Determination of Critical Stress for Dynamic Recrystallization of a High-Mn Austenitic TWIP Steel Micro-Alloyed with Vanadium

Abstract

When high strength and high ductility are required, the Twinning Induced Plasticity steels are an excellent choice. Their mechanical advantages are perfectly known in the automotive industry. Then, they are currently deeply studied. During the deformation at high temperature, TWIP steel experiences dynamic recrystallization. This mechanism results from dislocation interactions, and it depends of temperature, stress, strain, and strain rate. Experimental data give the maximum stress reached by the material, but the critical stress which determinates the DRX onset must be calculated from the strain hardening rate. Both stress and strain change simultaneously, and this variation gives the analytic data to determine σc, which is located at the inflection point of θ-σ plot. The main purpose of this paper was to study how the chemical composition and the experimental parameters (temperature and strain rate) affect the DRX, by the calculation and analysis of the σc values. Hot compression tests were applied to a pair of TWIP steels to compare the DRX onset and its relationship with the vanadium addition. The experimental variables were temperature and strain rate. The true stress–true strain plots were used to calculate σc by cutting data up to a previous point before the σp value, then, a polynomial fit and derivation were applied. The Zener-Hollomon parameter (Z) versus the stresses (peak and critical) plots show how the micro-alloying element vanadium improves the strain hardening in the analyzed TWIP steels.