Room temperature deformation mechanisms of a Fe-Mn-Al-C steel

This study aims to investigate the deformation mechanisms of an austenite-based duplex Fe-Mn-Al-C steel at room-temperature through uniaxial tensile tests, strain rate sensitivity and stress relaxation analysis. Through numerical analysis and microstructural studies, this investigation reveals that increasing strain leads to the formation of low-angle boundaries (LABs) at the vicinity of grain boundaries. Consequently, these LABs play a facilitating role in the stress-assisted diffusion of carbon atoms, thereby triggering the dynamic strain aging (DSA) phenomenon. The evidence for this is substantiated by the strain rate sensitivity coefficient and stress relaxation results obtained from numerical analysis during uniaxial tensile tests. As deformation progresses, the misorientation of LABs increases, influencing the strain hardening behavior. The intensified DSA contributes to enhanced work hardening, while substructure development results in softening, creating a trade-off between these contrasting effects. (c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).