Behavior of lead-free solder under thermomechanical loading

This paper presents an investigation of lead-free Sn-Ag base alloy, 95.5Sn-3.9Ag-0.6Cu, both experimentally and analytically. Experimentally, the deformation behaviour of the material was measured for different temperatures (25degreesC and 1000degreesC) over a range of strain rates (10(-5) to 10(-3)/S) under isothermal and thermomechanical conditions. Development of a unified viscoplastic constitutive model followed, taking into account the effects of the measured strain rate and temperature changes. The temperature rate effects are considered in the evolution equation of back stress. In order to include material degradation in the solder the theory of damage mechanics is applied by introducing two damage variables in the viscoplastic constitutive model. Finally, the constitutive model is coded into a general-purpose finite element computer program (ABAQUS) through its user-defined material subroutine (UMAT). The damage-coupled finite element analysis (FEA) is then employed to monitor the condition of failure of a notched component. The predicted and measured maximum loads have been compared and found to be satisfactory In addition, the calculated damage distribution contours enable the identification of potential failure site for failure analysis.