Effects of Temperature and Strain Rate on Stress-Strain Relationship and Deformation Twinning in Fe-5%Si Alloy

Abstract

The effects of temperature and strain rate on the stress–strain relationship and deformation twinning, during tensile tests, in polycrystalline Fe–5%Si alloy were studied. We performed tensile tests over a wide range of temperatures from 173 to 273 K, and strain rates ranging from 0.0001 to 0.1 /s, to clarify the relationship between total elongation and ratio of deformation twins, and the dependence of deformation twinning on grain orientation. All tensile specimens were fractured in a completely brittle manner. The total elongation decreased as the temperature decreased and the strain rate increased. The presence of deformation twins, in all fractured specimens, was confirmed by scanning electron microscope–electron backscattering diffraction analyses. The area fraction of the deformation twins increased as the total elongation decreased. However, a strong influence from the grain orientation on twinning activity was not observed for all temperatures and strain rates. A previous study on Fe–Si alloy single crystals showed that deformation twins form easily in <001>-oriented single crystals, but not in <111>-oriented single crystals. Our observations, on the dependence of deformation twinning on grain orientation in polycrystalline Fe–5%Si alloy, did not agree with those from single crystals. The present findings suggest that grain orientation does not play an important role in determining the occurrence of deformation twinning; not even in polycrystals. It is believed that the stress concentration, due to piled-up dislocations, during tensile deformation, cannot be relieved by the slip at low temperatures or high strain rates, and thus significantly affects deformation twinning.