Effects of Mn Content on the Deformation Behavior of Fe–Mn–Al–C TWIP Steels—A Computational Study

Abstract

This paper presents a doubleslip/doubletwin polycrystal plasticity model using finite element solution to investigate the kinetics of deformation twinning of medium manganese (Mn) twinninginduced plasticity (TWIP) steels. Empirical equations are employed to estimate the stacking fault energy (SFE) of TWIP steels and the critical resolved shear stress (CRSS) for dislocation slip and deformation twinning, respectively. The results suggest that the evolution of twinning in Fe–xMn–1.4Al–0.6 C (x = 11.5, 13.5, 15.5, 17.5, and 19.5 mass%) TWIP steels, and its relation to the Mn content, can explain the effect of Mn on mechanical properties. By comparing the doubleslip/doubletwin model to a doubleslip model, the predicted results essentially reveal that the interaction behavior between dislocation slip and deformation twinning can lead to an additional work hardening. Also, numerical simulations are carried out to study the influence of boundary conditions on deformation behavior and twin formation. The nucleation and growth of twinning are found to depend on internal properties (e.g., mismatch orientation of grains and stress redistribution) as well as on external constraints (e.g., the applied boundary conditions) of the material.