Deformation mechanisms in austenitic TRIP/TWIP steels at room and elevated temperature investigated by acoustic emission and scanning electron microscopy

The modern austenitic stainless TRIP/TWIP steels have an outstanding combination of strength and ductility, depending on their chemical composition and loading conditions. A critical factor, which strongly affects all deformation-induced processes in metastable austenitic steels, is the temperature. To get a better insight into the effect of temperature on the deformation kinetics and transformation processes in high-alloy CrMnNi TRIP/TWIP steels with different austenite stability due to a varied content of Ni (3, 6 and 9 wt%), an acoustic emission (AE) technique was used during uniaxial tension at two different temperatures – ambient and 373 K. The in-situ AE results were paired with detailed SEM investigations using the electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) technique to identify the deformation-induced phase transformations and mechnical twinning. The cluster analysis of the AE signals has revealed an excellent correlation of AE features with synergistic complexity of deformation mechanisms involved in various combinations: dislocation glide, stacking faults, martensitic phase transformation and twinning.