Materials Science & Engineering A 575 (2013) 127–135

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Materials Science & Engineering A

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/msea

Ratcheting strain in interstitial free steel

Krishna Dutta a,n, K.K. Ray b
a
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela 769008, India
b
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This investigation illustrates ratcheting phenomenon, in-situ substructural variations during ratcheting
Received 24 December 2012 and post-ratcheting tensile properties of interstitial free steel at ambient temperature (≈300 K). The
Received in revised form results highlight that the nature of strain accumulation is dependent on the magnitude of the employed
22 February 2013
combinations of mean stress (sm) and stress amplitude (sa); this phenomenon has been explained
Accepted 25 February 2013
considering the asymmetry of loading cycles and substructural variations as delineated by TEM. Tensile
Available online 6 March 2013
strength increases while ductility decreases for ratcheted samples with increasing sm and/or sa and these
Keywords: variations in tensile properties are correlated with the induced cyclic hardening.
Ratcheting & 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Interstitial free steel
Substructure
Tensile strength

1. Introduction deformation behaviour of the steel after ratcheting are important

Engineering components are often subjected to symmetric
or asymmetric type of fatigue loading in their service. Fatigue
damage is particularly detrimental when there is asymmetric
cyclic loading associated with positive mean stress. From the
perspective of deformation behaviour, application of positive
mean stress in stress-controlled fatigue tests gives rise to ratchet-
ing which results in accumulation of plastic strain during low cycle
fatigue. Strain accumulation by ratcheting limits the predictive
capability of well-known Coffin Mansion relation [1] and it is
known that accumulation of ratcheting strain usually degrades
fatigue life of structural components [2,3]; the extent of degrada-
tion depends on the imposed stress parameters and the nature of
the material. Investigations related to experimental and simula-
tion studies in this direction have therefore got considerable
attention of several research groups over the past few years
[4–21]. The existing reports are more focussed to achieve under-
standing related to uniaxial and multiaxial ratcheting behaviour of
metallic as well as polymeric materials [9,22–24] primarily from
the viewpoint of mechanistic approach. However, emphasis
towards understanding ratcheting behaviour of metallic materials
and specifically for low carbon steels like interstitial free (IF) steel
with attendant variations in its substructure is insufficient.
Interstitial free steels are currently being extensively used
for manufacturing car bodies and different parts of the car,
where effect of asymmetric cyclic loading and the consequent
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 661 2462568; fax: þ 91 661 2462015.
E-mail addresses: krisiitk@gmail.com, duttak@nitrkl.ac.in (K. Dutta).
issues. As plastic strain gets accumulated during ratcheting, it is
expected to cause variations in the post-ratcheting properties of a
material as a natural consequence. But, this expected phenomenon
has not been carefully examined so far especially for IF steel. Thus
it is necessary to understand ratcheting and post-ratcheting
tensile behaviour of IF steel, which are the primary aims of this
report.
In this investigation, uniaxial ratcheting behaviour of an IF steel
has been examined for different combinations of mean stress sm)
and stress amplitude (sa) at room temperature of ≈300 K. Exam-
inations have been carried out to understand tensile behaviour of
ratcheted samples. An attempt has also been made to correlate
variations in tensile strength of ratcheted samples with their cyclic
hardening phenomenon induced during ratcheting deformation.
Further a few ratcheted specimens have been studied using
transmission electron microscopy to examine the variations in
the substructures due to ratcheting deformation.
2. Experimental procedure
2.1. Material, microstructure and conventional mechanical
properties
The selected interstitial free steel was obtained as courtesy of
Tata Steel, Jamshedpur, India and it was available in the form of
31 mm thick plate. Chemical composition of the selected steel is:
C—0.003, Mn—0.13, Ti—0.052, P—0.012, Ni—0.01, Si—0.009,
S—0.009, Nb—0.001, Mo—0.001, V—0.001 and balance Fe (all in
wt%). The as-received steel plates were subjected to stress relief

