Acta mater.

49 (2001) 139–152
www.elsevier.com/locate/actamat

ON THE ROLE OF MARTENSITIC TRANSFORMATION ON

DAMAGE AND CRACKING RESISTANCE IN TRIP-ASSISTED
MULTIPHASE STEELS
P. JACQUES§, Q. FURNÉMONT, T. PARDOEN and F. DELANNAY†
Université Catholique de Louvain, Département des Sciences des Matériaux et des Procédés, PCIM, Place
Sainte Barbe 2, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

( Received 24 March 2000; received in revised form 6 July 2000; accepted 6 July 2000 )

Abstract—The damage resistance, fracture toughness and austenite transformation rate in transformation-
induced plasticity (TRIP)-assisted multiphase steel sheets were comparatively characterised on two steel
grades differing by the volume fractions of the phases (i.e. ferrite, bainite, retained austenite) and by the
mechanical stability of retained austenite. The influence of stress triaxiality on austenite transformation kin-
etics and the coupling between martensitic transformation and damage were investigated using double edge
notched (or cracked) plate specimens tested in tension. The map of the distribution of transformation rates
measured locally around the notch (or the crack) was compared with the map of the effective plastic strains
and stress triaxialities computed by finite element simulations of the tests. The mechanically-activated mar-
tensitic transformation was found to progress continuously with plastic straining and to be strongly influenced
by stress triaxiality. Fracture resistance was characterised by means of JR curves and crack tip opening
displacement (CTOD) measurements using DENT specimens. The fracture toughness at cracking initiation
was found to be lower for the steel with higher tensile strength and ductility. The contrasted influence of
the TRIP effect, which improves formability by delaying plastic localisation but reduces fracture toughness
at cracking initiation, is shown to result from parameters such as the volume fraction of non-intercritical
ferrite phases or the mechanical properties of martensite.  2001 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier
Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Steels; TRIP; Plastic properties; Fracture & fracture toughness; Microstructure

1. INTRODUCTION
Retained austenite is present as a dispersed phase in
a large variety of steels. Particularly, austenite plays
a major role in the improvement of the plastic proper-
ties of TRIP-assisted multiphase steels, i.e. of steels
consisting of an intercritical ferrite matrix with
retained austenite, bainite and martensite present as
dispersed phases [1–3]. This study addresses the
TRansformation Induced Plasticity (TRIP) effect
occurring in these steels. Mechanical solicitation can
induce martensitic transformation of the metastable
austenite by providing the lacking driving force for
the triggering of the transformation. The mechan-
ically-activated transformation of retained austenite is
known to depend on several parameters intrinsic to
* To whom all correspondence should be addressed. Tel.:
⫹32-1047-24-02/87; Fax: ⫹32-1047-4028.
E-mail address: delannay@pcim.ucl.ac.be (F.
Delannay)
‡ Current address: Department of Metallurgical Engin-
eering, McGill University, 3610 University street, Montreal
H3A 2B2, Quebec, Canada.
the austenite phase such as its grain size and shape,
chemical composition [4, 5], and crystallographic
orientation, and on several extrinsic parameters such
as the location of the austenite grains [6, 7], the hard-
ening of the surrounding matrix [2], the mesoscopic
stress state [8] and strain state [9], and the distribution
of the microstresses [10].
Numerous studies have revealed that the TRIP
effect drastically improves strength and ductility [11–
15] by allowing the maintenance of a high work-hard-
ening rate in such a way as to postpone plastic localis-
ation (in the form of either diffuse localisation or
shear bands) [16]. Furthermore, the volume change
associated with martensitic transformation is thought
to hinder microvoid nucleation [17, 18], and thus to
delay the ensuing softening that induces plastic local-
isation [8, 19, 20].
The martensitic transformation of metastable aus-
tenite has been reported to have either a beneficial or
a detrimental effect on fracture toughness. Typically,
the mechanically-induced martensitic transformation
is known to have a deleterious influence on the tough-
ness of the heat affected zone (HAZ) in welds of

