Effect of Silicon Content on the Strain Hardening of Dual-Phase Steels

In the current work, the strain hardening behavior of dual-phase steels with different silicon content (0.34- 2.26 Wt. %) was examined using the modified Crussard-Jaoul analysis. It was shown that these dual-phase steels deform in two stages over a uniform strain range. Each stage exhibited a different strain hardening exponent varying with silicon content. At the first stage, work hardening exponent remind significantly constant, while during the second stage, it decreased with increasing silicon content from 0.34% to 1.51% and then increased for the higher silicon contents (1.51% to 2.26%). It was found that the strain hardening behavior of these steels was predominantly affected by the volume fraction of martensite at low silicon contet and the ferrite strengthening induced by silicon at the higher silicon content. The effect of silicon content on the volume fraction of martensite and tensile properties were also considered.