Effect of strain rate on impact response and ω transformation of quenched Zr–Nb alloys

The strain rate sensitivity of impact response of quenched Zr–Nb alloys was experimentally investigated. The ω phase transformation with extremely high nucleation frequency is shown to cause a quite effective stress relaxation leading to the presence of stress plateau in the work hardening stage of stress–strain curve and the negative relationship between stress and strain rate. Besides, the habit plane for the impact induced ω phase transformation is the same as usually found for the thermally induced ω phase transformation. It is suggested that numerous ω particles in deformed samples may nucleate from the vacancies induced by impact loading.