Quenching and partitioning (Q&P) processing of third-generation advanced high strength steels generates multiphase microstructures containing metastable retained austenite. Deformation-induced martensitic transformation of retained austenite improves strength and ductility by increasing instantaneous strain hardening rates. This paper explores the influence of martensitic transformation and strain hardening on tensile performance. Tensile tests were performed on steels with nominally similar compositions and microstructures (11.3 to 12.6 vol. pct retained austenite and 16.7 to 23.4 vol. pct ferrite) at 980 and 1180 MPa ultimate tensile strength levels. For each steel, tensile performance was generally consistent along different orientations in the sheet relative to the rolling direction, but a greater amount of austenite transformation occurred during uniform elongation along the rolling direction. Neither the amount of retained austenite prior to straining nor the total amount of retained austenite transformed during straining could be directly correlated to tensile performance. It is proposed that stability of retained austenite, rather than austenite volume fraction, greatly influences strain hardening rate, and thus controls strength and ductility. If true, this suggests that tailoring austenite stability is critical for optimizing the forming response and crash performance of quenched and partitioned grades.
more »
« less
Micromechanical origins of remarkable elongation-to-fracture in AHSS TRIP steels via continuous bending under tension
Continuous bending under tension (CBT) is known to achieve elongation-to-failure well above that achieved under a conventional uniaxial simple tension (ST) strain path. However, the detailed mechanism for supplying this increased ductility has not been fully understood. It is clear that the necking that occurs in a typical ST specimen is avoided by constantly moving the region of plastic deformation during the CBT process. The volume
of material in which the flow stress is greatest is limited to a moving line where the rollers contact the sheet and superimpose bending stress on the applied tensile load. Hence the condition of a large volume of material experiencing stress greater than the material flow stress, leading to strain localization during ST, is avoided. However, the magnitude of the contribution of this phenomenon to the overall increase in elongation is unclear.
In the current set of experiments, an elongation to fracture (ETF) of 4.56x and 3.7x higher than ST was achieved by fine-tuning CBT forming parameters for Q&P 1180 and TBF 1180, respectively. A comparison of maximum local strains near the final point of fracture in ST and CBT sheets via digital image correlation revealed that avoidance of localization of plastic strain during CBT accounts for less than half of the increased elongation in the
CBT specimens for two steels containing different amounts of retained austenite (RA). Geometrically necessary dislocation evolution is monitored using high-resolution EBSD (HREBSD) for both strain paths, indicating a lower hardening rate in the CBT samples in the bulk of the sheet, potentially relating to the cyclical nature of the stress
in the outer layers of the sheet. Interestingly, the GND evolution in the center of the sheet, which does not experience the same amplitude of cyclic stress, follows the ST behavior more closely than the sheet edges. This appears to contribute to a precipitous drop in residual ductility for the specimens that are pulled in ST after partial CBT processing. The rate of transformation of RA is also tracked in the steels, with a significantly lower
rate of transformation during CBT, compared to ST. This suggests that a slower transformation rate achieved under CBT also contributed to higher strain-to-failure levels.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1926662
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10296622
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Materials science engineering
- Volume:
- 825
- ISSN:
- 0921-5093
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
In this study, the ductile damage responses of high-strength 7000 series aluminum alloy (AA), AA 7075-T6 sheet samples, subjected to the plane strain deformation mode were investigated using finite element (FE) simulations. In the experiments, uniaxial tension (UT) and plane strain tension (PST) tests were conducted to characterize the plasticity and ductile damage behavior of the AA 7075-T6 sheet samples. The limiting dome height (LDH) and V-die air bending tests were conducted to evaluate the ductility of the material subjected to plastic deformation and friction between the tools, and the corresponding fractured samples were qualitatively analyzed in terms of dimples using fractography. FE simulations were performed to predict the ductility of the AA 7075-T6 sheet samples under plane strain deformation using an enhanced Gurson−Tvergaard−Needleman (GTN) model, namely the GTN-shear model. The model was improved by adding the shear dimple effect to the original GTN model. The predicted results in terms of the load–displacement curves and displacements at the onset of failure were in good agreement with experimental data from the aforementioned tests. Furthermore, virtual roll forming simulations were conducted using the GTN-shear model to determine the effect of the prediction on ductile behavior for industrial applications.more » « less