0921-5093/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2013.02.052
128 K. Dutta, K.K. Ray / Materials Science & Engineering A 575 (2013) 127–135
annealing by soaking these at 673 K for 1 h followed by furnace
cooling. Specimens with approximate height of 10 mm with cross
section of 12 mm  12 mm were cut from the annealed materials
for microstructural characterizations and determination of hard-
ness. Microstructural examinations were carried out with the help
of an optical microscope (Leica, model: DMILP, Bannockburn, IL
60015, USA) connected to an image analyzer (Software: Biovis
Material Plus, Version: 1.50, Expert Vision Labs Private Limited,
Mumbai, India). Hardness measurements were done with the help
of a Vickers hardness tester (Leco, model: LV 700, Michigan, USA)
using an indentation load of 10 kgf. Tensile tests were carried out
on cylindrical specimens of 5 mm diameter and 25 mm gauge
length at a cross-head speed of 1 mm/min. The employed cross-
head speed corresponds to nominal strain rate of 3.3  10−3 s−1 at
the room temperature of ≈300 K.
2.2. Procedure of uniaxial ratcheting test
The specimens for ratcheting tests were of configuration
similar to cylindrical tensile blanks with 6 mm diameter and
12.5 mm gauge length. Uniaxial ratcheting experiments were
carried out at room temperature using a servo-hydraulic universal
testing machine (Instron, model: 8800R, High Wycombe, Buck-
inghamshire, UK). Cyclic loading was carried out using a triangular
waveform in stress-control mode, as schematically shown in Fig. 1.
The loading rate for all ratcheting tests was 50 MPa/s. Based on the
employed test controls, these tests could be classified into two
categories as: (i) constant sa with varying sm, and (ii) constant sm
with varying sa. The different combinations of the employed sa
and sm values for these tests are listed in Table 1. The strain
measurements during cyclic deformation were made using an
axial extensometer having 12.5 mm gauge length. The data per-
taining to stress-extension as well as actuator displacement were
continuously recorded during each test; attempts were made to
acquire at least 200 data points per cycle for further analyses.
After completion of 100 loading cycles of ratcheting deforma-
tion, a set of specimens were subjected to tensile tests under
identical manner as described in the previous section. Fracto-
graphic studies of the broken samples were carried out by using
scanning electron microscope (Zeiss, model: Evo 60, Germany).
2.3. Transmission electron microscopy
To understand the substructural variations associated with
ratcheting deformation, transmission electron microscopic (TEM)
studies were carried out on a set of ratcheted specimens. For this
Stress
σa
σm
Time
Fig. 1. Schematic loading path for ratcheting test.
Table 1
Selected sm and sa values for ratcheting tests of IF steel.
Serial no. sm (MPa)
1 10
2 20
3 30
study, thin slices of about 0.5 mm thickness were cut from the
gauge portions of the ratcheted specimens using a slow speed
precision cutter (Buehler, Lake Bluff, Illinois, USA). The slices were
next thinned sequentially by manual polishing on emery paper
followed by dimpling and ion milling prior to TEM studies. TEM
studies were carried out using a 200 keV transmission electron
microscope (JEOL, model: JEM 2100, Tokyo, Japan).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Microstructure, hardness and tensile properties of the material
The microstructure of the investigated IF steel is depicted in
Fig. 2. It exhibits equiaxed ferrite grains; the grain size is estimated
as 64.4 7 1.3 μm. The selected steel contains inclusions of low
volume fraction of the order of 0.06 70.02%. Vickers hardness
(HV10) of the steel is found to be 71 71.8. The estimated standard
deviation in hardness is o3%, which supports the contention that
the steel is relatively clean and is single phase in nature, as
discussed by Ray and Mondal [25]. Typical engineering stress–
strain plot for the investigated steel is illustrated in Fig. 3, which
exhibits continuous yielding behaviour; the yield strength value
thus has been determined using 0.2% strain offset procedure as
suggested in ASTM standard E-8M [26]. The average tensile
properties of the steel can be summarized as – yield strength:
90.77 2.5 MPa, tensile strength: 2407 2 MPa, %uniform elonga-
tion: 36.4 70.8, %total elongation: 51.470.5 and strain hardening
exponent (n): 0.407 0.01. The obtained values of the tensile
parameters are in good agreement with some reported results
on IF steels of similar chemical compositions [27,28].
3.2. Uniaxial ratcheting: shifting of hysteresis loops
Accumulation of ratcheting strain is known to occur during
asymmetric cyclic loading with non-zero mean stress [23,29–31].
Based on the imposed level of mean stress, the nature of stress-
strain hysteresis loops vary. Typical cyclic stress-strain hysteresis
loops generated from ratcheting experiments on the investigated
IF steel samples under positive mean stress levels of 10, 20 and
30 MPa, with constant stress amplitude of 140 MPa are presented
in Fig. 4(a–c). All these experiments were carried out till 100
cycles. The results indicate that the hysteresis loops shift more
towards positive plastic strain for increasing mean stress. For the
mean stress levels of 10 MPa, 20 MPa and 30 MPa, the magnitudes
sa (MPa)
130, 140, 150
200μm
130, 140, 150
130, 140, 150
Fig. 2. Microstructure of the investigated interstitial free steel.
 K. Dutta, K.K. Ray / Materials Science & Engineering A 575 (2013) 127–135 129