1359-6454/01/$20.00  2001 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 1 3 5 9 - 6 4 5 4 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 2 1 5 - 9
140 JACQUES et al.: MULTIPHASE STEELS
high-strength low alloy steels [21–23]. In such HAZ,
mechanically-induced transformation of high carbon
austenite into hard martensite gives rise to premature
cracking and therefore reduces the fracture toughness
of the weld. On the other hand, in Fe–Ni steels, Fe–
Ni–Cr steels [17], or other highly alloyed fully aus-
tenitic steels [24], toughness shows a marked
enhancement when testing temperature or steel com-
position are adjusted in such a way as to favour aus-
tenite stability. In Ultra-High Strength, quenched and
tempered, martensitic steels such as AISI 4340 [25–
27], Fe–Cr steels [28], Fe–Ni steels [29, 30], high Ni–
Co secondary hardening martensitic steels [31, 32],
or also bainitic steels [33–36], toughening by trans-
formation of dispersed austenite brings about substan-
tial improvement of fracture toughness when austen-
ite presents an optimum stability. In these very high
strength steels, the fracture mechanism at the crack
tip is strongly related to shear localisation: mixed
mode zig-zag cracking and crack branching are com-
monly observed [37]. However, in most ductile
materials with lower strength, cracking from a pre-
existing defect is not directly related to shear localis-
ation. Fracture toughness usually depends on the
material capacity to resist damage by nucleation and
growth of internal voids or microcracks. In such
cases, increasing the resistance to plastic localisation
by increasing the work-hardening does not necessar-
ily imply an increase of cracking initiation resistance
and tearing resistance.
The particular microstructure of TRIP-assisted
multiphase steels is generated by carrying out a two-
stage heat treatment after cold-rolling [3, 7]. The first
stage consists in an intercritical annealing dwell that
gives rise to a ferrite–austenite microstructure which
is then quenched to the 350–450°C range for an iso-
thermal bainitic transformation dwell. During this
second isothermal holding, part of the intercritical
austenite grains transforms to bainite whereas the
remaining part is stabilised in such a way that it does
not transform to martensite during final quenching to
room temperature. The austenite stabilising effect of
bainitic transformation is well known to be due to
the carbon rejection from bainitic ferrite into residual
austenite [38]. Carbide precipitation is furthermore
inhibited when the steel contains some silicon (苲1–
2.5 wt%). Since these steel grades are intended for
applications requiring deep-drawability or crash-
worthiness, i.e. requiring a high resistance to plastic
instability together with a high final strength, the
literature dealing with TRIP-aided steels mainly
focuses on plastic properties and not on damage and
cracking resistance.
The present paper presents experimental tests car-
ried out on two TRIP-assisted multiphase steels dif-
fering by the amounts of phases and by the mechan-
ical stability of retained austenite. It discusses (1) the
influence of triaxiality on the rate of transformation
of retained austenite, (2) the coupling between trans-
formation of austenite and damage, and (3) the
resulting fracture toughness of the steels. The fracture
toughness at cracking initiation was characterised by
means of JR curves and CTOD measurements using
pre-cracked DENT specimens. It was found to be
smaller for the steel presenting the best work-harden-
ing properties. J2 elastoplastic finite element simula-
tions of the tests were performed in order to deter-
mine the local stress and strain fields. Although the
experimental results show a significant influence of
stress triaxiality on the austenite transformation rate
and thus on the constitutive behaviour of the material,
these simulations will be shown relevant for the pur-
pose of the present work.
After a description of the materials (Section 2.1),
experimental procedure (Section 2.2), and numerical
procedure (Section 3), Section 4 will present the
experimental and numerical results. The discussion
will focus (i) on the influence of the microstructure
and stress triaxiality on the austenite transformation
kinetics (Section 5.1), (ii) on the coupling between
transformation and damage (Section 5.2), and (iii) on
the way the TRIP effect influences fracture toughness
by affecting the damage evolution inside the fracture
process zone (Section 5.3).
2. MATERIALS AND EXPERIMENTAL
PROCEDURES
2.1. Materials
2.1.1. Chemical compositions and heat-treatment
conditions. Two steels differing in their carbon and
silicon contents were investigated. Their chemical
compositions are given in Table 1. Steel HSi (for
“High Silicon”) is a “conventional” TRIP-assisted
multiphase steel with a silicon content of 1.5 wt%.
Steel LSi (for “Low Silicon”) is a newly developed
TRIP-aided steel (based on an industrial alloy) [3]
with a much lower silicon content and a chemical
composition comparable to conventional Dual Phase
steels [39]. A cast ingot of steel HSi was hot-rolled
to a thickness of 4 mm following classical practice.
Steel HSi was then cold-rolled 75% to 1 mm thick-
ness. Steel LSi was industrially cast and hot-rolled to
a thickness of 5.5 mm and was then cold-rolled 82%
to the same thickness of 1 mm.
Heat treatments were carried out on 60 mm⫻240
mm specimens oriented in the rolling direction. Steels
HSi and LSi were annealed in a fluidised bed furnace
at 760°C for 6 min and at 730°C for 5 min, respect-
ively. They were then transferred to a lead bath fur-
nace for the isothermal bainitic holding. Steel HSi
was held at 410°C for 6 min while steel LSi was held
at 370°C for 3 min. Both steels were finally water-
quenched to room temperature.
2.1.2. Microstructure and uniaxial flow properties.
Figure 1 presents typical SEM micrographs of the
microstructure of steels HSi and LSi. A complete
description of the procedure used for the preparation
of the specimens for the SEM observations can be
 JACQUES et al.: MULTIPHASE STEELS 141

Table 1. Chemical compositions (10⫺3 wt%) of the investigated steels

C Mn Si P S Cr Ni Cu Nb Al N

HSi 290 1420 1410 12 20 3 7 4 0 40 8

LSi 160 1300 380 13 12 19 27 19 13 30 6.3

Table 2. Volume fractions of the different phases of the microstructure

of steels HSi and LSi and estimated carbon content of retained austenite

Ferrite Bainite Retained austenite Cg

(%) (%) (%) (wt%)

HSi 55 29 16 0.95
LSi 75 19 6 0.73

results are summarised in Table 2: steels HSi and LSi

contain 16% and 6% of retained austenite, respect-
ively. The carbon content of retained austenite esti-
mated from the austenite lattice parameter (measured
by X-ray diffraction) is 0.95 wt% for steel HSi while
it is only 0.73 wt% for steel LSi. Steel HSi thus com-
bines a larger austenite volume fraction with a more
carbon-enriched austenite.
Figure 2 presents the tensile true stress–true strain
curves of both specimens together with the incremen-
tal work-hardening curves (nincr.) defined as

