Synergistic enhancing effect of N+C alloying on cyclic deformation behaviors in austenitic steel

Abstract

Cyclic plastic and elastic strain controlled deformation behaviors of Mn18Cr7 austenitic steel with N0.6C0.3 synergistic enhancing alloying have been investigated using tension-compression low cycle fatigue and three-point bending high cycle fatigue testing. Results of cyclic deformation characteristic and fatigue damage mechanism have been compared to that in Mn12C1.2 steel. Mn18Cr7N0.6C0.3 steel always shows cyclic softening caused by enhanced planar sliding due to the interaction between N+C and the substitutional atoms as well as the dislocation, which is totally different from cyclic hardening in Mn12C1.2 steel caused by the interaction between C members of C–Mn couples with the dislocation. Enhanced effective stress is obtained due to the solid solution strengthening effect caused by the short range order at low strain amplitude while this effect does not work at high strain amplitude. Internal stress contributes most to the cyclic softening with the increase of strain amplitudes. Significant planar slip characteristic can be observed resulting from low stacking fault energy and high short range order effects in Mn18Cr7N0.6C0.3 steel and finally the parallel or intersecting thin sheets with dislocation tangles separated by dislocation free sheets are obtained with the prolonged cycles under cyclic elastic or plastic strain controlled fatigue testing. There exist amounts of small cracks on the surface of the Mn18Cr7N0.6C0.3 steel because fatigue crack initiation is promoted by the cyclic plastic strain localization. However, the zigzag configuration of the cracks reveals that the fatigue crack propagation is highly inhibited by the planar slip characteristic, which eventually improves the fatigue life.