250

200
Engineering stress, MPa

150

100

50

0
0 10 20 30 40 50
Engineering strain, %
Fig. 3. Engineering stress–strain plot of the selected steel.

of plastic strain are 3.6%, 5.3% and 6.1%, respectively. Similar

experiments were done under different mean stress levels but
using alternate stress amplitudes of 130 MPa and 150 MPa, which
also yielded similar results. It is thus evident that increase in mean
stress at any constant stress amplitude increases the accumulation
of plastic strain in the material. The increase in the magnitude of
plastic strain with mean stress is discussed in the next section.

3.3. Accumulation of ratcheting strain: effect of mean stress and

stress amplitude

Variations of strain accumulation with number of cycles for

varying sm and at constant sa values of 130, 140 and 150 MPa for
the investigated IF steel are shown in Fig. 5(a–c). The results in
these figures indicate that accumulation of ratcheting strain
increases with increasing number of cycles for any combination
of sm and sa. In addition to that, for any constant sa and at any
specific number of cycles, the magnitude of accumulated ratchet-
ing strain increases with increasing sm. The variations in accumu-
lated ratcheting strain up to 100 cycles (εr100) of loading for all the
combinations of sm–sa are plotted in Fig. 5(d); the results in this
figure illustrate that εr100 increases with increasing sa as well as
with increasing level of sm. When sm is altered between 10 and
30 MPa, the magnitudes of εr100 increase from 0.42 to 5.94 % at
sa ¼130 MPa, from 3.72 to 6.19 % at sa ¼140 MPa and from 5.63 to
7.52 % at sa ¼ 150 MPa. The observed nature of increase in εr100
with sm is in good agreement with the trend of results reported by
Gupta et al. [32] for SA333 Gr. 6 piping steel and that by Kang et al.
[7] for SS304 stainless steel. A comparison of the magnitudes of
εr100 for different materials indicates that it is about 3.5% for AISI
304LN stainless steel [30], 1.2% for 304 stainless steel [7] and
0.1% for copper alloy [33] over similar cyclic loading parameters; Fig. 4. Typical hysteresis loops generated from uniaxial ratcheting tests for varying
in-depth comparison of these results is difficult due to varied mean stress levels of 10, 20 and 30 MPa at constant stress amplitude of 140 MPa.
combinations of loading parameters that have been employed in
different investigations. sm for any specific cycle, as expected. Any increase in smax would
In order to understand ratcheting behaviour of the selected induce higher extent of plastic deformation to the material, and as
IF steel at any particular cycle for the different employed test a consequence, strain accumulation is naturally expected to
parameters, hysteresis loops generated during each cycle of the increase with increasing sm. This phenomenon can be correlated
uniaxial ratcheting tests were recorded and analyzed subse- to the dislocation substructure of the material that forms during
quently. Typical nature of the hysteresis loops at constant stress cyclic loading. As the nature of cyclic loading is asymmetric (with
amplitude of 140 MPa for mean stress levels of 10, 20 and 30 MPa positive mean stress), the number of dislocations generated during
is depicted in Fig. 6 for the tenth cycle. The results in Fig. 6 indicate the loading cycles is reported to be higher than that generated
that for a given stress amplitude, smax increases with increase in during the unloading cycles [30]. But, only a part of the generated
130 K. Dutta, K.K. Ray / Materials Science & Engineering A 575 (2013) 127–135

6
6

4
4

σm = 10MPa, σa = 130 MPa

2 σm = 20MPa, σa = 130 MPa 2
σm = 10MPa, σa = 140 MPa
σm = 30MPa, σa = 130 MPa σm = 20MPa, σa = 140 MPa
σm = 30MPa, σa = 140 MPa
0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
Number of cycles
8 8

6 6

4 4

σm = 10MPa, σa = 150 MPa

σa = 130 MPa
2 2
σm = 20MPa, σa = 150 MPa σa = 140 MPa
σm = 30MPa, σa = 150 MPa σa = 150 MPa
0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 10 20 30

Fig. 5. Variation of ratcheting strain with number of cycles for varying levels of mean stresses and at constant stress amplitude values: (a) 130 MPa, (b) 140 MPa, (c) 150 MPa
and (d) total accumulation of ratcheting strain up to 100 cycles of loading.