⭸ ln s
nincr. ⫽ (1)
⭸ ln e

Tensile specimens were prepared according to the

European standard EN 10002-1 with an initial gauge
length and width of 50 mm and 12.5 mm, respect-
ively. Figure 2 shows that, with a true stress at
maximum load of 1115 MPa and a true uniform strain
Fig. 1. Typical SEM micrographs of the microstructure of (a) of 0.25, steel HSi exhibits a better strength–ductility
steel HSi and (b) steel LSi before straining.
balance than steel LSi (774 MPa and 0.17,
respectively). The yield strength, s0, of steel HSi is
also higher than that of steel LSi (490 MPa vs. 430
found elsewhere [40]. It can be seen on these micro- MPa). These differences are mainly due to the TRIP
graphs that the microstructure of both specimens con-
sists of a finely grained intercritical ferrite matrix with
a dispersion of bainite–austenite grains situated
mainly at the ferrite grain boundaries. No martensite
can be found in the microstructures prior to mechan-
ical testing. These micrographs also show that two
types of retained austenite can be distinguished
depending on the morphology of the not bainitically
transformed part of the intercritical austenite grains: a
blocky type austenite corresponding to the large non-
transformed parts of the intercritical austenite grains,
and a film type austenite lying along the bainitic fer-
rite plates. The blocky-type austenite constitutes the
largest part of retained austenite in both steels. The
volume fractions of the different phases were meas-
ured by combining image analysis, dilatometry and Fig. 2. Uniaxial tensile true stress–true strain curves and
Mössbauer spectroscopy (for retained austenite). The incremental work-hardening curves of steels HSi and LSi.
142 JACQUES et al.: MULTIPHASE STEELS
effect: as detailed elsewhere [7, 41], the incremental
work-hardening curves can be directly related to the
austenite transformation rate. The more stable austen-
ite of steel HSi progressively transforms all over
straining in such a way that the incremental work-
hardening smoothly increases from a low initial
value. This increase delays the onset of necking. On
the other hand, the less stable austenite of steel LSi
transforms earlier during plastic straining. The
incremental strain-hardening exponent nincr. of steel
LSi therefore exhibits a high initial value followed by
a monotonous decrease [7].
2.2. Experimental procedure
2.2.1. Characterisation of martensitic transform-
ation and damage. In the case of the uniaxial ten-
sile specimens, the transformation rate of retained
austenite was estimated by measuring, using
Mössbauer spectroscopy, the amount of austenite
remaining in samples plastically strained to different
levels. Samples of appropriate size for Mössbauer
measurements can be taken from uniaxial specimens
since a homogeneous stress state prevails in such
specimens prior to necking. Samples 15 mm long
were cut from the tensile test specimens. They were
chemically thinned to a thickness of 100 µm using a
solution of HF diluted in H2O2. The samples were
then electrolytically polished in a solution of 5%
HClO4 and 95% acetic acid to a final thickness of 30
to 50 µm.
The geometry of the notched plates used to investi-
gate the stress triaxiality dependence of martensitic
transformation and the evolution of damage is shown
in Fig. 3. The stress triaxiality, denoted T, is defined
as the ratio of the hydrostatic stress, sm ⫽ sii/3, to
the effective stress, se, i.e. T ⫽ sm/se. Notched plates
were chosen because they present a stress triaxiality
intermediate between uniaxial stress (T ⫽ 1/3) and
the triaxiality ahead of a crack in cracked specimens
Fig. 3. Geometry of the notched specimens used for the charac-
terisation of damage and martensitic transformation in both
steels. As represented by the darkened zone, only one quarter
of the ligament was characterised due to symmetry of the speci-
mens.
(T苲0.6). In addition, the stress triaxiality in notched
plates does not change with straining, which makes
such plates convenient for the present analysis. Fur-
thermore, tensile testing of notched plates does not
involve the difficulties linked to the occurrence of
necking at large strains. Finally, notched plates allow
collecting more information than smooth plates by
taking advantage of the strain gradients which
develop along the ligament between the notches. In
order to provide a more accurate and suggestive com-
parison of the experimental and numerical results, the
load–displacement curves have been normalised in
terms of average stress, saver, average strain, eaver,
curves. The average tensile stress in the ligament,
σaver, is defined as the load divided by the current
cross-sectional area, S. The average strain in the liga-
ment, eaver, is defined as ln (S0/S), where S0 is the
initial cross-sectional area. The specimens were
strained to various eaver and they were then unloaded
for metallographic observation. S was obtained from
the final ligament length measured using a travelling
microscope and from the final ligament thickness
measured at various locations along the ligament
length using a profilometer.
Maps of the proportion of martensite and of the
density of damage sites around the notch were
obtained by SEM observations of one quarter of the
strained ligament, as represented in Fig. 3. For these
SEM observations, each specimen was ground to
midsection, then tempered at 200°C for 2 h in order to
allow the distinction between austenite and martensite
[40], and finally polished and etched with 2% nital.
The observations were made on images of about 20
⫻30 µm2 size, i.e. at a magnification allowing the
viewing of, typically, 15 to 30 austenite grains. On
each image, the average ratio a⬘/g0 of the volume of
martensite to the initial volume of retained austenite
(before transformation) was estimated with a pre-
cision of ±12.5%. The number of damage sites
observed on each image was also counted and a rec-
ord made of the nature of microcracks, i.e. ferrite–
martensite interface debonding (denoted FM), intra-
martensite cracks oriented at 苲0°, 苲45° and 苲90° with
respect to the tensile direction (denoted MM0°,
MM45° and MM90°, respectively), or other types of
damage. The maps of the distribution of martensite
and damage around the notch were obtained by suc-
cessive observations of such 20⫻30 µm2 sized SEM
images following a grid of points separated by 60 µm
along the direction of the tensile axis of the plates
and by 250 µm in the transverse direction. The same
methodology was used for quantifying the transform-
ation rate of austenite and the amount of damage
around the crack tip in DENT specimens.
2.2.2. Fracture toughness measurements. The
DENT specimens used for the evaluation of fracture
toughness consisted of rectangular plates with a
length (L) of 120 mm in the rolling direction, a width
(w) of 55 mm and a thickness (t0) of 1 mm. As the
 JACQUES et al.: MULTIPHASE STEELS
DENT geometry is not specified in the standards, the
validity of the test has been carefully assessed using
finite element simulation. All requirements usual for
standardised tests were respected. Pre-cracking of the
specimens was carried out by fatigue loading using a
servo-hydraulic machine. Notches were first
machined in the middle of the length of the plates by
spark-erosion followed by razor blade cutting. In
order to obtain 2-mm-long fatigue cracks on both
sides of each specimen and to conserve symmetry,
the side of the DENT plate at which the fatigue crack
length first attained 2 mm was clamped and the
fatigue loading was further carried out until the
second fatigue crack had also reached 2 mm length.
The maximum load during fatigue was chosen in such
a way that the maximum stress intensity factor at the
tip of the pre-crack never exceeded 20% of the
expected fracture toughness of the plate (a condition
which was verified a posteriori). The ratio a/w of the
length of the ligament between the fatigue cracks to
the width of the specimen was always close to 0.5.
The width of the zone along the crack lips where mar-
tensitic transformation had occurred during fatigue
pre-cracking was measured by SEM observation. This
width was found to be equal to 30 µm for steel HSi
and 40 µm for steel LSi.
The pre-cracked DENT specimens were loaded in
tension. The tests were interrupted at various load lev-
els (multiple-specimens method). In order to charac-
terise the cracking resistance by JR curves, the J inte-
gral [42] and the crack advance, ⌬a, were determined
for each specimen. J was computed from the
load/displacement curve as proposed by Rice et al.
[43] for the DENT:
冕
Up
K2
1 material separation [45]. The contribution due to
J⫽ ⫹ (2 P(up) dup⫺PUp)
I
(2)
E l0t0
0 thickness when entering the plane strain regime.
where KI is the mode I stress intensity factor, E is the
Young’s modulus, P(up) is the applied load, up is the
plastic displacement and Up is the maximum plastic
displacement. No correction for crack advance was
made. The resistance to crack propagation was
characterised by the mean slope of the JR curve,
dJR/da.
In order to account for tunnelling effect, ⌬a was
measured by optical observation of the crack tip pro-
file through the thickness of the plate, i.e. by obser-
vation on the surfaces of the plate and on polished
sections at quarter-thickness and at mid-thickness of
the plate. ⌬a was then taken as the average value of
these measurements. Using this method, the crack tip
opening displacement at initiation, dc, could be
obtained from a set of crack tip parameters, whose
definitions are given on Fig. 4: the total opening of
the blunted crack d1, the opening of the tearing crack
at the blunted crack d2, and the crack advance due to
143
Fig. 4. Schematic illustration of a crack tip and definition of
the different parameters measured on the strained specimens
after unloading.
tearing, ⌬ar. The difference d1⫺d2 can be used to
obtain the unloaded critical crack tip opening dis-
placement at cracking initiation, denoted d∗c . Indeed,
d∗c is obtained as the value of d1⫺d2 when ⌬ar→0
(see Ref. 44 for a detailed description of this method).
In order to evaluate dc accurately, account must be
taken of reverse plasticity at the crack tip during
unloading. In this work, the unloading of the CTOD
⌬d (dc ⫽ d∗c ⫹ ⌬d) was evaluated from the finite
element (FE) computations. This metallographic
analysis also provided insightful information about
the transformation rate and damage evolution at the
crack tip.
In thin plates, the fracture toughness defined by the
J integral or the CTOD at cracking initiation involves
two parts. The first is related to the work per unit
surface spent for local crack tip necking and the
second part consists in the work per unit surface for
necking vanishes at very small thickness and at large
However, in thin plate, necking may sometimes con-
stitute the major part of fracture toughness. The work
per unit surface spent in necking depends on the
thickness of the plate, resulting in the well-known
thickness dependence of fracture toughness in thin
plates and in the loss of J-dominance. No attempt has
been made in this work for separating the two contri-
butions to the fracture toughness, which is still an
unresolved issue (see Ref. 45 for more details). In
other words, the measurements performed in this
work are only meaningful when compared with
measurements obtained with plates of similar thick-
ness.
3. NUMERICAL PROCEDURES
Three-dimensional FE modelling of the notched
and DENT specimens was based on finite strain J2
flow theory with isotropic hardening and performed
using the general-purpose program ABAQUS. The
FE meshes consisted of eight-node bricks. Owing to
144 JACQUES et al.: MULTIPHASE STEELS

