Yield behaviour associated with stacking faults in a high-temperature annealed ultra-low carbon high manganese steel

This paper investigated the tensile behaviour of high-temperature annealed ultra-low carbon high manganese steel with 42 vol% delta-ferrite. The results show that the tensile stress-strain curve of plastic deformation exhibits three distinct stages of deformation: a yielding stage with a remarkably large elongation and a positive strain-hardening rate, a second stage in which the strain-hardening rate rapidly increases, and a third stage in which the strain-hardening rate slowly increase. The yield plateau is intrinsically associated with the increasing formation of strain-induced stacking faults. The stacking faults quickly form during yield deformation, and the yield elongation monotonically increases with the extent of the stacking faults. The localised strain concentration of delta-ferrite and the heterogeneous strain partitioning between harder delta-ferrite and softer austenite play important roles in the rapid formation of stacking faults during strain at the yield plateau, which is an important prerequisite for this yielding phenomenon. The results and analysis demonstrate that the rapid and then slow hardening deformation after the yield plateau result from strain-induced transformation and deformation twinning, respectively.