Constructing micro-mechanical representative volume element of medium Mn steel from EBSD data

Abstract

Medium Mn advanced high strength steel (AHSS) with significant combination of strength and ductility is one of candidates of the Third Generation AHSS. However, the specific plastic instability behavior of medium Mn steels is different from traditional steels and physical mechanism behind it is unclear. Representative volume element (RVE) has been proved to be applicable of describing microstructural deformation and revealing the micro-deformation mechanism. In this paper, a two dimensional micro-mechanical RVE of medium Mn steel, 7MnCA, is constructed from its electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD) data. The deformation behavior under uniaxial tension is investigated based on the constructed RVE models incorporating with phases morphology and distribution. The results show that the present RVEs constructed from EBSD data through image-processing algorithm with different filling strategies are capable to predict the macroscopic mechanical behavior of medium Mn steel with finite element analysis.