Finite element and experimental method for analyzing the effects of martensite morphologies on the formability of DP steels

In this article, we investigated the effect of martensite morphology on the mechanical properties and formability of dual phase steels. At first, three heat treatment cycles were subjected to a low-carbon steel to produce ferrite-martensite microstructure with martensite morphology of blocky-shaped, continuous, and fibrous. Tensile tests were then carried out so as to study mechanical properties, particularly the strength and strain hardening behavior of dual phase steels. In order to study the formability of dual phase samples, Forming Limit Diagram was obtained experimentally and numerically. Experimental forming limit diagram was obtained using Nakazima forming test, while Finite Element Method was utilized to numerically predict the forming limit diagram. The results indicated that the dual phase samples with fibrous martensite morphology had the highest tensile properties and strain rate hardening out of the three different microstructures. Blocky-shaped martensite morphology, on the other hand, had the worst mechanical properties. The study of the strain hardening behavior of dual phase sample by Kocks-Mecking-type plots, evinced two stages of strain hardening for all specimens with different microstructures: stages III and IV. The forming limit diagram of dual phase steels also proved that samples with fibrous martensite morphology had the best formability compared to other two microstructures. The simulated forming limit diagram manifested that there is a good agreement between experimental results and those obtained by FEM.