True stress-strain curve acquisition for irradiated stainless steel including the range exceeding necking strain

True stress strain curves were obtained for irradiated 316L stainless steel by a tensile test and by a curve estimation procedure. In the tensile test, the digital image correlation technique together with iterative finite element analysis was applied in order to identify curves for strain larger than the necking strain. The true stress strain curves were successfully obtained for the strain of more than 0.4 whereas the necking strain was about 0.2 in the minimum case. The obtained true stress strain curves were approximated well with the Swift-type equation including the post-necking strain even if the exponential constant n was fixed to 0.5. Then, the true stress-strain curves were estimated by a curve estimation procedure, which was referred to as the K-fit method. Material properties required for the K-fit method were the yield and ultimate strengths or only the yield strength. Some modifications were made for the K-fit method in order to improve estimation accuracy for irradiated stainless steels. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.