Metallurgical Investigations on Hyperplasticity in Dual Phase Steel Sheets

Abstract

Several researchers have reported that dual phase steel sheets exhibit hyperplasticity, that is, a significant formability improvement under certain high strain rate forming conditions. Hyperplastic behavior of dual phase steels formed using an electrohydraulic forming (EHF) process was previously investigated by the authors at both macro- (Golovashchenko et al., 2013, “Formability of Dual Phase Steels in Electrohydraulic Forming,” J. Mater. Process. Technol., 213, pp. 1191–1212) and microscales (Samei et al., 2013, “Quantitative Microstructural Analysis of Formability Enhancement in Dual Phase Steels Subject to Electrohydraulic Forming,” J. Mater. Eng. Perform., 22(7), pp. 2080–2088). A relative deformation improvement of approximately 20% in ferrite grains and 100% in martensite islands was reported in the EHF specimens compared to specimens formed under quasi-static conditions. In this paper, the remarkable deformation improvements of the constituents are discussed in terms of metallurgical mechanisms of deformation. The nucleation and multiplication of dislocations in ferrite and deformation twinning in martensite were found to be the principal mechanisms responsible for the significant improvements of deformation in EHF. In addition, these mechanisms enhance the plastic compatibility between the two phases which reduces the risk of decohesion and delays the onset of fracture in EHF specimens.