Work hardening of mild steel within dynamic strain ageing temperatures

An investigation has been performed on the plastic behaviour of a mild steel within the region of dynamic strain ageing. For this purpose tension tests have been performed on annealed XC18 steel within a range of temperatures, from 305–776 K, and a range of strain rates, from 1.0×10^–4–1.85×10^–1s^–1. An analysis of experimental results is presented using a model for plastic deformation based on dislocation multiplications.     

Effect of strain rate on microstructures and mechanical properties of Fe–18Cr–8Ni steel

The effect of strain rate on deformation microstructures and mechanical properties of Fe–18Cr–8Ni austenitic stainless steel was investigated at strain rates of from 10^?3 to 100?s^?1. The results indicated that the deformation mechanism of steel changes from transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) to TRIP?+?twinning induced plasticity (TWIP) effect when the strain rate is increased from 10^?3 to 100?s^?1. The yield strength of steel increases gradually with strain rate increased, while the tensile strength and elongation first decreases and then increases slowly. The changes in tensile strength and elongation are due to the change of deformation mechanism with the strain rate increased.     

Effect of strain rate on quasistatic tensile flow behaviour of solution annealed 304 austenitic stainless steel at room temperature

Room temperature tensile test results of solution annealed 304 stainless steel at strain rates ranging between 5 × 10⁻⁴ and 1 × 10⁻¹ s⁻¹ reveal that with increase in strain rate yield strength increases and tensile strength decreases, both maintaining power–law relationships with strain rate. The decrease in tensile strength with increasing strain rate is attributed to the lesser amount of deformation-induced martensite formation and greater role of thermal softening over work hardening at higher strain rates. Tensile deformation of the steel is found to occur in three stages. The deformation transition strains are found to depend on strain rate in such a manner that Stage-I deformation (planar slip) is favoured at lower strain rate. A continuously decreasing linear function of strain rate sensitivity with true strain has been observed. Reasonably good estimation for the stress exponent relating dislocation velocity and stress has been made. The linear plot of reciprocal of strain rate sensitivity with true strain suggests that after some critical amount of deformation the increased dislocation density in austenite due to the formation of some critical amount of deformation-induced martensite plays important role in carrying out the imposed strain rate.     

Constitutive equations to predict high temperature flow stress in a Ti-modified austenitic stainless steel

The experimental stress–strain data from isothermal hot compression tests, in a wide range of temperatures (1123–1523 K) and strain rates (10⁻³–10² s⁻¹), were employed to develop constitutive equations in a Ti-modified austenitic stainless steel. The effects of temperature and strain rate on deformation behaviors were represented by Zener-Holloman parameter in an exponent type equation. The influence of strain was incorporated in the constitutive analysis by considering the effect of strain on material constants. The constitutive equation (considering the compensation of strain) could precisely predict the flow stress only at 0.1 and 1 s⁻¹ strain rates. A modified constitutive equation (incorporating both the strain and strain rate compensation), on the other hand, could predict the flow stress throughout the entire temperatures and strain rates range except at 1123 K in 10 and 100 s⁻¹. The breakdown of the constitutive equation at these processing conditions is possibly due to adiabatic temperature rise during high strain rate deformation.     

Superplastic behaviour of commercial duplex stainless steel SAF 2304

Abstract

The superplasticity of duplex stainless steel SAF 2304 was investigated at temperatures from 900 to 1050°C and strain rates from 10^-4 to 10^-2 s^-1 using uniaxial tensile tests. Within the range of temperatures and strain rates at which superplasticity occurred, the flow stress was under 20 MPa, and the instantaneous strain rate sensitivity was between 0·45 and 0·75. The microstructural evolution was investigated using optical, scanning electron, and transmission electron microscopes. During superplastic deformation, the initially banded two phase structure progressively broke up and evolved into a homogeneously distributed structure. Also, the strain rate sensitivity index initially rose with strain. Two possible models were considered for this behaviour, one based on slip, and the other a more conventional grain boundary sliding/grain switching model.     

Microtwin formation in the α phase of duplex titanium alloys affected by strain rate

The effect of tensile strain rate on deformation microstructure was investigated in Ti-6-4 (Ti-6Al-4V) and SP700 (Ti-4.5Al-3V-2Mo-2Fe) of the duplex titanium alloys. Below a strain rate of 10⁻² s⁻¹, Ti-6-4 alloy had a higher ultimate tensile strength than SP700 alloy. However, the yield strength of SP700 was consistently greater than Ti-6-4 at different strain rates. The ductility of SP700 alloy associated with twin formation (especially at the slow strain rate of 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹), always exceeded that of Ti-6-4 alloy at different strain rates. It is caused by a large quantity of deformation twins took place in the α phase of SP700 due to the lower stacking fault energy by the β stabilizer of molybdenum alloying. In addition, the local deformation more was imposed on the α grains from the surrounding β-rich grains by redistributing strain as the strain rate decreased in SP700 duplex alloy.     