200 in Fig. 7(a and b), respectively. Examination of these figures

170 MPa indicates that dislocation density increases with increase in stress
150 MPa
160 MPa amplitude for constant sm in agreement with the earlier report
[30]. Hence, it is inferred that with increasing sa for a particular
100 sm, strain accumulation would increase because of the increase in
the remnant dislocation density.
Stress, MPa

To understand the influence of the variation of stress amplitude

at constant sm levels on the nature of strain accumulation
0
with number of cycles for the investigated IF steel, the obtained
results were reanalyzed and presented in Fig. 8. The results in
Fig. 8(a) show that nature of strain accumulation with increasing
-100 -110 MPa number of cycles at constant sm for varied sa is similar to that
-120 MPa
-130 MPa for constant sa and varying sm conditions; strain accumulation
increases with increasing number of cycles for any combination of
σ m = 10 MPa, σ m = 20 MPa, σ m = 30 MPa sa and sm. Variations of εr100 for all the investigated combinations
-200 of sa and sm are depicted in Fig. 8(b). The results lead to infer that
1.2 1.6 2.0 2.4 2.8 3.2 3.6 εr100 increases with increasing sa for any specific sm.
Strain, %
3.4. Saturation of ratcheting strain
Fig. 6. Typical stress–strain hysteresis loops (N ¼ 10) showing variations in their
relative positions.
Ratcheting deformation is known to take place at different
rates in different intervals of time [7]. Analogous to strain rate-
dislocations gets annihilated during load reversal; as a conse- time curves of creep deformation, the rate of accumulation of
quence, considerable number of the generated dislocations ratcheting strain is very sharp in initial few cycles of asymmetrical
remains as residuals in the substructure of the material. It is cyclic loading, which eventually becomes saturated attaining a
well known that higher is the remnant dislocation density in a steady state in strain accumulation. The phenomenon is com-
material, higher is the accumulation of plastic strain and vice monly termed as stable ratcheting or can be termed as plastic
versa. Hence, it can be inferred that with increasing sm for a shake down when rate of accumulation of ratcheting strain tends
particular sa, total strain accumulation will increase because of the to zero [34,35]. Typical variations in the rate of accumulation of
increase in the remnant dislocation density. Typical bright field ratcheting strain (dεr/dN) with number of cycles for the investi-
TEM images for cyclic loading conditions of ‘sm ¼ 30 MPa and gated IF steel are presented in Fig. 9. The results in Fig. 9 indicate
sa ¼140 MPa’ and ‘sm ¼ 30 MPa and sa ¼150 MPa’ are illustrated that dεr/dN decreases sharply during the initial few cycles and
 K. Dutta, K.K. Ray / Materials Science & Engineering A 575 (2013) 127–135 131

Fig. 7. Typical variation in dislocation density for the cyclic loading conditions of sm ¼ 30 MPa with (a) sa ¼ 140 MPa and (b) sa ¼ 150 MPa.

Total ratcheting strain, εr100, %

6 σ 8
m = 10MPa, σa = 130 MPa
σ
m = 10MPa, σa = 140 MPa 7 150
Ratcheting strain, %

5
σ 150
m = 10MPa, σa = 150 MPa 6
4 140
130
5 150 140
3
4 130
2 140
3
1
2
0 1 130
-1 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 10 20 30
Number of cycles Mean stress, MPa
Fig. 8. (a) Variation of ratcheting strain with number of cycles for varying stress amplitudes and at a constant mean stress value of 10 MPa and (b) bar chart showing total
accumulation of ratcheting strain up to 100 cycles of loading (values with the bars correspond to stress amplitudes in MPa).

sa. The observed nature of attainment of steady state in strain

0.8 σm = 10MPa, σa = 130 MPa accumulation is similar to that observed in existing literature for
cyclic stabilizing materials such as annealed 42CrMo steel [36] and
0.7 σm = 10MPa, σa = 140 MPa carbon steel [37]. Based on these observations, the experiments on
the investigated IF steel have been carried out only up to 100
0.6 σm = 10MPa, σa = 150 MPa
cycles.
0.5 The attainment of steady state in dεr/dN can be explained by
the formation and distribution of dislocations associated with
dεr /dN

