Cyclically induced softening due to low-angle boundary annihilation in a martensitic steel

Martensitic steels are known for their softening during cyclic tests carried out at high temperature. The softening has been at least partially explained by lath and sub-grain boundary elimination. This article is dedicated to an attempt at modelling both phenomena. Thanks to mechanical tests it is shown that the softening is mainly due to a decrease of the backstress. Transmission electron microscopy allows us to propose a mechanism of low-angle boundary elimination. Annihilation between dislocations of low-angle boundaries and incident mobile dislocations is modelled. The macroscopic backstress is finally computed using a Hall–Petch law and the Taylor model.