

Since the length of the ultrasonic horn for resonance is determined by the wavelength of the
ultrasound in horn, which is inversely proportional to the ultrasonic frequency. That is to say, with
higher ultrasonic frequency, the length of the ultrasonic horn for resonance is smaller. So considering
the limitation of workspace in the miniature servo press machine, the resonance frequency of 60kHz is
selected. The vibrator assembly is designed by three-dimensional FE modal analysis, by which natural
frequency of the vibrator assembly is determined as 60.5264kHz. In order to readily observe the
displacements of amplitude in FE modal analysis, the amplitudes are greatly scaled up compared with
the dimensions of the vibrator. And the distribution of scaled amplitude vectors along vibrator on
longitudinal mode shape is shown in Fig. 3. Nine typical scaled amplitude vectors on cross-section are
selected and the absolute values in three-dimensional axis at the selected points are shown in Table. 1.
The amplifying coefficient of the vibrator assembly system can be calculated as a quotient between
absolute values of output amplitude and input amplitude, which is the absolute value of vector 9 in Z-
axis and that of vector 5 in Y-axis, 4860/2190=2.22. As the result, the maximum ultrasonic amplitude of
3.21μm on the tip of punch is measured by Laser displacement meter (LC-2400). An ultrasonic generator
is connected to the transducers, which can automatically track the resonant frequency of the vibrator
assembly in the range of 60±2kHz.
 Fig. 3. Distribution of scaled amplitude vector along vibrator on longitudinal mode shape.

Table 1

The absolute value of typically scaled amplitude vectors in the three-dimensional axis in cross-section.

(mm) X Y Z

1 10.2 4.82 3060

2 1.95 133 111

3 1.17 3260 3.71

4 550 134 28.2

5 11.9 2190 12.4

6 3.27 3.32 3260

7 360 31.1 216

8 9.82 13.3 3310

9 2.23 0.689 4860

 As for the specimen materials, commercially available pure aluminum (JIS A1100) wires were used in
this study. Firstly, the wires were machined into cylindrical specimens with a diameter of 2mm and with
a height of 2mm. Then the wires were subjected to a homogeneous annealing treatment before
compression to remove the residual work hardening. The annealing condition is 350℃ for 2h and then
the specimens were allowed to cool in the vacuum furnace itself. Additionally, both side surfaces of
samples were polished by a high-grade abrasive paper, resulting in a uniform and smooth surface with
Rz lower than 1μm.

All ultrasonic-assisted compression tests were conducted at room temperature. To reduce the
influence of relubrication caused by ultrasonic vibration and for a direct observation on the specimen
surface, no lubrication was used in the compression tests. To investigate the ultrasonic amplitude
dependency, the compression tests were carried out at 4 different amplitudes of 0, 1.00, 2.00, 3.21μm.
And specimens were all compressed at a constant press speed of 0.001mm/s with the same stroke of
1mm to half height. Besides, in order to prevent the movement of specimen once contact with the
punch under ultrasonic vibration, the ultrasonic vibration was applied from the stroke of 0.1mm until
the ending of compression.

During the compression tests, the average load was recorded by the data recorder and the ultrasonic
oscillatory load was recorded by the oscilloscope for separation of stress superposition. The
compression loading was controlled by the displacement of crosshead in servo press machine, which
determines the press speed in compression tests. Since the elastic deformation of the experiment
apparatus existed, the displacement of specimens should be calibrated for the calculation of true stress-
strain curves. For this purpose, the elastic deformation curve of the experimental apparatus was
obtained by conducting compression of the vibrator without any specimen to lower die until the load up
to 1400N and recording the relationship between load and crosshead displacement. Then, by
subtracting the elastic deformation of the experiment apparatus from the crosshead displacements
recorded in compression tests, the displacements of specimens were obtained. Consequently, the true
stress-strain curves of compression specimens were calculated.