0.4 cyclic deformation. When a material is subjected to cyclic defor-

0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
0 20 40
Number of cycles
Fig. 9. Variation in the rate of accumulation of ratcheting strain with increasing
number of cycles for the investigated steel.
attains a saturation plateau after about 70 cycles for all combina-
tions of sm and sa. In brief, it can be inferred that rapid
accumulation of ratcheting strain in the initial few cycles followed
by attainment of a steady state value in dεr/dN are the character-
istic features of the asymmetric cyclic deformation behaviour of IF
steel. Similar phenomenon has been observed for all the ratcheting
experiments irrespective of the employed combinations of sm and
mation, dislocations get generated resulting strain hardening.
These dislocations initially form tangles and subsequently lead to
the formation of dislocation cells with increasing number of cycles
[29]. After certain number of cycling, depending on the magnitude
of the accumulated cyclic strain, the newly generated dislocations
assume a relatively stable configuration which leads to initiation of
the steady state in rate of strain accumulation.
60 80 100
3.5. Substructural variation in interstitial free steel
Variations in the substructures of ratcheted samples of metallic
materials are commonly manifested by dynamic changes in dis-
location density through generation, annihilation and interactions
of dislocations, dislocation distributions, formation of dislocation
tangles, subcells etc. In order to understand the substructure of the
ratcheted specimens, representative bright field TEM images were
captured from the transverse sections of the ratcheted specimens
of the investigated IF steel and are illustrated in Fig. 10. Fig. 10(a–c)
shows the images of the specimens which were subjected to
ratcheting deformation with sm ¼30 MPa and sa ¼ 140 MPa, whereas
132 K. Dutta, K.K. Ray / Materials Science & Engineering A 575 (2013) 127–135
Discrete
dislocation tangles
Planar slips
Subcell
Subcell
Fig. 10. Typical variation in dislocation substructure showing (a) planar slips, (b) persistent slip band (PSB), (c) and (d) dislocation cells.
Fig. 10(d) is that for a specimen tested with sm ¼30 MPa and
sa ¼150 MPa. In general, these figures exhibit planar slips with
discrete tangles of dislocations (Fig. 10a), persistent slip bands
(Fig. 10b) as well as dislocation subcells (Fig. 10c and d). An
overview of all these figures indicate that persistent slip bands
and planar slips are predominant in specimens subjected to
ratcheting at low stress amplitude, whereas formation of disloca-
tion cells appears to be the characteristics of specimens subjected
to high stress amplitude. Mao et al. [38] have reported that IF steel
shows formation of dislocation cells when it is subjected to low
cycle fatigue under various strain amplitudes. These authors have
extended evidences of distinct substructure formation in IF steel
loaded for 1000 to 10,000 cycles. It is interesting to note from the
current TEM results that dislocation cells tend to form even within
the investigated 100 cycles during ratcheting deformation. Gaudin
and Feaugas [29] have provided evidences for subcell formation
during ratcheting of 316L stainless steel. Kang et al. [39] have
examined evolution of dislocation features in 316L stainless steel
and have reported different stages of dislocation substructure
formation. Dislocation pattern changes from dislocation tangles
to incomplete dislocation cells to stable dislocation cells. Cell
formation was also reported for 304LN stainless steel in an earlier
report by the present authors [30], but those were diffused
dislocation subcells. In contrast, distinct dislocation subcells are
observed in the substructure of the investigated IF steel as a result
of ratcheting deformation. It is well-known that materials having
bcc crystal structures produce wavy slip lines upon deformation.
Similar features were recorded in this investigation too as depicted
in Fig. 10(b). In addition, Kang et al. [37] have reported evolution
of dislocation substructure in a bcc low carbon steel at various
PSB
PSB
Wavy slip line
PSB
Subcell
extents of cyclic loading during ratcheting deformation. After 300
cycles of ratcheting deformation, dislocation veins form in asso-
ciation with some incipient sub-grains inside some dislocation
cells; but with increase in ratcheting deformation (after 1200
cycles), number of sub-grains increased. In comparison to their
work, IF steel is found to exhibit formation of dislocation cells only
after 100 cycles, with no sub-grain formation inside the cells.
The differences may be attributed to the differences in material
characteristics as well as the effect of constraint due to presence of
multiple phases in low carbon steel as compared to that in the
single phase IF steel.
In generalization, it may be inferred that features associated
with substructure evolution in IF steels incorporate formation of
dislocation tangles and their subsequent conversion to sub-cells
in ratcheting deformation at higher imposed stress amplitudes
whereas at lower stress levels substructures depict only persistent
slip bands with planar slips.
3.6. Post-ratcheting tensile behaviour
It is established in the preceding sections that uniaxial ratchet-
ing deformation induces considerable amount of plastic damage in
materials. Naturally it is necessary to understand the associated
effect of this plastic damage on the resultant tensile properties of
ratcheted specimens. In order to fulfil this motivation, tensile tests
were carried out on a series of specimens after 100 cycles of
asymmetric fatigue cycling, subjected to both “constant stress
amplitude varying mean stress” and “constant mean stress varying
stress amplitude” conditions; the estimated tensile strength values
are summarized in Fig. 11. The results in Fig. 11 indicate that the
 K. Dutta, K.K. Ray / Materials Science & Engineering A 575 (2013) 127–135 133

