Mechanical and microstructural analysis of 2205 duplex stainless steel under hot working condition

Hot deformation characteristics of 2205 duplex stainless steel were analyzed by performing hot compression tests at a temperature range of 950–1200 °C and a strain rate of 0.001–1 s⁻¹. Flow stress was modeled by the constitutive equation of hyperbolic sine function. The constants of n, A, α, and the apparent activation energy were determined at different strains. They were then fitted by polynomial equations. Using the hyperbolic sine function and the relations derived between constants and strain flow curves were successfully modeled. Microstructural evolutions were characterized using optical microscopy and electron back scattered diffraction techniques. The results showed that dynamic recovery in ferrite is accelerated at higher temperatures followed by transformation to continuous dynamic recrystallization. Dynamic recrystallization in austenite was postponed by the accommodation of strain in ferrite and very few internal boundaries in austenite. At high strain rates, dynamic recovery in ferrite and dynamic recrystallization in austenite are very slow. Consequently, the total recrystallized fraction decreases. At low temperatures this situation may cause flow instabilities. At low strain rates, softening processes dominate in austenite and ferrite whereas at intermediate strain rates, the formation of substructures is observed in both phases.     

Flow behavior and microstructural evolution of Al–Cu–Mg–Ag alloy during hot compression deformation

The flow behavior of Al–Cu–Mg–Ag alloy and its microstructural evolution during hot compression deformation were studied by thermal simulation test. The flow stress increased with increasing the strain rate, and decreased with increasing the deforming temperature, which can be described by a constitutive equation in hyperbolic sine function with the hot deformation activation energy 196.27 kJ/mol, and can also be described by a Zener–Hollomon parameter. The dynamic recrystallization only occurred at low Z values, which must be below or equal to a constant of 5.31 × 10¹³ s⁻¹. With decreasing Z value, the elongated grains coarsed and the tendency of dynamic recrystallization enhanced. Correspondingly, the subgrain size increased and the dislocation density decreased. And the main soften mechanism of the alloy transformed from dynamic recovery to dynamic recrystallization.     

Hot deformation behavior of an austenitic Fe–20Mn–3Si–3Al transformation induced plasticity steel

Hot deformation behavior of an austenitic Fe–20Mn–3Si–3Al transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) steel was investigated by hot compression tests on Gleeble 3500D thermo-mechanical simulator in the temperature ranges of 900–1100 °C and the strain rate ranges of 0.01–10 s⁻¹. The results show that the flow stress is sensitively dependent on deformation temperature and strain rate, and the flow stress increases with strain rate and decreases with deformation temperature. The peak stress during hot deformation can be predicted by the Zener–Hollomon (Z) parameter in the hyperbolic sine equation with the hot deformation activation energy Q of 387.84 kJ/mol. The dynamic recrystallization (DRX) is the most important softening mechanism for the experimental steel during hot compression. Furthermore, DRX procedure is strongly affected by Z parameter, and decreasing of Z value lead to more adequate proceeding of DRX.     

Deformation behavior of an Al–Cu–Mg–Mn–Zr alloy during hot compression

Deformation behavior of an Al–Cu–Mg–Mn–Zr alloy during hot compression was characterized in present work by high-temperature testing and transmission electron microscope (TEM) studies. The true stress–true strain curves exhibited a peak stress at a critical stain. The peak stress decreased with increasing deformation temperature and decreasing strain rate, which can be described by Zener–Hollomon (Z) parameter in hyperbolic sine function with the deformation activation energy 277.8 kJ/mol. The processing map revealed the existence of an optimum hot-working regime between 390 and 420 °C, under strain rates ranging from 0.1 to 1 s⁻¹. The main softening mechanism of the alloy was dynamic recovery at high lnZ value; continuous dynamic recrystallization (DRX) occurred as deformed at low lnZ value. The dynamic precipitation of Al₃Zr and Al₂₀Cu₂Mn₃ dispersoids during hot deformation restrained DRX and increased the hot deformation activation energy of the alloy.     