symmetry, only one-eighth of each specimen was 4. EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL RESULTS
modelled. Figure 5 presents the mesh pattern for the
In this section, we present separately the results
two types of specimens. The minimum section of the
dealing with the martensitic transformation and dam-
notched specimens contained 25 elements on half of
age of the different specimens, and the results dealing
the ligament and seven elements on half of the thick-
with the fracture toughness measurements in cracked
ness. The initial radius of the crack tip in the DENT
specimens. In each case, experimental and numerical
specimens was taken lower than 0.15dc. The mesh
results are described in parallel.
consisted of 12 bricks along the half-thickness (a rela-
tively large number of elements is required in the 4.1. Transformation and damage in the uniaxial and
thickness to accurately resolve the stresses in the notched specimens
localised necking zone at the crack tip). The length
Figure 6 presents the average stress (saver) vs. aver-
of the first element close to the crack tip was chosen
age strain (eaver) variations determined experimentally
equal to about one half of the initial radius of the
as well as calculated numerically for the notched
crack tip. Other mesh designs were used in order to
specimens of steels HSi and LSi. The loadings of the
check the convergence of the results in terms of the
different specimens unloaded for metallographic
stress and strain distribution. A mixed formulation
observation are indicated by rank of increasing aver-
was used in order to handle near incompressibility
resulting from large plastic deformation. The plastic
tangent modulus of steels HSi and LSi was derived
from the uniaxial true stress–true strain curves of Sec-
tion 2.1.2. In other words, the coupling between the
stress triaxiality and the transformation rate, and thus
the influence of transformation rate on the strain hard-
ening exponent are not taken into account. The
approximate character of this modelling will be
addressed in the discussion section of this paper.
The method of evaluation of the pointwise values
of the J integral (relation (2)) over the crack front is
based on the 3D domain integration technique pro-
posed by Shih et al. [46]. Local J(s) were computed
in the 12 layers along the thickness using various con-
tours in order to check path independence. A mean
value for the J-integral was obtained by averaging the
local values on the entire thickness. The numerical
CTOD was measured as the displacement at the inter- Fig. 6. Numerical average stress (saver)–average strain (eaver)
curve and experimental results for the notched specimens of
section with the crack flanks of a 90° vertex centred steels HSi and LSi. Each number on this figure corresponds to
at the crack tip (i.e. an identical definition as for the a unloaded specimen used for the metallographic characteris-
experimentally measured CTOD). ation of transformation and damage.

Fig. 5. Meshes for the FE simulations: (a) notched specimen; (b) DENT specimen.
 JACQUES et al.: MULTIPHASE STEELS 145

age strain: LSi1, and from HSi1 to HSi5. These speci-
mens correspond to average strains eaver of 0.09 for
steel LSi and of 0.023, 0.06, 0.09, 0.23 and 0.53 for
steel HSi. It is noteworthy that coalescence of
microvoids in steel HSi was observed only at
eaver ⫽ 0.53, close to the tip of the notches. Metallo-
graphic observation showed that austenite grains are
generally either fully transformed or not transformed
at all (this observation is especially evident in steel
LSi). However, within each observation zone, some
grains can be transformed while others can not. The
maps of Fig. 7 present the percentage of martensitic
transformation, and the locations and types of damage
sites for specimens HSi2 (eaver ⫽ 0.06; Fig. 7(a) and
(b)), HSi3 (eaver ⫽ 0.09; Fig. 7(c) and (d)) and LSi1
(eaver ⫽ 0.09; Fig. 7(e) and (f)).
4.1.1. Transformation rate of retained austenite.
Figure 7(a) and (c) show that, in steel HSi, mar-
tensitic transformation develops progressively with
increasing straining. In specimen HSi2 (eaver ⫽ 0.06;
Fig. 7(a)), the notch is surrounded by an approxi-
mately semi-circular zone in which 50 to 75% of the
initial content of austenite has already transformed.
Specimen HSi3 (eaver ⫽ 0.09; Fig. 7(c)) shows an
increase of the part of transformed austenite: more
than 25% of retained austenite has transformed in
almost the entire ligament. In contrast, specimen LSi1
(Fig. 7(e)), for which the average strain is 0.09 like
specimen HSi3, shows a nearly complete transform-
ation in a wide region covering the entire ligament.
In order to quantify the progress of the transform-
ation (and to extract a maximum of information from