3. Results

3.1. Effect of ultrasonic vibration on stress reduction

Pure aluminum presented special mechanical properties when ultrasonic vibration was applied during
compression tests, which are quite different from the general properties without ultrasonic assistance.
As shown in Fig. 4, the stress decreased significantly once ultrasonic vibration was applied at the strain
of 0.05. With the ultrasonic amplitude of 1.00μm in Fig. 4 (a), it was easy to distinguish the two
ultrasonic volume effects of stress superposition and acoustic softening. The stress superposition was
the reduction from peak stress to average stress of the oscillatory stress, which was caused by the
elastic deformation of specimens. And the acoustic softening, leading to real stress reduction, could be
considered as the reduction between static stress without ultrasonic vibration and the peak stress of the
oscillatory stress. However, with the higher ultrasonic amplitude of 2.00 and 3.21μm, the valley stress of
the oscillatory stress is close to 0MPa at the onset of ultrasonic vibration between the strain of 0.05 and
0.1, which implied the separation of vibrated punch and specimens, leading to the dynamic impact
effect and more significant real stress reduction. With the maximum amplitude of 3.21μm, the impact-
affected strain zone (0.05-0.2) where the valley stress is 0MPa, covered larger strain range than that
with the amplitude of 2.00μm (0.05-0.1). As the compression going on, the dynamic impact effect
gradually transferred to acoustic softening effect since the valley stress of the oscillatory stress gradually
increased from around 0MPa, which implied no separation between vibrated punch and specimens, so
the transition from dynamic impact to acoustic softening was distinguished.

Fig. 4. True stress-strain curves of ultrasonic assisted compression tests considering oscillatory stress
with varying amplitudes λ of (a) 1.00μm, (b) 2.00μm and (c) 3.21μm.

3.2. Evolution of stress superposition

In order to investigate the evolution of volume effect of stress superposition in the entire process, the
evolution of stress superposition with varying amplitude was obtained by subtracting the average stress
from oscillatory peak stress, as shown in Fig. 5. It was easily seen that with higher ultrasonic amplitude,
the stress reduction by stress superposition increased. The stress reduction with the minimum
amplitude of 1.00μm was stable in the entire process. However, with higher amplitude of 2.00μm or
3.21μm, the stress reduction was relatively lower in the impact-affected strain zone, and then gradually
increased to stable after the transition to non-impact-affected strain zone.

Fig. 5. Evolution of stress superposition.

3.3. Evolution of real stress reduction

By subtracting the peak value of oscillatory stress with different amplitudes from the static stress
without ultrasonic assistance, the evolution of real stress reduction was obtained, as shown in Fig. 6.
The stress reduction increased to different extents for different ultrasonic amplitudes. With the
minimum ultrasonic amplitude of 1.00μm, the stress reduction due to acoustic softening was initially
about 5MPa and then gradually decreased in the process. However, when the ultrasonic amplitude
increased to 2.00μm and 3.21μm, the stress reduction enhanced to about 17MPa initially and then
further increased to an extreme value, 23MPa with the amplitude of 2.00μm and 28MPa with the
amplitude of 3.21μm, at end of the impact-affected strain zone. After that, the stress reduction
gradually decreased with the increase of strain.
 Fig. 6. Evolution of real stress reduction.

3.4. Development of a hybrid model for stress superposition

Stress superposition is caused by the repeated elastic unloading and loading in stress-strain curve,
which is a kind of elastic wave effect in specimens. During the ultrasonic-assisted compression test, the
produced elastic wave is influenced by the elastic deformation of both the specimen and experimental
apparatus. However, the effect of the elastic deformation of experimental apparatus has never been
addressed, which affects the understanding of the mechanism of stress superposition and prediction of
it. Thus, a hybrid model for stress superposition considering the effect of the elastic deformation of
experimental apparatus is proposed in this paper, the process for construction of which is shown below.

As mentioned in Section 2, the elastic deformation of the experiment apparatus is measured, and the
curve of which is shown in Fig. 7, fitted by a polynomial trend line below

F= = 2.9*108 6
– 1.1*108 5
+ 1.7*107 4
– 1.3*106 3
+ 1.2*105 2
+4.5*103 + 4.3*10-1 (1)

where F and are load and experiment apparatus displacement respectively.

 Fig. 7. Measurement of the elastic deformation of the experimental apparatus.