Tensile and work hardening properties of low carbon dual phase strip steels at high strain rates

Abstract

As a result of their unique combination of strength and ductility dual phase steels play an important role in reducing weight in automobile components and improving crashworthiness. The purpose of this paper is to quantify the crash performance of dual phase steels, as defined by the influence of low and high strain deformation rates (0·001 s^-1 and 100 s^-1 respectively), on the tensile and work hardening properties of a range of commercial dual phase products. The objective is to establish whether dual phase steels maintain their desirable mechanical property characteristics of low yield strength, high tensile strength and high work hardening rates during plastic deformation under the application of a high strain rate loading. The results confirmed that the yield/proof strength and tensile strength increased with increasing volume fraction of second phase constituents and increasing strain rate. In particular, a dual phase steel with a microstructure consisting of a significant volume fraction (>10–15%) of additional second phase material (bainite) is shown to display superior energy absorption properties. However, this is accompanied by poor ductility and work hardening characteristics.     

Hot tensile deformation behaviors and constitutive model of 42CrMo steel

The hot tensile deformation behaviors of 42CrMo steel are studied by uniaxial tensile tests with the temperature range of 850–1100 °C and strain rate range of 0.1–0.0001 s⁻¹. The effects of hot forming process parameters (strain rate and deformation temperature) on the elongation to fracture, strain rate sensitivity and fracture characteristics are analyzed. The constitutive equation is established to predict the peak stress under elevated temperatures. It is found that the flow stress firstly increases to a peak value and then decreases, showing a dynamic flow softening. This is mainly attributed to the dynamic recrystallization and material damage during the hot tensile deformation. The deformation temperature corresponding to the maximum elongation to fracture increases with the increase of strain rate within the studied strain rate range. Under the strain rate range of 0.1–0.001 s⁻¹, the localized necking causes the final fracture of specimens. While when the strain rate is 0.0001 s⁻¹, the gage segment of specimens maintains the uniform macroscopic deformation. The damage degree induced by cavities becomes more and more serious with the increase of the deformation temperature. Additionally, the peak stresses predicted by the proposed model well agree with the measured results.     

Hot deformation behavior and processing map of a Fe‐25Ni‐16Cr‐3Al alumina‐forming austenitic steel

The hot deformation behavior of a Fe‐25Ni‐16Cr‐3Al alumina‐forming austenitic steel was studied by hot compression using a Gleeble‐3500 thermal simulator. The compression tests were carried out in the temperatures range from 925 °C to 1175 °C and strain rates range from 0.01 s^‐1 to 10 s^‐1. It was concluded that the flow stress increased with decreasing deformation temperature and increasing strain rate. The constitutive equation was obtained and the activation energy was 420.98 kJ?mol^‐1 according to the testing data. According to the achieved processing map, the optimal processing domain is determined in the temperatures range of 1050 °C – 1075 °C and strain rates range of 0.03 s^‐1 ‐ 0.3 s^‐1. The evolution of microstructure characterization is consistent with the rules predicted by the processing map. During compression at the same temperature, the higher the strain rate is, the higher the hardness will be. The ultimate tensile strength of the steel is 779 MPa with a total elongation of 27.1 % at room temperature.     

Effect of transient change in strain rate on plastic flow behaviour of low carbon steel

Plastic flow behaviour of low carbon steel has been studied at room temperature during tensile deformation by varying the initial strain rate of 3·3 × 10⁻⁴s⁻¹ to a final strain rate ranging from 1·33 × 10⁻³s⁻¹ to 2 × 10⁻³s⁻¹ at a fixed engineering strain of 12%. Haasen plot revealed that the mobile dislocation density remained almost invariant at the juncture where there was a sudden increase in stress with a change in strain rate and the plastic flow was solely dependent on the velocity of mobile dislocations. In that critical regime, the variation of stress with time was fitted with a Boltzmann type Sigmoid function. The increase in stress was found to increase with final strain rate and the time elapsed in attaining these stress values showed a decreasing trend. Both of these parameters saturated asymptotically at a higher final strain rate.     

High-strain-rate superplasticity of SiC p /8090 aluminum composite

Superplastic tensile tests of a 17 vol.% SiC _p /8090 Al-Li composite were carried out at strain rates ranging from 7.25 × 10^-4 s^-1 to 3.46 × 10^-1 s^-1 and at temperatures from 773 K to 873 K. A maximum elongation of 300% was obtained at a strain rate of 1.83 × 10^-1 s^-1 when tested at a temperature of 848 K which was slightly above the solidus temperature of the composite. The effect of a small fraction of liquid phase on high-strain-rate superplasticity was discussed. Finally, the activation energy of high-strain-rate superplastic deformation was calculated and high-strain-rate superplastic mechanism was discussed.     