Fig. 7. Maps covering one quarter of the notched specimens presenting the percentage of martensitic transform-
ation and the locations of the various types of damage sites of specimens HSi2 (eaver ⫽ 0.06, (a) and (b)),
HSi3 (eaver ⫽ 0.09, (c) and (d)) and LSi1 (eaver ⫽ 0.09, (e) and (f)).
146 JACQUES et al.: MULTIPHASE STEELS
the observations), FE simulations were used for
studying the correlation between the amount of trans-
formation shown in Fig. 7(a), (c) and (e) and the local
value of the effective plastic strain, epe at a given
macroscopic straining (eaver) (taking account of finite
straining effect). Figure 8(a) shows the result of this
matching procedure for the notched specimens of
steel HSi: the small dots represent the collection of
Fig. 8. Variation of the proportion of martensite (a⬘/g0) as a
function of effective plastic strain (epe) for steels HSi and LSi.
(a) Raw (all points) and selected (points corresponding to
location where 0.51⬍T⬍0.53) results of the matching pro-
cedure between the maps of transformation and of effective
plastic strain for the notched specimens of steel HSi (the solid
line is a logarithmic curve fit). (b) Results corresponding to
constant triaxiality for the uniaxial tensile specimens (T ⫽
1/3), the HSi notched specimens (T苲0.52) and the DENT
specimens (T ⫽ 0.6).
all results from specimens HSi2, HSi3 and HSi4. The
plastic strain needed to transform a given proportion
of austenite shows a large scatter, especially for the
transformation of the last 25% of austenite. This scat-
ter results in part from the semi-quantitative nature of
the method used for the estimation of the proportion
of martensitic transformation and in part from the
microstructural and chemical inhomogeneities at the
scale of the observation zone. Another origin of the
scatter is the effect of the variation of the stress state
along the ligament. FE simulations reveal that, in the
plane at mid-thickness of the notched specimens, the
stress triaxiality is T ⫽ 0.53 at the centre of the liga-
ment. This stress triaxiality remains nearly constant
on half of the ligament length but decreases to the
uniaxial stress value (T ⫽ 1/3) at the tip of the notch.
The stress triaxiality remains constant during loading
and decreases slowly with distance from the mini-
mum section of the ligament. Therefore, in order to
estimate the transformation rate of retained austenite
at constant stress triaxiality, the open circles in Fig.
8(a) are results corresponding to triaxialities only in
the range 0.51⬍T⬍0.53.
As for the notched specimens, the extent of mar-
tensitic transformation around the crack tip of the
DENT specimens was related to the computed effec-
tive plastic strain epe. Only two specimens, one for
each steel, unloaded just after the initiation of crack-
ing were analysed. At the initiation of cracking, com-
plete transformation of austenite was observed in the
fracture process zone (FPZ, which was considered
identical to the finite strain zone) in both specimens.
Outside the finite strain zone, the stress triaxiality is
lower and it remains constant at T⬇0.6 along the
whole ligament. As for the notched specimens, the
transformation rate in the cracked specimens is
slightly higher in steel LSi than in steel HSi. At crack-
ing initiation, nearly 50% of transformation is
observed at the centre of the ligament in steel LSi at
cracking initiation, whereas a large part of the liga-
ment does not show any transformation in steel HSi.
This observation again reflects the higher stability of
austenite in steel HSi than in steel LSi.
Figure 8(b) compares, for steels HSi and LSi, the
variation of the proportions of transformed austenite
as a function of epe for the uniaxial tensile specimens
(measured by Mössbauer spectroscopy), for the
notched specimens (best fit of points in Fig. 8(a)) and
for the DENT specimens (the lower scatter in the lat-
ter case results from the fact that the data are averages
of SEM observations made on larger areas than for
the notched specimens). At all triaxialities, the trans-
formation rates are larger for steel LSi than for steel
HSi. As already observed in the selection procedure
in Fig. 8(a), Fig. 8(b) clearly shows that, in both
steels, an increase of the stress triaxiality markedly
enhances the transformation rate. For steel HSi, the
curve of a⬘/g0 as a function of epe for T苲0.6 measured
using the cracked specimens is close to the average
curve for T苲0.52 measured using the notched speci-
 JACQUES et al.: MULTIPHASE STEELS
mens. The effect of the stress triaxiality in steel LSi
is especially marked for the last 30–50% of retained
austenite. Figure 8(b) shows that the martensitic
transformation rate appears exhausted after a certain
level of uniaxial tensile straining. Metallographic
observation reveals that, in the uniaxial tensile speci-
mens, the part of retained austenite remaining
untransformed at true uniform strain corresponds to
the film type austenite: the blocky type austenite was
found to be almost entirely transformed [7].
4.1.2. Damage. Figure 7(f) shows that almost no
damage site can be found when a notched specimen
of steel LSi is strained up to an average strain of 0.09,
whereas Fig. 7(b) shows that specimen HSi2 with
eaver ⫽ 0.06 already presents numerous damage sites.
At this strain level, damage mainly consists of ferrite–
martensite interface debonding. Almost no cracking
of martensite grains can be observed. Furthermore,
damage sites are uniformly distributed in the entire
strained region. For specimen HSi3 with
eaver ⫽ 0.09 (Fig. 7(d)), the number of damage sites
steeply increases. This increase is predominantly due
to the cracking of martensite grains. A large number
of cracked martensite grains can be observed in speci-
men HSi3, especially in a zone of about 1 mm radius
around the notch. No evidence of significant
microcrack extension or plastic void growth can be
observed after nucleation. Damage thus increases
mainly as a result of the increase of the number of
microcracking sites.
Figure 9 presents a more explicit representation of
the variation of the proportion of the various types of
damage sites as a function of eaver for steel HSi. The
types of damage mentioned as “others” are ferrite or
bainite cracking. These types remain scarce at all
average strain. This means that the occurrence of
damage in this type of microstructure almost always
involves martensite. Furthermore, a reversal of the
Fig. 9. Variation, as a function of the average strain (eaver), of
the proportions of the different types of damage sites observed
in the microstructure of steel HSi (M-M, intra-martensite crack-
ing; F-M, ferrite–martensite debonding; others, other types of
damage sites).
147
proportions of ferrite–martensite debonding sites and
martensite cracking sites occurs when eaver increases
from 0.06 to 0.09. These proportions then remain con-
stant during further straining. The steep increase of
the martensite grains cracking is observed close to the
notch tip where Fig. 7(c) has shown that martensitic