-
In a recent work, we have reported outstanding strength and work hardening exhibited by a metastable high entropy alloy (HEA), Fe42Mn28Co10Cr15Si5 (in at. %), undergoing the strain-induced martensitic transformation from metastable gamma austenite (γ) to stable epsilon martensite (ε). However, the alloy exhibited poor ductility, which was attributed to the presence of the brittle sigma (σ) phase in its microstructure. The present work reports the evolution of microstructure, strength, and ductility of a similar HEA, Fe38.5Mn20Co20Cr15Si5Cu1.5 (in at. %), designed to suppress the formation of σ phase. A cast and then rolled plate of the alloy was processed into four conditions by annealing for 10 and 30 min at 1100 °C and by friction stir processing (FSP) at tool rotation rates of 150 and 400 revolutions per minute (RPM) to facilitate detailed examinations of variable initial grain structures. Neutron diffraction and electron microscopy were employed to characterize the microstructure and texture evolution. The initial materials had variable grain size but nearly 100% γ structure. Diffusionless strain induced γ→ε phase transformation took place under compression with higher rate initially and slower rate at the later stages of deformation, independent on the initial grain size. The transformation facilitated part of plastic strain accommodation and rapid strain hardening owing to a transformation-induced dynamic Hall-Petch-type barrier effect, increase in dislocation density, and texture. The peak strength of nearly 2 GPa was achieved under compression using the structure created by double pass FSP (150 RPM followed by 150 RPM). Remarkably, the tensile elongation exhibited by the alloy was nearly 20% with fracture surfaces featuring a combination of ductile dimples and cleavage.more » « less
-
Uniaxial tension is a universal material characterization experiment. However, studies have shown that increased formability can be achieved with simultaneous bending and unbending of the material. This so-called continuous bending under tension process is an example of bending stress superposition to a uniaxial tension process. In this research, experiments are conducted on stainless steel 304 to investigate the effects of bending stress superposition on the austenite to martensite phase transformation. Two vortex tubes are mounted to the carriage of the machine and used to decrease the temperature in a localized region of the specimen to evaluate two temperature conditions. The in-situ strain and temperature fields are captured using 3D digital image correlation and infrared cameras. The deformation induced α′ -martensite volume fraction is measured at regular intervals along the deformed gauge length using a Feritscope. The number of cycles that the rollers traverse the gauge length, corresponding to the strain level, is also varied to create five conditions. The deformed specimens revealed heterogeneous martensite transformation along the gauge length due to the non-uniform temperature fields observed for each test condition. Decreasing the temperature and increasing the number of cycles led to the highest amount of phase transformation for this bending-tension superposed process. These results provide insight on how stress superposition can be applied to vary the phase transformation in more complex manufacturing processes, such as incremental forming, which combines bending, tension, and shear deformation.more » « less
-
Abstract Superposing pre-stress on a SS304 sheet metal blank in biaxial tension and performing a single point incremental forming operation on the stretched blank is investigated experimentally. By applying a pre-stress to the sheet metal blank prior to incremental forming, the resulting microstructural change can be affected to obtain functionally graded materials according to the intended application. In austenitic stainless steels, this variation of the stress states alters the phase transformation, specifically the martensitic transformation kinetics, by influencing key process parameters, such as process force, temperature, and equivalent plastic strain. The phase transformation in truncated square pyramids is measured using magnetic induction. These measurements validate the effectiveness of the stress superposition method for achieving the desired mechanical properties based on altering the final microstructure of a simple geometry.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/141876
