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Stability of austenite and quasi-adiabatic heating during highstrain-rate deformation of twinning-induced plasticity steels
Puspendu Sahu,a,c Sven Curtze,b Arpan Das,a B. Mahato,a Veli-Tapani Kuokkalab and Sandip Ghosh Chowdhurya,*
a

Materials Science & Technology Division, CSIR National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur 831007, India b Institute of Materials Science, Tampere University of Technology, P.O.Box 589, 33101 Tampere, Finland c Department of Physics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India
Received 28 July 2009; revised 4 September 2009; accepted 5 September 2009 Available online 11 September 2009

Two twinning-induced plasticity steels have been investigated for their high-strain-rate deformation behaviour. The stability of austenite is low at lower strain rates, but high when high-strain-rate deformation is used. The stability has been attributed due to the temperature rise during high-strain-rate deformation leading to dynamic recrystallization in the material. 2009 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: TWIP steel; Stability of austenite; Twinning; Dynamic recrystallization; High-strain-rate deformation

High-Mn twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steels with Al, Si and Cr additions possess stacking fault energies (SFE) that favour twinning as the predominant deformation mechanism together with dislocation glide. Twinning is an eective means of deformation in this steel and it is known that due to mechanical twinning during deformation, the mean-free ow path for dislocation movement is reduced, leading to high strain hardening of the material, and thereby imparting extraordinary levels of ductility to the alloy system. Automotive applications require steel that exhibit reliable properties even at high strain rates. The deformation of steels during high-strain-rate loading is the result of an interaction between two processes, namely strain-rate hardening and thermal softening due to adiabatic heating. Zener and Hollomon [1] proposed that adiabatic heating may take place during high-strain-rate deformation. The aim of the present study is to investigate the complex high-strain-rate behaviour and the strain-rate dependence on the stability of the austenite phase of high-Mn TWIP steels. In the present case, the dynamic mechanical properties were determined by a series of compression tests using both servohydraulic material testing machines and the Hopkinson Split Bar

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 657 2345007; fax: +91 657 2345213; e-mail: sgc@nmlindia.org

technique. The microstructures of the deformed specimens were characterized by X-ray diraction (XRD) and electron back-scatter diraction (EBSD). Two TWIP steel grades were prepared by induction melting in a vacuum furnace and cast into blocks 60 mm 90 mm 400 mm. The bars were hot rolled to a thickness of 2 mm followed by annealing at 1150 C and then quenched in nitrogen gas. The chemical compositions of the steels are given in Table 1. Compression samples were prepared from the hot-rolled sheet of dimensions 20 mm (L) and 22 mm (diameter). Low- and medium-strain-rate tests were carried out with a servohydraulic Instron machine and the high-strainrate tests were performed with a Hopkinson Split Bar Device. The striker bars used in the tests were 300, 400, 600 and 800 mm. After testing, samples were eval uated by XRD using Cu Ka radiation (1.5405 A) in a Siemens D500 diractometer. EBSD was carried out on the tested samples using a Hitachi S3400N scanning electron microscope to characterize the grain boundaries and to study the formation of various grain boundaries. Figure 1 shows the compressive true stressstrain curves for both TWIP steels at various strain rates. Figure 1a represents the stressstrain curves of 1Al alloy, whereas Figure 1b shows the stressstrain curves of 3Al alloy. It can be observed that at a strain rate of 1 s1, the 3Al alloy is stronger than the 1Al alloy. The strengths of the alloys at higher strain rates are of

1359-6462/$ - see front matter 2009 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.scriptamat.2009.09.010

6 Table 1. Chemical composition of TWIP steels. C TWIP 1Al TWIP 3Al 0.14 0.11 Mn 24.1 23.9 Si 0.54 0.45 Al

P. Sahu et al. / Scripta Materialia 62 (2010) 58

Cr 1.0

Fe Bal. Bal.

0.91 3.5

approximately the same order. It should be noted that the strain values for both the alloys are nearly the same at all strain rates. It should also be noted that from 104 to 1 s1 there is gradual increase in strength. However, at higher strain rates, the strength is lower compared to that at lower strain rates. The degree of this reduction in strength is independent of the amount of Al. Increasing the strain rate from 1200 to 4000 s1 causes the strength and corresponding strain level to increase gradually. This nding is quite similar to that observed in TRIP steels, where the toughness increases with the strain due to transformation of parent austenite phase to martensite phase. Figure 2 shows the XRD line proles for both the alloys deformed at dierent strain rates. Figure 2a presents the data for TWIP steel with 1Al. The experimental pattern, tted pattern and the dierence are plotted on the graph as a function of strain rate. It is observed that there is no transformation at a strain rate of 104 s1. However, from 1 s1 onwards there is detectable transformation. They reveal that the transformation from austenite to martensite phase occurs up to a strain rate of 1000 s1. Beyond that strain rate, there is no transformation at all. For the 3Al alloy sample, there was no transformation at a strain rate of 104 s1 (Fig. 2b). The transformation was subsequently started from 103 s1 and found to be restricted to a strain rate of 720 s1. It thus can be said that addition of Al to this steel stabilizes the austenite phase. To investigate the structural transformation, samples were investigated as a function of strain at a particular strain rate. Figure 3a shows XRD line proles for materials strained to 1828% and 2130% strain for strain rates of 104 and 1 s1, respectively. Figure 3a shows that at both strain rates, at a lower strain level, there are signatures of a new phase; however, as straining progresses, the transformation is diminished and the mate-

