Description

In this paper, a new approach in understanding the nature of sag and stress relaxation behavior is proposed. This will be presented through the study of cyclic softening and cyclic creep behavior of materials. The approach has been made with both cold-drawn wires and a couple of conventionally used oil-quenched suspension spring steels. Results obtained in this project indicate that the nature of materials’ sag behavior appears to be a special type of the time-dependent, permanent deformation caused by cyclic softening and/or cyclic creep.