transformation was almost complete. This complete
transformation leads to the formation of a microstruc-
ture containing a nearly continuous bainite–marten-
site network. The larger fraction of sites MM90° and
MM45° in Fig. 7(d) shows that cracking of the mar-
tensite grains occurs preferentially in a direction per-
pendicular to the axis of loading.
4.2. Fracture toughness and transformation in
cracked specimens
For the sake of clarity, Table 3 summarises the
definitions of the different fracture mechanics para-
meters based on the J and CTOD concepts used in
this paper. Path independence of the J integral com-
puted numerically is observed for contours remote
enough from the necking zone. The FE simulations
also showed that the stress triaxiality is higher in the
finite strain zone and that the stress state in this zone
is intermediate between plane stress and plane strain,
in agreement with Refs. 45–48. A pure plane stress
state is observed to prevail outside the finite strain
zone.
Asymmetry of the crack advance at the two speci-
men sides was sometimes observed during monotonic
tensile loading of the DENT specimens. The speci-
mens presenting a too large asymmetry of the crack
extension were not accounted for in the foregoing
analysis. Tunnelling effects were evidenced. Typi-
cally, for crack advances larger than 1 mm, a differ-
ence of about 100 to 200 µm was measured between
the crack lengths at mid-thickness and at the surface
Table 3. Definition of the different J and crack opening quantities used
in the study
Parameter Definition
JR Current value of J during crack propagation as
computed by formula (2) using the experimental
load–displacement records
J0.2 Engineering fracture toughness consisting in the
intersection of the JR curve with the 0.2 mm
offset line parallel to the blunting line
Jc Physical fracture toughness at cracking initiation
obtained using the FE simulations (and thus
based on the domain integral method) at load
corresponding to the attainment of the
experimentally measured CTOD at cracking
initiation
d1 Total opening of the blunted crack d1 based on
the intersection with the crack flanks of a 90°
vertex centred at the crack tip (see Fig. 4)
d2 Opening of the tearing crack at the blunted
crack (see Fig. 4)
d∗c Unloaded critical crack tip opening
displacement at cracking initiation obtained as
the value of d1⫺d2 when ⌬ar→0
dc Critical crack tip opening displacement at
cracking initiation (under loading)
148 JACQUES et al.: MULTIPHASE STEELS
Fig. 10. Variation of J as a function of total crack advance (JR
curves) in steels HSi and LSi.
of the plate. Figure 10 compares the JR curves of
steels HSi and LSi computed from the
load/displacement curves using relation (2). The stan-
dard values of the engineering fracture toughness at
initiation, J0.2, which corresponds to the intersection
of the JR curve with the 0.2 mm offset line (parallel
to the blunting line), amount to 350 kJ/m2 and 220
kJ/m2 for steels LSi and HSi, respectively. Neverthe-
less, for several reasons addressed hereafter, these
values do not carry much physical meaning except
that they show that steel LSi presents a larger fracture
toughness than steel HSi.
The variations of d1⫺d2 as a function of ⌬ar meas-
ured at the crack tips at which cracking initiation was
detected are plotted on Fig. 11 for steels HSi and LSi.
One point corresponds to one side of the specimen:
d1⫺d2 is the average of the values measured on vari-
ous through thickness positions and ⌬ar is the cor-
rected crack advance for the corresponding crack.
Each value is thus local, representative of one crack
tip state. The experimental scatter of d1⫺d2 is rather
large for two reasons: the small value of the crack
opening at small crack advance (d2 is especially inac-
curate for small crack advance) and the limited num-
Fig. 11. Variations of d1⫺d2 as a function of ⌬ar for crack tips
at which cracking initiation was detected in steels HSi and LSi.
ber of observations along a given crack front due to
the difficulty of polishing the samples and the labour
intensive character of the method. A linear regression
on the d1⫺d2/⌬ar data points gives values of d∗c equal
to 81 µm and 52 µm for steels LSi and HSi, respect-
ively. According to the procedure described by Par-
doen et al. [44], the correction factor to be applied
on d∗c for accounting for reverse plasticity was esti-
mated by FE simulations. The corrected values of dc
were 94 µm and 61 µm for steels LSi and HSi,
respectively.
Using FE simulations, these dc values can be trans-
lated into values of Jc at cracking initiation amounting
to about 63 kJ/m2 for steel LSi and to 51 kJ/m2 for
steel HSi. These values are about five times smaller
than the corresponding values J0.2 ⫽ 350 kJ/m2 and
220 kJ/m2 measured using the JR curve procedure
(Fig. 10). Several reasons may be invoked for
explaining this discrepancy: (i) a crack extension of
0.2 mm induces a significant increase of J in materials
with large strain-hardening exponents; (ii) formula
(2), from which the J values on Fig. 10 were com-
puted, overestimates the more exact value of J com-
puted using the energy domain integral method; (iii)
it is known that, for specimens with large strain-hard-
ening exponent, the slope of the ASTM blunting line,
which must be taken equal to 2⌬a(sy ⫹ sult)/2, is too
small [49]. In other words, we can consider that, for
the present steel plates, Jc or dc carry more physical
meaning for characterising fracture initiation than J0.2.
Whatever the method used for characterising fracture
toughness, the resistance against cracking initiation is
larger in steel LSi. On Fig. 10, the slopes of the
regression lines after crack initiation suggest that, in
contrast, the resistance to crack propagation (i.e. the
tearing module) might be slightly larger in steel HSi.
5. DISCUSSION
5.1. Rate of mechanically-induced martensitic trans-
formation
Typically, a transformed grain contains between
two and five martensitic variants. Partially transfor-
med grains were rarely observed in steel LSi, mean-
ing that the transformation is (quasi-) instantaneous.
The size of the austenite grains thus seems to be suf-
ficiently small for the autocatalytic effects to over-
whelm the local drop of hydrostatic stress during
transformation (a drop of the hydrostatic stress would,
in principle, reduce the driving force for continuing
the transformation). The continuous increase of the
transformation with increasing strain exhibited in Fig.
8(b) in steel LSi is thus not merely due to a step by
step transformation inside each retained austenite
grain which, for instance, was supposed in Ref. [50].
For steel HSi, partially transformed grains are some-
times observed and, therefore, progressive grain
transformation is one of the reasons for the continu-
ous increase of the transformation observed on Fig.
 JACQUES et al.: MULTIPHASE STEELS
8(b). The kinetics of the mechanically-activated trans-
formation of retained austenite depends on the follow-
ing factors.
1. The chemical composition which varies from grain