Prediction of hot deformation behaviour of Fe-25Mn-3Si-3Al TWIP steel

Hot deformation behaviour of Fe-25Mn-3Si-3Al twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steel was investigated by hot compression testing on Gleeble 3500 thermo-mechanical simulator in the temperature range from 800 to 1100 °C and at strain rate range from 0.01 to 5 s⁻¹, and the microstructural evolution was studied by metallographic observations. The results show that the true stress-true strain curves exhibit a single peak stress at certain strain, after which the flow stresses decrease monotonically until the end of deformation, showing a dynamic flow softening. The peak stress level decreases with increasing deformation temperature and decreasing strain rate, which can be predicted by the Zener-Hollomon (Z) parameter in the hyperbolic sine equation with the hot deformation activation energy Q of 405.95 kJ/mol. The peak and critical strains can also be predicted by Z parameter in power-law equations, and the ratio of critical strain to peak strain is about 0.7. The dynamic recrystallization (DRX) is the most important softening mechanism for the experimental steel during hot compression. Furthermore, DRX procedure is strongly affected by Z parameter, and the decreasing of Z value leads to more extensive DRX.     

Hot deformation behavior of SiCp/AZ91 magnesium matrix composite fabricated by stir casting

The uniaxial compressive deformation behavior of a 10 vol.% SiC particulate reinforced AZ91 magnesium matrix composite (SiCp/AZ91) fabricated by stir casting is investigated at elevated temperature (250–400 °C). Peak stresses and flow stresses decrease as temperatures increase and strain rates decrease. The extent of dynamic recrystallization (DRX) becomes less as temperatures decrease at 250–350 °C or strain rates increase, and recrystallization occurs mainly within the intergranular regions rich of particles. Dynamic recrystallization accomplishes at 400 °C even at the strain rate of 1 s⁻¹. An analysis of the effective stress dependence on strain rate and temperature gives a stress exponent of n = 5 and a true activation energy of Q = 99 kJ/kJ. The value of Q is close to the value for grain boundary diffusion in Mg. It is concluded that the deformation mechanism of SiCp/AZ91 composite during hot compression is controlled by the dislocation climb.     

Hot deformation characteristics and strain-dependent constitutive analysis of Inconel 600 superalloy

The hot deformation characteristics and constitutive analysis of Inconel (IN) 600 superalloy were investigated at elevated temperatures. Hot compressive tests were carried out in the temperature and strain rate ranging from 900 to 1150 °C and 1 × 10⁻³–10 s⁻¹, respectively. The flow behavior analyses and microstructural observations indicate that the softening mechanisms were related to dynamic recrystallization (DRX) and grain growth. DRX played a dominant role in the microstructural evolution at low temperatures (or high strain rates). DRX was the dominant softening effect at low strains on testing at high temperatures with low strain rates, whereas growth of the dynamically recrystallized grains was responsible for softening at high strains. The flow stress of IN 600 was fitted well by the constitutive equation of the hyperbolic sine function under the deformation conditions performed in this study. A constitutive equation as a function of strain was established through a simple extension of the hyperbolic sine constitutive relation.     

Hot deformation behavior of an 8% Cr cold roller steel

An 8% Cr cold roller steel was compressed in the temperature range 900–1200 °C and strain rate range 0.01–10 s⁻¹. The mechanical behavior has been characterized using stress–strain curve analysis, kinetic analysis, processing maps, etc. Metallographic investigation was performed to evaluate the microstructure evolution and the mechanism of flow instability. It was found that the work hardening rate and flow stress decreased with increasing deformation temperature and decreasing strain rate in 8% Cr steel; the efficiency of power dissipation decreased with increasing Z value; flow instability was observed at higher Z-value conditions and manifested as flow localization near the grain boundary. The hot deformation equation and the dependences of critical stress for dynamic recrystallization and dynamic recrystallization grain size on Z value were obtained. The suggested processing window is in the temperature range 1050–1200 °C and strain rate range 0.1–1 s⁻¹ in the hot processing of 8% Cr steel.     

