Flow localization during plane strain punch stretching of a ferrite-austenite steel

Abstract

This is an exploratory study of plastic flow and sheet forming characteristics of a 60 pct ferrite-40 pct austenite duplex stainless steel. Variations in austenite arrangement are shown to have little effect on tensile or punch stretching behavior. Flow and forming properties of the duplex alloy are dominated by its continuous ferrite phase. Flow localization during plane strain stretching over a hemispherical punch takes place at two levels of scale, by mechanisms that are physically different. Macroscopic shear bands develop as the final process of flow localization throughout the sheet as a whole. Macroscopic shear bands initiate at the surface of sheet at the edges of a localized neck and grow inward, as finite element models predict. Fracture takes place by void sheet coalescence within intersecting shear bands. These bands grow in from opposite sides of the sheet. Macroscopic shearing limits ductility during plane strain thinning. Row localization takes place also at the microscopic level within individual grains of the two-phase alloy. Coarse slip bands develop within individual grains of ferrite, and deformation twins develop in austenite as plastic flow takes place. Bands of in-homogeneous flow that develop on the microscopic scale form as an inherent part of the crystalline deformation mechanism of individual grains.