The Strain Hardening Behavior of Metastable Austenite Stainless Steel

Abstract:

The hardening curve exhibits sigmoid shape in metastable austenite stainless steel at low temperature due to strain induced martensite transformation during deformation. The hardening exponent n values derived from Hollomon equation in each 1 5% of nominal strain are found not to be constant. Furthermore, both the n values and the hardening rate present parabola with increase of strain, while n values decrease correspondingly with increase of strain rate.

Key words:hardening rate,hardening exponent,metastable materials