Hot working behavior of 2205 austenite-ferrite duplex stainless steel characterized by constitutive equations and processing maps

The hot deformation characteristics of the 2205 duplex stainless steel were analyzed using constitutive equations and processing maps. The hot compression tests were performed at temperature range of 950-1200 °C and strain rate of 0.001-1 s⁻¹. Flow stress was modeled by the constitutive equation of hyperbolic sine function. However, the stress exponent and strain rate sensitivity were different at low and high deformation temperatures where austenite and ferrite are dominant, respectively. It was recognized that strain at the peak point of flow curve increases with the Zener-Hollomon parameter, Z, at low temperature deformation while at high temperature deformation it actually decreases with Z. The power dissipation map, instability map and processing map were developed for the typical strain of 0.3. It was realized that dynamic restoration mechanisms could efficiently hinder the occurrence of flow instability at low and medium strain rates. Otherwise, the increase in strain rate at low and high temperatures could increase the risk of flow instability.     

Hot deformation behaviour and microstructure of a high-alloy gear steel

High strain isothermal compression tests at temperatures of 700–1200°C and strain rates of 0.1–50?s^?1 were performed in a Gleeble-3800 thermal simulator to investigate the hot deformation behaviour of a high-alloy Cr–Co–Mo–Ni gear steel, and the constitution equation and hot processing map were established based on these experiments. The results show that the flow stress can be described by the constitutive equation in hyperbolic sine function, and the optimum hot working regions are at the temperature of 1000–1100°C and strain rate of 0.3–1.0?s^?1. Optical microscopy observations of austenite grains indicate that dynamic recrystallisation occurs when the deformation temperature is over 900°C. The forging was successfully produced on the basis of the above-described researches.     

Effects of strain on the workability of a high strength low alloy steel in hot compression

Based on the experimental results from the hot compression tests of 42CrMo steel, the efficiencies of power dissipation and instability parameter were evaluated. The effects of strain on the efficiency of power dissipation and instability parameter of 42CrMo steel have been discussed in detail. Processing maps were constructed by superimposition of the instability map over the power dissipation map. The dynamic recrystallization domains and instable zones were identified in the processing map. The effects of strain on microstructural evolutions were correlated with the processing maps. According to the 3D processing maps, the optimum domain of hot deformation is in the temperature range of 1050–1150 °C and strain rate range of 0.01–3 s⁻¹, with its peak efficiency of 32% at about 1140 °C and 0.23 s⁻¹, which are the optimum hot working parameters.     

Hot deformation behavior and microstructure evolution of twin-roll-cast Mg–2.9Al–0.9Zn alloy: A study with processing map

The hot deformation behavior and microstructure evolution of twin-roll-cast of Mg–2.9Al–0.9Zn–0.4Mn (AZ31) alloy has been studied using the processing map. The tensile tests were conducted in the temperature range of 150–400 °C and the strain rate range of 0.0004–4 s⁻¹ to establish the processing map. The different efficiency domains and flow instability region corresponding to various microstructural characteristics have been identified as follows: (i) the continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDRX) domain in the range of 200–280 °C/≤0.004 s⁻¹ with fine grains which provides a potential for warm deformation such as deep drawing; (ii) the discontinuous dynamic recrystallization (DDRX) domain around 400 °C at high strain rate (0.4 s⁻¹ and above) with excellent elongation which can be utilized for forging, extrusion and rolling; (iii) the grain boundary sliding (GBS) domain at slow strain rate (below 0.004 s⁻¹) above 350 °C appears abundant of cavities, which result in fracture and reduce the ductility of the adopted material; and (iv) the flow instability region which locates at the upper left of the processing map shows the metallographic feature of flow localization.     