During the compression tests, the displacement of crosshead D is the sum of deformations of
specimen and experimental apparatus , which is expressed as:

+ (2)

Then, the relationship between load F and specimen displacement is obtained and defined as ( ),

F= ( ) (3)

Based on Eq. (1), could be obtained as by the load F in compression,

= (4)

Supposing no friction between tools and specimen, the specimen undergoes ideal plastic deformation
in the shape of a cylinder, and the volume of specimen keeps same after plastic deformation, so the
specimen stiffness is calculated as:

(5)

where E, and are Young’s modulus of 69GPa, original specimen radius of 1μm and original
specimen height of 2μm respectively in this paper. The experimental apparatus stiffness could be
calculated as the derivative of the deformation of the experimental apparatus , which is
expressed as:
 (6)

In the compression system, specimen stiffness and experimental apparatus stiffness are
connected in series, so the hybrid stiffness K is derived as:

K= (7)

With the ultrasonic amplitude of λ, the force reduction ΔF caused by stress superposition is
obtained as:

ΔF = λK (8)

The true strain ε could be derived from specimen displacement ,

ε = ln(1+ ) (9)

After that, the force reduction ΔF is transferred to true stress reduction Δσ as:

Δσ = ξ (10)

where ξ is the modification coefficient for the ignorance of friction and transmission loss of ultrasonic
energy in the compression system. Combining Eqs. (1) – (10), Δσ can be expressed as:

Δσ = ξ (11)

By curve fitting with the experimental results of stress superposition at different ultrasonic amplitudes,
ξ is obtained to be 1.74. Consequently, the physical model for the evolution of stress superposition is
constructed, and the theoretical calculations based on the model in Eqs. (9), compared with
experimental results, is shown in Fig. 8. As it can be seen in Fig. 8, the theoretical results are fitting quite
well with experimental results, which validates the proposed hybrid model, emphasizing the importance
of experimental apparatus deformation in the quantitative prediction of stress reduction by oscillatory
stress.
 Fig. 8. Comparison of model-based calculation and experimental results of stress superposition.

4. Discussion

In this study, a valid physics-based model to predict the stress superposition was set up and the effect
of ultrasonic vibration on the evolution of real material properties of aluminum was investigated during
the entire process. In Fig. 4, a significant average stress reduction is achieved as soon as the ultrasonic
vibration starts, and the real stress reduction increases with higher amplitude. In Fig. 4(a), the real
stress-strain curve with the ultrasonic amplitude of 1.00μm and that of 0μm are almost parallel, which
has the same tendency as the previous research about acoustic softening [22]. This suggests that the
mechanism for the real stress reduction in this study can be explained by the acoustic softening. The
ultrasonic energy is absorbed by the micro imperfection in metal, like void, dislocation, sub-grain
boundaries and even grain boundaries, which enhances the motion of dislocations [25], resulting in
change of material properties with a real stress reduction. In previous studies, the relationship between
real stress reduction and ultrasonic amplitude is linear when ultrasonic starts [23, 26]. However, as
shown in Fig.6, the initial real stress reduction by the ultrasonic amplitude of 1.00, 2.00 and 3.21μm are
about 5, 17 and 17MPa, which obviously demonstrates a non-linear increase of real stress reduction
with amplitude. In Fig. 4(b) and (c), after the onset of ultrasonic vibration, the slopes of stress-strain
curves with amplitudes of 2.00 and 3.21μm are much lower than the curve without vibration, implying
the work hardening is significantly decreased by applying the vibration with larger amplitudes. In
addition, the valley stress of the oscillatory stress at amplitudes of 2.00 and 3.21μm is almost 0MPa,
which indicates the punch is nearly separating and impacting with the material, so the dynamic impact
effect should play an important role in the yield stress reduction [16, 17]. As the process continues,
contact surface area between punch and specimens gradually increases, so the energy needed for
impact deformation also increases. However, the input ultrasonic energy from the vibrator is constant in
the entire process, which leads to a saturation of impact deformation at strain about 0.1 and 0.2 for
amplitudes of 2.00 and 3.21μm respectively. After the saturation, the oscillatory stresses start to
increase significantly, which indicates similar properties as that with acoustic softening at the amplitude
of 1.00μm. The result suggests that at higher amplitudes of 2.00 and 3.21μm, a transition of the
deformation properties from dynamic impact to acoustic softening may take place in the compression
processes.