280 280

240 240

Strength, MPa

Strength, MPa
200 200

160 160
YS
YS
UTS
120 120 UTS
Stress amplitude: 140 MPa Mean stress: 30 MPa
80 80
Un-ratcheted 10 20 30 Un-ratcheted 130 140 150
Mean stress, MPa Stress amplitude, MPa

Fig. 11. Comparison of yield strength and tensile strength values of unratcheted and ratcheted specimens for the investigated IF steel: (a) at constant stress amplitude and
varying mean stresses and (b) at constant mean stress and varying stress amplitudes.

2.6 strength (UTS) is marginal, and the obtained results can be

referred to as almost of identical magnitude within the range of
experimental scatter. One may note from the results in Fig.11 that
log (σ) = 2.65+0.19log ( ε) the magnitudes of YS and UTS are considerably higher compared
2.5
to the unratcheted state, but variations in these strength values are
however marginal among the different ratcheted states.
log(True stress)

The strain hardening behaviour of the steel under ratcheted and

2.4 un-ratcheted condition is illustrated in Fig. 12 in which the experi-
mental data is fitted using the Hollomon equation. The strain
hardening exponent n, which was estimated from the slope of the
2.3 log(σ) = 2.73+0.40 log ( ε) true stress-true strain plot, for the un-ratcheted steel (n¼0.40) is
considerably higher compared to that for the ratcheted steel
(n¼0.19). Interestingly, specimens subjected to ratcheting deforma-
2.2 Ratcheted tion appear to exhibit almost identical values of n (0.18≤n≤0.20). This
fact indicates that increase in strength of the ratcheted steel is
Un-atcheted
primarily governed by increased strain hardening. The increase in YS
linear fit and UTS can be correlated with cyclic hardening phenomenon.
2.1 Typical sets of hysteresis loops at varying number of cycles generated
-1.5 -1.0 -0.5 from one of the ratcheting experiments are illustrated in Fig. 13. It
log(True strain) can be observed from this figure that the width of hysteresis loops
Fig. 12. Comparison of the Hollomon plots of the investigated IF steel under
decreases continuously, which is indicative of cyclic hardening under
ratcheted and unratcheted conditions. stress controlled cyclic loading. Increase in the magnitude of strength
of the ratcheted specimens can be considered to occur as a
consequence of cyclic hardening of the investigated IF steel.
200 N=2 N=6 N = 24 N = 48 N = 80 N = 100
The magnitude of %uniform elongation (%eu) of the ratcheted
150 specimens, on the other hand, decreases as compared to %eu of
unratcheted samples; about 39% decrease in %eu was observed
100 (Fig. 14a and b). To the contrary, alteration in %total elongation
(%et) values for specimens subjected to varied ratcheted states are
Stress, MPa