Dynamic recrystallization during hot compression of α-Fe

Specimens of high purity -Fe were deformed in the GLEEBLE-1500 at temperatures of 550°C, 700°C, 800°C and 900°C at strain rates ranging from 0.001 to 10 s^–1. The microstructural changes, which occur during the hot compression, have been investigated by optical microscopy and related to the true stress-true strain curves. The experimental results show that the dynamic recrystallization is accelerated with increase of deformation temperature and decrease of strain rate. The relation between the dynamic recrystallization and Z-parameter has been investigated. Dynamic recrystallization takes place approximately in a certain range of Z parameter, i.e., 25 < lnZ < 37.     

Dynamic softening mechanism of 30 % SiCp/2024Al composite during hot deformation process

Using Gleeb‐1500D simulator, the isothermal compression tests of 30 % SiCp/2024Al (volume fraction) are conducted at a temperature range of 623 K ‐ 773 K and a strain rate range of 0.01 s^‐1 ‐ 10 s^‐1. The softening mechanism of composites during hot deformation has been proposed based on the Zener‐Hollomon parameter Z, deformation temperature T and microstructure analysis. Cross slip of dislocation plays a dominant role under the conditions of lnZ≥59.634 and T≤673 K. While, deformation mechanisms such as cross slip, climb of dislocation and unzipping of the three dimensional dislocation network play a joint role when lnZ≤61.933 and T≥623 K. Particularly, dynamic recrystallization occurred when lnZ≤55.669 and T≥723 K. The cross slip, climb and unzipping of dislocation and dynamic recrystallization are the main softening mechanisms. The role of the dynamic recrystallization mechanisms become more significant and the critical strain of dynamic recrystallization decrease with the decrease of lnZ. Dynamic recrystallization nucleation mechanisms are mainly constituted of the subgrain combination and the bulging of the grain boundary.     

Hot deformation behavior of Ti-15-3 titanium alloy: a study using processing maps,activation energy map,and Zener–Hollomon parameter map

The hot deformation behavior of Ti-15-3 titanium alloy was investigated by hot compression tests conducted in the temperature range 850–1150 °C and strain rate range 0.001–10 s⁻¹. Using the flow stress data corrected for deformation heating, the activation energy map, processing maps and Zener–Hollomon parameter map were developed to determine the optimum hot-working parameters and to investigate the effects of strain rate and temperature on microstructural evolution of this material. The results show that the safe region for hot deformation occurs in the strain rate range 0.001–0.1 s⁻¹ over the entire temperature range investigated. In this region, the activation energy is ~240 ± 5 kJ/mol and the ln Z values vary in range of 13.9–21 s⁻¹. Stable flow is associated with dynamic recovery and dynamic recrystallization. Also, flow instabilities are observed in the form of localized slip bands and flow localization at strain rates higher than 0.1 s⁻¹ over a wide temperature range. The corresponding ln Z values are larger than 21 s⁻¹. The hot deformation characteristic of Ti-15-3 alloy predicted from the processing maps, activation energy map, and Zener–Hollomon parameter map agrees well with the results of microstructural observations.     

Hot deformation behavior of 7150 aluminum alloy during compression at elevated temperature

Hot compression tests of 7150 aluminum alloy were preformed on Gleeble-1500 system in the temperature range from 300 °C to 450 °C and at strain rate range from 0.01 s^? 1 to 10 s^? 1, and the associated structural changes were studied by observations of metallographic and transmission electron microscope. The results show that the true stress–true strain curves exhibit a peak stress at a critical strain, after which the flow stresses decrease monotonically until high strains, showing a dynamic flow softening. The peak stress level decreases with increasing deformation temperature and decreasing strain rate, which can be represented by a Zener–Hollomon parameter in the hyperbolic-sine equation with the hot deformation activation energy of 229.75 kJ/mol. In the deformed structures appear the elongated grains with serrations developed in the grain boundaries, decreasing of Z value leads to more adequate proceeding of dynamic recrystallization and coarser recrystallized grains. The subgrains exhibit high-angle sub-boundaries with a certain amount of dislocations and large numbers of dynamic precipitates in subgrain interiors as increasing Z value. The dynamic recovery and recrystallization are the main reasons for the flow softening at low Z value, but the dynamic precipitates and successive dynamic particles coarsening have been assumed to be responsible for the flow softening at high Z value.     

