Study on the kinetics of thermomechanical response accompanying plastic instability in mild steel

•Heat power and strain rate evolutions reveal the strain localizations accompanying Lüders instability precisely without the influence of the signatures of prior plastic localization.•The occurrence of delayed localized yielding during the initial stages of uniform strain hardening is successfully mapped using heat power and strain rate evolutions.•The fraction of heat power dissipated is found to be relatively more in the load plateau involving strain localizations accompanying Lüders bands than the strain hardening region.