Couplings between plasticity and martensitic phase transformation: overall behavior of polycrystalline TRIP steels

Several couplings between plasticity and martensitic phase transformation are at the origin of remarkable proper tics of ductility and toughness in the case of TRIP steels, A micromechanical model is developed to predict the conditions of nucleation and growth of a martensitic microdomain inside an inhomogeneous plastic strain field. More explicit relations are developed in the case of a simple shear test where a heterogeneous plastic strain held leads to a significant decrease of the critical stress for martensitic transformation. The obtained results are combined with a kinetics and kinematics studies to derive the constitutive equation of an austenitic single crystal from which the overall behavior of a polycrystalline steel is deduced using the self-consistent scale transition method. Comparison with experimental data shows a good agreemcnt. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.