to grain, depending on their size and on the sur-
rounding phases (bainite or ferrite) that brought
about the carbon enrichment process.
2. The morphology, size and location of the grains
(e.g. at the grain boundary or inside a grain), the
hardening of the surrounding phase, and the
residual stresses resulting from the thermal treat-
ment which affect the micro-stresses and micro-
strains. Especially, for the small austenite grain
size observed in this work (less than 1 µm), strain
gradient effects should play a role, implying sig-
nificant size effect on the local stresses [51].
3. The crystallographic orientation of the austenite
grain.
4. The mesoscopic stress state.
5. The strain state, which has been shown to play a
role in full TRIP steels [9] but which is probably
of less importance in multiphase TRIP-assisted
steels.
Although the relative importance of these para-
meters remains difficult to evaluate, some of them can
be discussed on the basis of the results presented in
Section 4. The two specimens of steels LSi and HSi
differ not only in the amount of retained austenite but
also in other parameters such as the carbon content
of austenite (Point 1). Figure 8(b) has shown that a
larger accumulated plastic strain is needed to trans-
form retained austenite in steel HSi, meaning that the
retained austenite of steel HSi is more stable. This
result is in good agreement with previous studies [4,
5]. Furthermore, specimens of steels LSi and HSi also
differ by their Si content and by the nature and vol-
ume fractions of the other phases (Table 2). These
parameters also influence the transformation rate of
retained austenite as they affect the partitioning of
stress and strain between the phases: solid-solution
strengthening of the ferrite matrix by silicon or
“shielding” of austenite from the external load in steel
HSi as a result of load transfer to high strength bain-
ite [7].
Figure 8(b) also shows a strong dependence of the
rate of martensitic transformation on stress triaxiality
(Point 4): in both steels, the transformation rate
increases with increasing triaxiality. Previous studies
on different steel grades showed the same effect of
stress triaxiality in the case of fully austenitic steels
[17, 52, 53] or of austenite dispersed in a martensitic
matrix [31, 32]. This strong stress triaxiality effect
illustrated in Fig. 8(b) originates from the volume
expansion accompanying martensitic transformation,
which results in the mean stress being the main driv-
ing force for the transformation [50, 54]. Even though
shear deformation is the main deformation associated
with martensitic transformation, a volume expansion
149
also occurs which depends on the carbon content [55].
Steels LSi and HSi seem to show the same depen-
dence on stress triaxiality. The difference of carbon
content of retained austenite in both steels seems too
small to expect a significant difference of volume
expansion accompanying martensitic transformation
[55].
Figure 8(b) shows that stress triaxiality affects
more predominantly the transformation of the last
50% of retained austenite. In the case of uniaxial ten-
sion, the strain-induced martensitic transformation
becomes progressively exhausted and some retained
austenite was found in both steels strained up to true
uniform strain. Metallographic observation revealed
that this part of austenite that transforms the last cor-
responds to the film type austenite lying along bainitic
ferrite plates (Fig. 1). It was already reported that the
higher stability of this type of austenite should be
ascribed to a higher carbon content, a size stabilising
effect and a constraint effect due to the presence of
adjacent, finely grained bainitic ferrite [56] (Points 1
and 2).
The scatter observed in Fig. 8(a) at a given mesos-
copic plastic strain results from fluctuations of the
effective plastic strain and stress triaxiality at the
grain level (Point 2) around the “mesoscopic” values
given by the FE simulation (part of the scatter may
also result from experimental errors). In other words,
we should, in principle, not observe any scatter on
Fig. 8(a) if the microstructure was perfectly homo-
geneous. The scatter on Fig. 8(a) also shows that the
size of the zone of observation (typically 20⫻30 µm2)
is smaller than the size of the volume element that
would be representative for computing the continuum
properties of the material.
In the investigated steel grades, the mechanically-
induced martensitic transformation improves strength
and ductility by both a composite strengthening effect
resulting from the progressive increase of the amount
of hard martensite, and a dislocation strengthening of
the ferrite matrix as a consequence of the transform-
ation strain accompanying martensitic transformation.
For a given effective strain, the hydrostatic stress will
be larger in the notched specimens than in the uniax-
ial specimens because of the larger amount of trans-
formed austenite. Consequently, the use of the J2
model based on the uniaxial mean flow properties of
the material only gives an approximate value of the
stresses when the stress triaxiality departs from 1/3.
Nonetheless, we believe that the procedure of com-
paring experimental maps with FE simulations for
generating Fig. 8 from the maps of Fig. 7 is fairly
accurate because the only quantities used in the analy-
sis are the effective plastic strain and the stress triax-
iality. For the notched specimens, the comparison of
the transformation maps with the plastic strains field
is always made at the same average strain in the liga-
ment (and not, for example, by comparing the experi-
mental and computed remote load or displacement).
In other words, the average strains in the ligament
150 JACQUES et al.: MULTIPHASE STEELS
predicted by the numerical simulations are always
correct. Consequently, the main error affecting the
results presented in Fig. 8 originates from the effect,
on the computed strain distributions, of the error on
the strain-hardening law (which neglects the influence
of triaxiality). This error is probably smaller than the
experimental error. The same argument holds for the
modelling of the cracked specimens where the com-
parison of the experimental maps and the computed
stress fields was made at the same crack tip opening
displacement. Concerning the stress triaxiality, the
computed values are believed to be sufficiently accur-
ate because this parameter does not depend much on
the flow properties during plastic yielding. Moreover,
the emphasis in Fig. 8 is more on the relative values
of stress triaxialities than on their absolute values.
5.2. The coupling between transformation and dam-
age
This study shows that, in TRIP-aided steels, mar-
tensitic transformation is responsible for the creation
of the damage sites. This behaviour is very different
from the behaviour of steels for which the volume
expansion associated with the transformation hinders
damage by postponing the nucleation of voids [19,
37]. However, the onset of the martensitic transform-
ation is not a sufficient condition for damage