rial at higher strain with a strain rate of 104 s1 did not show any martensite phase. However, at a strain rate of 1 s1, some signatures are still present. Figure 3b shows the evolution of structural transformation at the higherstrain-rate regime. All the strain rates up to 1000 s1 show that the materials were strained to a lower amount of strain and there are signatures of structural transformation to martensite. Strain rates of 1200 s1 did not show any transformation even at a strain of 20% which may be comparable to a strain rate of 1 s1 for similar strain which shows large transformation. At moderately strained samples, there is evidence of transformation; transformation is quite prominent at lower strain rates only. Hence, it can be said that in these materials the stability of austenite plays a critical role in the high strength and large strain at higher strain rates. To understand the stability of austenite phase, it is necessary to investigate the microstructural features that evolve after high-strain-rate deformation. Figure 4a and b show the orientation imaging micrograph (OIM) of samples 1Al and 3Al, respectively, for a strain rate of 103. Figure 4c and d show OIM maps of samples of 1Al and 3Al, respectively, at a higher strain rate. Figure 4c and d both show quite large grain sizes of the order of $100150 lm. Steel with 1Al shows deformation twins within a large grain along with a ne grain structure as well as serrated grain boundaries. Serrated grain boundaries occur more frequently in the 3Al samples. Serrated grain boundaries are related to dynamic recrystallization phenomena. Therefore, the deformation behaviour in these materials at higher strain rate did not undergo any structural transformation due to strain softening by dynamic recrystallization. In lowalloy CMnAl-TRIP steel, it has been observed that there is an increase in the temperature during high-strain-rate deformation [2,3]. TWIP steel is known to have quite a high strain-hardening parameter. Higher strain-hardening parameters lead to larger temperature rises, which might be lead to dynamic recrystallization during the high-strain-rate deformation of the materials. This dynamic recrystallization reduces the driving force for transformation and stabilizes the austenite.

Figure 1. True stresstrue strain plot at dierent strain rates for samples with (a) 1Al and (b) 3Al.

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Figure 2. XRD line prole for samples deformed at various strain rates: (a) 1Al and (b) 3Al.

Figure 3. XRD line prole for 1Al sample: (a) at lower strains; (b) at higher strains.

Figure 4. All Euler maps of (a) 1 Al and (b) 3Al strained at 103 s1; (c) 1Al and (d) 3Al strained at 1250 s1.

In TRIP steel, the ability of transformation plasticity to alter the shape of re curve generally requires an opti-

mum shape for the curve describing the stability of plastic ow. The minimum strain-hardening rate required to maintain stable ow during straining is governed by dr/ de = r. Therefore, excessive hardening makes it more dicult to maintain stability at higher strains. It follows that dr/de should increase with e. At the necking strain, necking is attributed to insucient hardening. Necking can also be attributed excessive hardening at lower strains. Therefore, two competing mechanisms exist: dynamic softening and strain hardening. In transformation plasticity, high-strain static hardening of the TRIP eect is required to maintain stable ow. The contribution of dynamic softening to TRIP at low strains may be as important as the high-strain static-hardening contribution in promoting the stability of plastic ow [4]. In the present steels, the occurrence of twinning in the absence of structural transformation to martensite leads to high strain hardening, which in turn leads to high strengthhigh strain at higher strain rates [5,6]. In the present investigation of TWIP steel it has been observed that addition of Al stabilizes the austenite phase against its transformation to martensite. Transformation of austenite to martensite takes place at lower

P. Sahu et al. / Scripta Materialia 62 (2010) 58

strain rates. Austenite phase does not transform at higher strain rates irrespective of the Al content due to adiabatic heating leading to dynamic recrystallization. Authors wish to thank the Dr.Sukomal Ghosh, Director, National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur for his encouragement and kind permission to publish the paper. Authors appreciate the constructive suggestions made by this journals reviewer. Financial support through CSIR SIP-0025 project is gratefully acknowledged.

[1] C. Zener, J.H. Hollomon, J. Appl. Phys. 15 (1944) 22. [2] L. Samek, B.C. De Cooman, J. Van Slycken, P.P. Verleysen, J. Degrieck, Steel Res. Intl. 75 (2004) 716. [3] L. Samek, E. De Moor, J. Penning, B.C. De Cooman, Metall. Mater. Trans. A 37A (2006) 109. [4] G.B. Olson, Deformation, Processing and Structure, ASM, Metals Park, OH, 1984, pp. 391424. [5] Javier Gil Sevillano, Scripta Mater. 60 (2009) 336. [6] O. Bouaziz, S. Allain, C. Scott, Scripta Mater. 58 (2008) 484.