50 within ≤5%. These observations lead to infer that there is considerable

increase in elongation beyond necking of the specimens during
0 tensile tests. This fact can be attributed to the nature of the dislocation
sub-structure formed in the material. In some earlier reports on
-50 ratcheting behaviour of stainless steel, Gaudin and Feaugas [29] as
well as the present investigators [30] have demonstrated that
-100 dislocation subcells form during ratcheting deformation. These sub-
cells assist to initiate larger number of microvoids, but only a part of
-150 these microvoids can grow substantially providing larger elongation
after necking; this is evident from the typical fractograph of ratcheted
1 .5 2 .0 2 .5 3 .0 3 .5 4 .0 4 .5 5 .0 5 .5
IF steel specimens (Fig. 15). The volume fraction of the microvoids
Strain, %
which exhibits higher growth contributes to the %et of the specimens
Fig. 13. Variations in the width of hysteresis loops showing cyclic hardening (Fig. 14a and b) in a significant manner. To examine the nature of the
phenomenon for the investigated IF steel. void formation near and below the fracture surface, a few broken
tensile specimens were cut perpendicular to the fracture surface and
magnitudes of yield strength (YS) of the ratcheted samples were examined using SEM. A typical photograph depicting both void
subjected to both “constant sa varying sm” and “constant sm initiation and void coalescence is shown in Fig. 16. The voids are
varying sa” conditions are considerably higher in comparison found to originate either at interfaces or at inclusions. It can be
to the YS of unratcheted samples. The increment in YS due to observed from Fig. 16 that microvoids have initiated from inclusions,
increase in sa or sm may be as high as 110% for the investigated IF which have joined subsequently. Several voids are also found to
steel. However, the corresponding variation in ultimate tensile originate from the grain boundaries.
134 K. Dutta, K.K. Ray / Materials Science & Engineering A 575 (2013) 127–135

60 60

50 50

%Elongation

%Elongation
40
40 % uniformation elongation
% total elongation
% uniformation elongation
% total elongation 30 Mean stress: 30 MPa
30
Stress amplitude: 140 MPa
20
20
Un-ratcheted 10 20 30 Un-ratcheted 130 140 150

Mean stress, MPa Stress amplitude, MPa

Fig. 14. Comparison of %uniform and %total elongation values of unratcheted and ratcheted specimens for the investigated IF steel: (a) at constant stress amplitude and
varying mean stresses and (b) at constant mean stress and varying stress amplitudes.

in this investigation. Based on the results obtained from the current set
of experiments, the following conclusions can be drawn:

 Accumulation of ratcheting strain for interstitial free steel is

 Both yield and tensile strength of the ratcheted samples are
Fig. 15. Typical fractograph of the investigated steel: Ratcheted for a loading condition
of sm ¼ 10 MPa and sa ¼140 MPa. The circled areas indicate larger growth of microvoids.
 The substructures of ratcheted IF steel exhibit persistent slip
found to increase if the magnitude of stress amplitude gets
increased from 130 to 150 MPa at constant mean stress. The
ratcheting strain increases by 0.42–5.63% at sm ¼10 MPa, 4.49–
6.74% for sm ¼20 MPa and 5.94–7.52% for sm ¼30 MPa for
different sa values. Similar orders of increase in strain accumu-
lation are observed with increase in mean stress, for any
constant value of stress amplitude. The increase in strain
accumulation can be correlated with increased cyclic damage
illustrated in terms of shift of the hysteresis loops towards
higher plastic strain amplitudes; this phenomenon is consid-
ered to occur by increase in dislocation density in the samples
due to ratcheting deformation.
higher in comparison to those for unratcheted samples. Yield
strength of IF steel can increase up to almost 110% by ratcheting
deformation whereas the maximum increase in tensile strength
is only about 15%. But interestingly, percentage of total elonga-
tion is found to either increase or marginally decrease for
specimens subjected to ratcheting deformation; this is attrib-
uted to the nature of dislocation subcell formation during
ratcheting, which could result in larger extent of microvoid
growth leading to higher post-necking elongation.
bands, wavy slip lines at lower sa value whereas these show
well developed subcells at higher sa.

References

[1] Z. Xia, D. Kujawski, F. Ellyin, Int. J. Fatigue 18 (1996) 335–341.