In order to verify the difference of deformation properties of dynamic impact and acoustic softening at
amplitudes of 2.00 and 3.21μm, the instantaneously oscillatory stress with different amplitudes should
be analyzed. So an additional investigation on the waveform of oscillatory stress for different amplitudes
was conducted using the oscilloscope. As shown in Fig. 4, five typical points in the compression process
were selected for the analysis on the waveform of oscillatory stress. Point 1 represents acoustic
softening at the amplitude of 1.00μm; Points 2 and 3 represent dynamic impact and acoustic softening
at the amplitude of 2.00μm; Points 4 and 5 represent dynamic impact and acoustic softening at the
amplitude of 3.21μm. The waveforms of those points in oscilloscope are shown in Fig. 9 below. The
waveform of point 1 with the amplitude of 1.00μm is a sine wave, same as the input ultrasonic signal,
indicating the oscillatory stress is just static elastic stress, so the acoustic softening is the reason for the
real stress reduction. However, in the dynamic impact zone with amplitudes of 2.00μm and 3.21μm, the
waveforms of point 2 in Fig. 10(b) and point 4 in Fig. 10 (d) are no longer sine wave but distorted with
the valley stresses of the oscillatory stress close to 0MPa. It is interesting to see that the waveform at
point 4 in Fig.9 (d) is approaching to pulse shape, which is similar to the pulse stress wave in ultrasonic
impact treatment [27], so the deformation properties at point 2 and 4 could be considered to be
influenced by the ultrasonic dynamic impact. After the impact zone, the typical waveforms of point 3
and point 5 in Fig. 9(c) and (e) transfer to the sine wave and the valley stresses of which increase from
about 0MPa, indicating the material deformation is static, which means the deformation mechanism
changes from dynamic impact to acoustic softening. In Fig. 6, the real stress reduction significantly
decreases to some extent after the dynamic impact transfers to acoustic softening with amplitudes of
2.00μm and 3.21μm, which is the result of accumulated work hardening owing to the prior ultrasonic
impact [28]. Therefore, a possible method to distinguish ultrasonic acoustic softening and dynamic
impact could be proposed to be whether the waveform of oscillatory stress is the sine wave or not
(distorted) and the valley stress of which is close to 0MPa or not. If the waveform is a sine wave,
acoustic softening occurs. However, if the waveform is distorted to approach pulse wave and the valley
stress of which is almost 0MPa, ultrasonic dynamic impact may dominate. Consequently, by the stress
waveform analysis, the different mechanisms of ultrasonic dynamic impact and acoustic softening could
be identified and separated.
 Fig. 9. The waveform of typical points on strain during compression with different ultrasonic amplitude.

Since the different deformation mechanism is caused by different amplitude, the surface morphology
observation was carried out by SEM after compression to investigate the variation of surface asperities.
The surface morphology of specimens after compression with different ultrasonic amplitudes is shown
in Fig. 10. Without ultrasonic assistance (Fig. 10(a)), there are some scratches on the surface after
compression, which is owing to the surface polishing before compression, implying the limited surface
plastic deformation. However, with the ultrasonic amplitude of 1.00μm in Fig. 10(b), the surface
becomes much smoother, which is due to the enhanced plastic deformation of surface asperities caused
by acoustic softening [29]. With the higher amplitude of 2.00μm in Fig. 10(c), because of ultrasonic
dynamic impact effect, more surface plastic deformation occurs and no surface polishing caused
scratches are observed but some areas show different surface appearance. With further increased
amplitude to 3.21μm in Fig. 10(d), the dynamic impact effect is more significant, leading to a dimple-like
surface. Since the dynamic impact effect produces more surface plastic deformation, the plastic strain
on the surface could be much larger. Moreover, with the separation of vibrated punch from the
specimen, there may exist micro sliding between specimen and punch, which leads to local friction
heating and further reduced yield stress, thus the plastic strain on the surface is even larger.
 Fig. 10. Surface morphology of pure aluminum specimens with the amplitude of (a) 0μm, (b) 1.00μm,
(c) 2.00μm and (d) 3.21μm superimposed ultrasonic vibration in compression tests.