Modeling of flow stress of 42CrMo steel under hot compression

The compressive deformation behavior of 42CrMo steel was investigated at temperatures from 850 °C to 1150 °C and strain rates from 0.01 s^?1 to 50 s^?1 on a Gleeble-1500 thermo-simulation machine. The results show that the true stress–true strain curves exhibit peak stresses at small strains, then the flow stresses decrease monotonically until high strains, showing a dynamic flow softening. The stress level decreases with increasing deformation temperature and decreasing strain rate, which can be represented by a Zener–Hollomon parameter in an exponent-type equation. A revised model describing the relationships of the flow stress, strain rate and temperature of the 42CrMo steel at elevated temperatures is proposed by compensation of strain. The stress–strain relations of 42CrMo steel predicted by the proposed models agree well with experimental results.     

High temperature flow behavior and constitutive model of alloy transition layer in composite steel tube prepared by centrifugal self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS)

Centrifugal self-propagation high-temperature synthesis (SHS) is a newly developed composite preparation technique by which a ceramic-alloy-carbon steel multilayer composite tube can be prepared. The hot deformation behaviors of the alloy steel layer at 800 °C–1000 °C, strain rates of 0.01 s⁻¹, 0.1 s⁻¹, 1.0 s⁻¹ and 10 s⁻¹ were studied by Gleeble-1500 thermal simulator. Rheological curve characteristics were analyzed under different thermal compression processes and a phenomenological hyperbolic sinusoidal Arrhenius constitutive equation was established to characterize the rheological mechanics of the material. The results show that the alloy steel is sensitive to temperature and strain rate, and its value of true stress decreases with the increase of temperature and strain rate. Thermal deformation process is the interaction between work hardening and dynamic softening, which is accompanied by the increase and extinction of dislocations. Under the strain rate of 10 s⁻¹, the stress-strain curve has a significant decrease when the strain exceeds 0.5. According to the observation of microstructure, this phenomenon can be attributed to the micro-crack generated by the local instability flow in the denatured zone. With the strain rate decreases, the softening mechanism of the alloy changes from dynamic recovery to dynamic recrystallization. The calculation results of the Arrhenius constitutive equation (AARE = 6.54 %, R = 0.99452) indicate that the model can predict the flow stress of the alloy accurately.     

Strain rate effects on tensile deformation behavior of Fe-3.5Mn-0.3C-5Al ferritic based lightweight steel

Tensile deformation behavior of Fe-3.5Mn-0.3C-5Al ferritic based lightweight steel was studied in a large range of strain rate (0.001 s⁻¹–1200 s⁻¹). Microstructures of the steel before and after tension were observed. The results show that Fe-3.5Mn-0.3C-5Al lightweight steel has a good strength (820 MPa) and plasticity (40 %) and exhibits excellent combinations of specific strength and ductility (>32000 MPa %) at the strain-rate of 0.001 s⁻¹ after annealing at 850 °C for 5 minutes then directly quenching into water. The austenite in the steel tested was transformed into α′-martensite during the tensile deformation process. With an increase in strain rate from 0.001 s⁻¹ to 1200 s⁻¹, tensile strength of the steel investigated increased from 820 MPa to 932 MPa, while its elongation first decreased from 40 % to 15 %, and then increased from 15 % to 29 %. At the strain rate of 1200 s⁻¹, adiabatic heating resulted in temperature rising in matrix, suppressed the transformation of austenite to α′-martensite. Comparing with transformation induced plasticity steel, the austenite in 3.5Mn lightweight steel is obviously unstable and cannot provide progressive phase transition.     

Tensile flow behavior of ultra low carbon,low carbon and micro alloyed steel sheets for auto application under low to intermediate strain rate

This paper is concerned with tensile characteristics of auto grade low carbon, ultra low carbon and micro alloyed steel sheets under low to intermediate strain rates ranging from 0.0007 to 250 s⁻¹. Experimental investigation reveals two important aspects of these steels under intermediate strain rate deformation. Firstly, the yield stress increases with strain rate in all these steels. Of course yield stress increment is higher for low carbon and ultra low carbon steel sheets. Secondly, the strain hardening rate drastically decreases with strain rate for low carbon and ultra low carbon steel sheets, whereas it remains steady for micro alloyed steel sheets. Based on these observations, a constitutive model has been proposed which predicts the strain rate sensitive flow behavior of all these grades within the strain rate range of automotive crash event.     