initiation. As shown in Fig. 7, steel LSi, which shows
a faster martensitic transformation, does not suffer
more pronounced damage than steel HSi. On the con-
trary, the onset of damage is earlier in steel HSi. The
first reason is the high carbon content of the austenite
which, as a corollary, transforms into a high strength
martensite [56, 57]. The ensuing larger strain incom-
patibilities between ferrite and martensite induce
more rapid debonding, as observed in steel HSi.
Higher carbon contents also render martensite more
brittle and martensite cracking therefore becomes eas-
ier. Furthermore, Fig. 7(a), (b), (c) and (d) show that,
for steel HSi, the number of damage sites consisting
of martensite grains cracking steeply increases in the
zone at the tip of the notch where more than 75% of
retained austenite has transformed. Steel HSi initially
contains 45% of non-intercritical ferrite phases, i.e.
bainite and retained austenite. As shown in Fig. 1(a),
these phases constitute a nearly continuous network
along the ferrite grain boundaries. Martensitic trans-
formation of more than 75% of the initial retained
austenite content therefore causes the percolation,
into the ferrite matrix, of an almost continuous brittle
network consisting of high strength bainite and mar-
tensite. This network allows brittle crack propagation
inside the material without crossing of the ductile
phase. This means that, for the levels of mechanical
stability of austenite involved in TRIP-aided steels,
damage is governed not only by the transformation
rate but also by the amount of martensite.
5.3. Effects of transformation and damage on the
cracking resistance
Great care has been taken in order to avoid any
phase transformation prior to the start of mechanical
testing, particularly during fatigue pre-cracking of the
DENT specimens. If the fracture process zone (FPZ)
size is similar to the finite strain zone length, which
may be estimated as equal to at least twice the critical
crack tip opening displacement dc [58], the FPZ size
is then at least three times larger than the zone in
which martensitic transformation was observed to
have occurred during pre-cracking. Consequently, the
fracture toughness values at cracking initiation can be
considered representative of the material with
retained austenite. They account for the influence of
the TRIP effect on cracking resistance.
In thin plate fracture, most of the fracture energy
is spent in localised necking in front of the crack. For
the same fracture mechanisms (or more precisely, for
materials presenting similar stress dependent fracture
strains), the material presenting the largest strength
and strain-hardening is expected to exhibit the largest
fracture toughness. If the size of the fracture process
zone (FPZ) corresponds to two to four times the
CTOD [59], it can be concluded from our FE simula-
tions and experimental results that, for both steels, the
FPZ is rapidly embedded inside a zone where mar-
tensitic transformation is complete. Consequently, the
FPZ in steel HSi rapidly consists of a continuous net-
work of brittle phases. Thus, even though steel HSi
has a higher strain-hardening capacity, cracking
initiates more rapidly than in steel LSi. In other
words, in steel HSi, the TRIP effect has a deleterious
effect on fracture toughness for two reasons: (i) the
higher stability of the austenite involves a high carbon
content and thus a lower resistance to microcracking
of martensite, (ii) a significant TRIP effect requires a
large amount of retained austenite which thus
involves the creation of a continuous network of
brittle phases. When TRIP-aided steels are to be used
in structural applications where fracture under mono-
tonic loading is of concern, one must at least avoid
the formation of a brittle network of second phases.
In thin plates, a rising crack resistance curve results
from both the increase of crack tip necking [60] and
from “plastic effects” such as the effect of the residual
strains in the crack wake and the non-proportional
loadings in the active plastic zone. No information
has been obtained about the coupling between the
intrinsic and extrinsic effects on the JR-curves, but it
is not unexpected that steel HSi might show a larger
crack propagation resistance due to its larger strain-
hardening capacity. This conclusion is important
because the resistance to crack propagation is perhaps
more significant for structural design than the resist-
ance to cracking initiation.
 JACQUES et al.: MULTIPHASE STEELS
6. CONCLUSION
This study characterised the damage and fracture
resistance of two TRIP-assisted multiphase steels dif-
fering in the content and stability of retained austenite
and by the proportion of the other phases. Owing to
the heterogeneity of the local microstructure, the
mechanical activation of martensitic transformation
of retained austenite in TRIP-assisted multiphase
steels proceeds continuously with plastic deformation.
The strong influence of stress triaxiality on the trans-
formation rate was quantified using uniaxial speci-
mens, notch specimens and DENT specimens.
It was also shown that, for the levels of austenite
stability common in TRIP-aided steels, cracking
initiates in a fracture process zone containing only
martensite and no more retained austenite. The effect
of martensitic transformation on damaging is related
to the volume fraction of martensite and to the mech-
anical properties of martensite, which are strongly
dependent on carbon content. As a consequence,
although steel HSi features improved plastic proper-
ties owing to a large amount of stable, high carbon
retained austenite, this steel exhibits a lower fracture
toughness than steel LSi because of the presence, in
the fracture process zone, of a nearly continuous net-
work of high strength bainite and brittle martensite.
Premature cracking of martensite grains brings about
faster cracking initiation. Whereas the literature deal-
ing with TRIP-assisted multiphase steels recommends
high amounts of retained austenite in order to enhance
the strength–ductility balance, this study shows that
enhancement of the balance between resistance to
plastic instability and resistance to cracking requires
a limitation of the amount of retained austenite in
order to avoid premature damaging due to a “brittle
network” effect.
Acknowledgements—The authors are indebted to R&D Cocker-
ill-Sambre for continuous support. P. Jacques acknowledges the
financial support of the Walloon Region (FIRST program no.
3129). The work of T. Pardoen was supported by the Fonds
National de la Recherche Scientifique (Belgium) and by fellow-
ships of the Belgian American Educational Foundation, Inc.,
and of the Université Catholique de Louvain for a post-doctoral
period at Harvard University. This work was also partly sup-
ported by the Belgian State, Prime Minister’s Office, Federal
Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs, under con-
tract P4/33 Inter-University Poles of Attraction Programme.
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