In order to investigate the reason for the difference in surface morphology, EDX (Energy-dispersive X-
ray spectroscopy) analysis was conducted on each specimen surface. Typical spectrums are shown in Fig.
11. It can be seen that for specimens without ultrasonic assistance and with the ultrasonic amplitude of
1.00μm in Fig. 11 (a) and (b), the two spectrums are almost same in element amount with a higher
amount of aluminum and lower amount of oxygen, which implies the low amount of oxygen layer on the
surface and the punch is always contacting with the specimens. However, with the amplitude of 2.00μm
in Fig. 11(c), the aluminum amount is lower, which means the relative oxygen amount increases. And
the relative oxygen amount becomes even higher with the amplitude of 3.21μm in Fig. 11(d), indicating
more aluminum is oxidized, which is owing to the combined effects of impact-induced local heating and
longer impact duration by the amplitude of 3.21μm.
 Fig. 11. EDX spectrums of pure aluminum specimens with the amplitude of (a) 0μm, (b) 1.00μm, (c)
2.00μm and (d) 3.21μm superimposed ultrasonic vibration in compression tests.

In addition, micro-hardness tests were also conducted on top surface along the diametrical direction,
the result of which is shown in Fig. 12. The micro-hardness with the amplitude of 1.00μm is slightly
lower than that without ultrasonic assistance, which might be owing to the acoustic softening effect.
The ultrasonic energy is absorbed by lattice imperfections like voids, dislocations and grain boundaries,
which results in reduced activation energy for dislocation to overcome obstacles and enhanced
dislocation mobility [15], so the yield stress is reduced in Fig. 4(a) and micro-hardness in Fig. 12(b) as
well. In the case of higher ultrasonic amplitude assistance, the surface micro-hardness is increased,
which could be resulted by the ultrasonic dynamic impact [28]. The micro-hardness with the maximum
amplitude of 3.21μm is lower than that with the amplitude of 2.00μm, which might be owing to the
impact-induced local heating by large plastic deformation and friction,
 Fig. 12. Distribution of surface hardness along the diameter with different amplitude in compression
tests.

Conclusions

In this study, to investigate the characteristics and mechanisms of ultrasonic volume effects, a 60 kHz
longitudinal ultrasonic-assisted compression test system was developed and a series of ultrasonic-
assisted micro-compression tests were carried out at different amplitudes on commercially pure
aluminum A1100. Based on the experimental results of the ultrasonic-assisted compression test with
oscillatory stress measurement as well as the surface analysis by SEM, EDX and micro-hardness test, it
can be concluded that:

1. Three different ultrasonic volume effects, stress superposition, acoustic softening and dynamic
impact, were confirmed in the ultrasonic-assisted compression tests.
2. In order to quantitatively predict stress superposition, a hybrid model for stress superposition is
developed considering the elastic deformation of experimental apparatus in practice, the
evolution of the modeling results fitted well with the experimental results.
3. With low ultrasonic amplitude, stress superposition and acoustic softening occurred because
vibrated punch contacted with the specimen all the time during compression. However, with
higher amplitude, due to the extra surface plastic deformation by larger ultrasonic energy,
forming stress was further reduced by the ultrasonic dynamic impact, after that, the dynamic
impact was gradually replaced by the acoustic softening effect.
4. A possible method to distinguish the effects of dynamic impact and acoustic softening is to
analyze the waveform of the oscillatory stress in the process. If the waveform is a sine wave,
acoustic softening occurs. However, if the waveform is distorted to approach pulse wave and
the valley stress of which is close to 0MPa, dynamic impact may dominate.
5. In the case of ultrasonic dynamic impact effect, a higher amount of oxidation was observed on
the specimen surface, which could be the result of local heating by surface plastic deformation
and surface friction when the vibrated punch detached from the specimen.

Acknowledgments
 The authors would like to express their gratitude to Prof. Masahiko JIN (Nippon Institute of Technology)
for designing the ultrasonic vibrator. The authors would also like to express their gratitude to Mr. Yohei
Suzuki (Komatsuseiki Kosakusho. Co., Ltd.) for designing the compression die.

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 Investigation on ultrasonic volume effects: stress superposition,
acoustic softening and dynamic impact

Jun HU*, Tetsuhide SHIMIZU, Ming YANG

1 Graduate School of System Design, Tokyo Metropolitan University,

6-6, Asahigaoka, Hino, 191-0065, Tokyo, Japan

*Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +81 42 585 8440.

E-mail address: johnnyhu1992@gmail.com

Research highlights

►Stress superposition, acoustic softening and dynamic impact were confirmed.

►A stress superposition model is developed considering the apparatus deformation.

►Dynamic impact is more effective than acoustic softening on stress reduction.

►A possible method to distinguish dynamic impact and acoustic softening is proposed.

►Ultrasonic dynamic impact leads to more oxidation on specimen surface.