Effect of Mg17Al12 precipitates on the microstructural changes and mechanical properties of hot compressed AZ91 magnesium alloy

During hot compression, Mg₁₇Al₁₂ (β) precipitates show strong influence on the microstructural changes of 415 °C-24 h homogenized AZ91 alloy. When compressed at 300 °C and 350 °C, dynamic recrystallization (DRX) only occurs near grain boundaries with discontinuous β precipitate pinning at the newly DRXed grain boundaries. With increasing compression temperature and decreasing strain rate, the β-precipitating region expands; however, the amount of pinning precipitates decreases, resulting in increases in the DRX ratio and average DRXed grain size. With a compression ratio of only 50%, the specimen compressed at 350 °C and a strain rate of 0.2 s⁻¹ (designated 350 °C-0.2 s⁻¹ compressed specimen) shows an ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 334 MPa, a 0.2% proof stress (PS) of 195 MPa and an enough elongation of 17.9%. After a subsequent aging treatment at 180 °C, due to the large number of β precipitates, the strength of the compressed specimens are further improved, and the specimen peak aged after compression at 400 °C and 0.2 s⁻¹ shows UTS of 364 MPa and PS of 248 MPa with a moderate elongation of 7.7%.     

Constitutive modeling for flow stress of 55SiMnMo bainite steel at hot working conditions

The hot deformation behavior of 55SiMnMo bainite steel was studied through isothermal hot compression tests conducted using a Gleeble 3500 at 950–1100 °C, with strain rates of 0.01 s⁻¹ to 10 s⁻¹. A constitutive equation was established using the experimental results to describe the stress–strain relationship based on the dislocation density variation, considering the influence of the dynamic softening mechanism. When dynamic recovery is the only softening mechanism, a constitutive equation for flow stress was obtained from the variation of the dislocation density during hot deformation based on work hardening and dynamic recovery. When dynamic recrystallization occurs, the relationship between the dislocation density and the volume fraction of dynamic recrystallization was used to predict the flow stress after the peak. The reliability of the model was verified through a comparison between the predicted flow stress curves from the model and the experimental data.     

An improved constitutive model for high-temperature flow behaviour of the Fe–Mn–Al duplex steel

The high-temperature flow curves of the Fe–Mn–Al duplex steel showed an uncommon yield-like behaviour and an abnormal dynamic recrystallisation behaviour that occurred at low temperatures rather than high temperatures. The interaction of strain partitioning and unsynchronised softening behaviour in δ-ferrite and austenite caused this peculiar flow behaviour. By discussing the stress exponent and apparent activation energy, respectively, at low and high temperatures, a modified hyperbolic sine function was developed to predict the characteristic stresses. By simplifying the material constant θ and compensating the microstructural evolution in the exponential saturation work-hardening law, an improved constitutive model was developed to predict the transient stress. The comparison between the experimental and calculated values confirmed a high prediction accuracy of this improved model.     

Plastic deformation behavior in dual-phase Ni–31Al intermetallics at elevated temperature

Plastic deformation behavior of dual-phase Ni–31Al intermetallics at elevated temperature was examined. It was found that the alloy exhibited good plasticity under an initial strain rate of 1.25 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹ to 8 × 10⁻³ s⁻¹ in a temperature range of 950–1075 °C. A maximum elongation of 281.3% was obtained under an initial strain rate of 5 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹ at 1000 °C. The strain rate sensitivity, m value was correlated with temperature and initial strain rate, being in the range of 0.241–0.346. During plastic deformation, both the two phases Ni₃Al and NiAl in dual-phase Ni–31Al could co-deform without any void formation or debonding, the initial coarse microstructure became much finer after plastic deformation. Dislocation played an important role during the plastic deformation in dual-phase Ni–31Al alloy, the deformation mechanism in dual-phase Ni–31Al could be explained by continuous dynamic recovery and recrystallization.