Fig. 16. Photograph depicting microvoid coalescence beneath the fracture surface
of the investigated IF steel. The EDS spectrum of the inclusion is shown as an inset.
4. Conclusions
Uniaxial ratcheting behaviour and post-ratcheting tensile proper-
ties of interstitial free steel at room temperature have been explained
[2] U.C. Ozgen, Mater. Des. 29 (2007) 1575–1581.
[3] N. Isobe, M. Sukekawa, Y. Nakayama, S. Date, T. Ohtani, Y. Takahashi,
N. Kasahara, H. Shibamoto, H. Nagashima, K. Inoue, Nucl. Eng. Des. 238
(2008) 347–352.
[4] R.J. Rider, S.J. Harvey, H.D. Chandler, Int. J. Fatigue 17 (7) (1995) 507–511.
[5] F. Yoshida, Int. J. Plast. 16 (2000) 359–380.
[6] X. Feaugas, C. Gaudin, Int. J. Plast. 20 (2004) 643–662.
[7] G.Z. Kang, Y.G. Li, J. Zhang, Y.F. Sun, Q. Gao, Theor. Appl. Fract. Mech. 43 (2005)
199–209.
[8] G.Z. Kang, Int. J. Fatigue 30 (2008) 1448–1472.
[9] W. Liu, Z. Gao, Z. Yue, Mater. Sci. Eng.: A 492 (2008) 102–109.
[10] S.C. Kulkarni, Y.M. Desai, T. Kant, G.R. Reddy, Y. Parulekar, K.K. Vaze, Int. J.
Pressure Vessels Piping 80 (2003) 179–185.
[11] D. Nouailhas, J.L. Chaboche, S. Savalle, G. Cailletaud, Int. J. Plast. 1 (1985)
317–330.
[12] J.L. Chaboche, Int. J. Plast. 7 (1991) 661–678.
[13] C. Holste, W. Kleinert, R. Giirth, K. Mecke, Mater. Sci. Eng.: A 187 (1994)
113–123.
 K. Dutta, K.K. Ray / Materials Science & Engineering A 575 (2013) 127–135
[14] Y. Jiang, H. Sehitoglu, Int. J. Plast. 10 (5) (1994) 579–608.
[15] P. Delobelle, P. Robinet, L. Bocher, Int. J. Plast. 11 (4) (1995) 295–330.
[16] Y. Jiang, P. Kurath, Int. J. Plast. 12 (1996) 387–415.
[17] N. Ohno, M.A. Karim, M. Kobayashi, T. Igari, Int. J. Plast. 14 (1998) 355–372.
[18] S. Bari, T. Hassan, Int. J. Plast. 16 (2000) 381–409.
[19] X. Chen, R. Jiao, Int. J. Plast. 20 (4–5) (2004) 871–898.
[20] X. Chen, R. Jiao, K.S. Kim, Int. J. Plast. 21 (1) (2005) 161–184.
[21] J.L. Chaboche, Int. J. Plast. 24 (2008) 1642–1693.
[22] T. Hassan, S. Kyriakides, Int. J. Plast. 10 (2) (1994) 185–212.
[23] G.Z. Kang, Q.H. Kan, J. Zhang, J. Mater. Sci. Technol. 21 (1) (2005) 5–9.
[24] X. Chen, S. Hui, Polym. Testing 24 (2005) 829–833.
[25] K.K. Ray, D.P. Mondal, Metall. Mater. Trans. A 23 (1992) 3309–3315.
[26] E 8M-03, Standard test method for tension testing of metallic materials
(Metric), ASTM Annual Book of Standards, 03.01, West Conshohocken, PA,
2003.
[27] K. Sekido, T. Ohmura, L. Zhang, T. Hara, K. Tsuzaki, Mater. Sci. Eng.: A 530
(2011) 396–401.
[28] P.W. Liu, J.K. Wu, Mater. Lett. 57 (2003) 1224–1228.
135
[29] C. Gaudin, X. Feaugas, Acta Mater. 52 (2004) 3097–3110.
[30] K. Dutta, S. Sivaprasad, S. Tarafder, K.K. Ray, Mater. Sci. Eng.: A 527 (2010)
7571–7579.
[31] S.K. Paul, S. Sivaprasad, S. Dhar, S. Tarafder, Int. J. Pressure Vessels Piping 87
(2010) 440–446.
[32] C. Gupta, J.K. Chakravartty, G.R. Reddy, S. Banerjee, Int. J. Pressure Vessels
Piping 82 (2005) 459–469.
[33] C.B. Lim, K.S. Kim, J.B. Seong, Int. J. Fatigue 31 (2009) 501–507.
[34] G. Kang, Q. Kan, L. Qian, Y. Liu, Mech. Mater. 41 (2009) 139–153.
[35] X. Yang, Int. J. Fatigue 27 (2005) 1124–1132.
[36] G.Z. Kang, Y.J. Liu, Mater. Sci. Eng.: A 472 (1–2) (2008) 258–268.
[37] G.Z. Kang, Y.W. Dong, Y.J. Liu, H. Wang, X.J. Cheng, Mater. Sci. Eng.: A 528
(2011) 5610–5620.
[38] S.W. Mao, W.C. Lo, H.L. Huang, N.J. Ho, J. Mar. Sci. Technol. 19 (2) (2011)
115–119.
[39] G. Kang, Y. Dong, H. Wang, Y. Liu, X. Cheng, Mater. Sci. Eng.: A 527 (2010)
5952–5961.