Deformation mechanism transition in Fe–17Mn–0.4C–0.06V TWIP steel with different strain rates

The dynamic tensile behaviour and deformation mechanism of the Fe–17Mn–0.4C–0.06V twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steel were investigated over a wide range of strain rates from 10^?4 to 10³ s^?1. With increasing strain rate, the stacking fault energy increased due to the increase of adiabatic heating temperature, ΔT. At 10^?4 to 10¹ s^?1, the transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) effect coexisted with the TWIP effect and weakened with increasing strain rate. With the increase of strain rate in the range of 10^?1 to 10¹ s^?1, the TWIP effect strengthened gradually and intersected deformation twins were formed. When the strain rate was higher than 10¹ s^?1, the TRIP effect disappeared and the twinning was inhibited since the adiabatic heating effect elevated.     

Impact and fracture response of sintered 316L stainless steel subjected to high strain rate loading

This paper describes the use of a material testing system (MTS) and a compressive split-Hopkinson bar to investigate the impact behaviour of sintered 316L stainless steel at strain rates ranging from 10^− 3 s^− 1 to 7.5 × 10³ s^− 1. It is found that the flow stress–strain response of the sintered 316L stainless steel depends strongly on the applied strain rate. The rate of work hardening and the strain rate sensitivity change significantly as the strain rate increases. The flow behaviour of the sintered 316L stainless steel can be accurately predicted using a constitutive law based on Gurson's yield criterion and the flow rule of Khan, Huang and Liang (KHL). Microstructural observations reveal that the degree of localized grain deformation increases at higher strain rates. However, the pore density and the grain size vary as a reversible function of the strain rate. Impacts at strain rates higher than 5.6 × 10³ s^− 1 are found to induce adiabatic shear bands in the specimens. These specimens subsequently fail as a result of crack propagation along the dominant band. The fracture surfaces of the failed specimens are characterized by dimple-like structures, which are indicative of ductile failure. The depth and the density of these dimples are found to decrease with increasing strain rate. This observation indicates a reduction in the fracture resistance and is consistent with the observed macroscopic flow stress–strain response.     

Application of neural networks to predict the elevated temperature flow behavior of a low alloy steel

In order to study the workability and establish the optimum hot forming processing parameters for 42CrMo steel, the compressive deformation behavior of 42CrMo steel was investigated at the temperatures from 850 °C to 1150 °C and strain rates from 0.01 s⁻¹ to 50 s⁻¹ on Gleeble-1500 thermo-simulation machine. Based on these experimental results, an artificial neural network (ANN) model is developed to predict the constitutive flow behaviors of 42CrMo steel during hot deformation. The inputs of the neural network are deformation temperature, log strain rate and strain whereas flow stress is the output. A three layer feed forward network with 12 neurons in a single hidden layer and back propagation (BP) learning algorithm has been employed. The effect of deformation temperature, strain rate and strain on the flow behavior of 42CrMo steel has been investigated by comparing the experimental and predicted results using the developed ANN model. A very good correlation between experimental and predicted result has been obtained, and the predicted results are consistent with what is expected from fundamental theory of hot compression deformation, which indicates that the excellent capability of the developed ANN model to predict the flow stress level, the strain hardening and flow softening stages is well evidenced.     

Influence of loading rate on the mechanical properties of steels of different strength levels

The results are presented of mechanical tensile and shear tests of steels of different strength levels with plastic strain rates of 3·10^–3–10⁵ sec^–1. The changes in the characteristics of strength, plasticity, and microstructure are analyzed in relation to the strength level of the steel and loading rate. For steels of different structural classes at high deformation rates (approximately up to 10⁵ sec^–1) a significant increase in the characteristics of strength and plasticity is observed.Institute of Problems of Strength, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev, Leningrad. Translated from Problemy Prochnosti, No. 10, pp. 42–48, October, 1989.     

Effect of variation of strain rate on thermal and acoustic emission during tensile deformation of nuclear grade AISI type 316 stainless steel

Abstract

A systematic study has been undertaken to correlate the changes in thermal and acoustic emissions during tensile deformation of AISI type 316 nuclear grade stainless steel (SS) due to variations in the strain rate. Strain rates were varied in the range 3.3 × 10^-4s^-1 to 1.7 × 10^-2s^-1. Thermal emissions were monitored using a focal plane array based thermal imaging system. For a given strain rate, the rate of increase in temperature was observed to be gradual and uniform in the work hardening zone, and to increases drastically during necking. With increasing strain rate, the temperature also increased. Based on the experimental results a constitutive equation can be modelled relating the rise in temperature to strain rate. In the case of acoustic emission (AE), the root mean square (RMS) voltage of the AE signal and cumulative counts increase with strain rate due to the increase in source activation. The peak amplitude distribution of AE hits has shown that hits with similar peak amplitude are generated for all strain rates.