Characterization of discontinuous yielding phenomenon in isothermal compression of TC8 titanium alloy

The discontinuous yielding phenomenon （DYP） during high temperature deformation was investigated based on the isothermal compression of TC8 titanium alloy. The DYP of TC8 titanium alloy was characterized by quantifying the yield drop of the DYP （△σUL） and ending strain of flow oscillation （εOSC） based on the flow stress？strain curves, and then the effect of deformation parameters on the △σUL and εOSC values was analyzed. The results show that the △σUL and εOSC values increase with the increase of strain rate. The effect of deformation temperature on the ？σUL value depends on the strain rate. Finally, the transmission electron microscope （TEM） observation shows the evidence for the dynamic theory, which ascribes the DYP to the generation of mobile dislocation at the grain boundary. Meanwhile, the optical microscope （OM） observation shows that both the primary α grain and β grain become smaller with the increase of strain, which well interprets the effect of deformation parameters on the △σUL and εOSC values.

Review on the plastic instability of medium -Mn steels for identifying the formation mechanisms of Lüders and Portevin -Le Chatelier bands

Plastic instability,including both the discontinuous yielding and stress serrations,has been frequently observed during the tensile deformation of medium-Mn steels(MMnS)and has been intensively studied in recent years.Unfortunately,research results are controversial,and no consensus has been achieved regarding the topic.Here,we first summarize all the possible factors that affect the yielding and flow stress serrations in MMnS,including the morphology and stability of austenite,the feature of the phase interface,and the deformation parameters.Then,we propose a universal mechanism to explain the conflicting experimental results.We conclude that the discontinuous yielding can be attributed to the lack of mobile dislocation before deformation and the rapid dislocation multiplication at the beginning of plastic deformation.Meanwhile,the results show that the stress serrations are formed due to the pinning and depinning between dislocations and interstitial atoms in austenite.Strain-induced martensitic transformation,influenced by the mechanical stability of austenite grain and deformation parameters,should not be the intrinsic cause of plastic instability.However,it can intensify or weaken the discontinuous yielding and the stress serrations by affecting the mobility and density of dislocations,as well as the interaction between the interstitial atoms and dislocations in austenite grains.

Yielding behavior of triplex medium Mn steel alternated with cooling strategies altering martensite/ferrite interfacial feature

In this paper, we report the influence of cooling processes on the yielding behavior of a medium Mn steel(MMS) with triplex microstructure, i.e. austenite(γ), ferrite(α) and as-quenched martensite(α’). After the intercritical annealing(IA) at both 725℃ and 750℃, the steel was subjected to the two cooling processes, i.e. air cooling(AC) and water quenching(WQ). It exhibits the discontinuous yielding after the AC following the IA at 750℃ while the continuous yielding after the WQ. Compared with WQ process,both the dilatometry and the microstructural examinations show that the AC process leads to lower Ms temperature, larger retained austenite(RA) fraction and less martensite, the latter is always companied with geometry necessary dislocations(GNDs) generated near the α/α’ interfaces. Considering the complexity of nanosized tri-phases in this steel, the presence of martensite with key features in the resultant specimens was systematically examined by atom probe tomography(APT) on the samples prepared by the specific target lift-out method. The APT results directly revealed the C/Mn co-segregation at the α’/αinterfaces in the AC samples but not in WQ samples. The numerical simulation results further suggest that the segregation of C and Mn at the α’/α interfaces may be due to different mechanisms. We conclude that the yielding of triplex MMS is determined by both the quantity of GNDs generated near theα/α’ interfaces, which increases with martensite fraction, and the extent of their immobilization resulting from the interfacial segregation of solute atoms when the presence of martensite is sufficient. WQ tends to suppress the discontinuous yielding of MMS since the rapid cooling may promote more martensite formed with the increasing quantity of GNDs and prevent the interfacial segregation of both C and Mn.