Revealing the strain-hardening behavior of twinning-induced plasticity steels: Theory, simulations, experiments

We present a multiscale dislocation density-based constitutive model for the strain-hardening behavior in twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steels. The approach is a physics-based strain rate- and temperature-sensitive model which reflects microstructural investigations of twins and dislocation structures in TWIP steels. One distinct advantage of the approach is that the model parameters, some of which are derived by ab initio predictions, are physics-based and known within an order of magnitude. This allows more complex microstructural information to be included in the model without losing the ability to identify reasonable initial values and bounds for all parameters. Dislocation cells, grain size and twin volume fraction evolution are included. Particular attention is placed on the mechanism by which new deformation twins are nucleated, and a new formulation for the critical twinning stress is presented. Various temperatures were included in the parameter optimization process. Dissipative heating is also considered. The use of physically justified parameters enables the identification of a universal parameter set for the example of an Fe-22Mn-0.6C TWIP steel. (C) 2012 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.