The enhancement of transformation induced plasticity effect on austenitic stainless steels by cyclic tensile loading and unloading

The effect of loading modes of tensile deformation on the mechanical properties of a metastable austenite stainless steel has been investigated. The stress strain curves, microstructures and fraction of the martensite are measured and analyzed separately. The results of tensile test indicate that a special loading mode referred as cyclic tensile loading and unloading can improve the strength and the formability of the specimens effectively. It is noted that the elongation and the ultimate strength are increased by 24.3% and 9.2% respectively at room temperature. Such enhancement of the transformation induced plasticity effect is mainly related to remarkable increase of the fraction of strain-induced martensite by the cyclic tensile loading and unloading. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.