Brittleness of Ternary Fe-Mn-C Steel Plastic Twin Deformation, due to Hydrogenation

E.I
Materials for Energy Applications Group. http://h2matters.weebly.com/ 1,2, Gkanas 1, I. Agorastos 1, A. M. Antoniou 1, Vlachos

F.

1, Dialynas

N.

1 Xanthoulis

and S.S

1,2. Makridis

1. Materials for energy applications Group, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, Bacola and Sialvera Street Kozani, 50100, Greece 2.Environmental Technology Laboratory, Institute of Nuclear technology and Radiation protection, NCSR Demokritos, Agia Paraskevi, Athens, 15310, Greece

Introduction.
Fragility due to hydrogen is the process where a great number of metals, especially at the high strength steels becomes fragile, and cracks are formatting when the material is exposed to hydrogen. This mechanism starts when the hydrogen atoms diffuse inside the metal and at high temperatures the affection of the diffusion become higher so this effect is stronger. In the current work, we study the structural features of a TWIP steel after tensile deformation with TEM and discuss the presence of twins, following by tensile tests in high pressure hydrogen diffusion. Also, we simulate the effect of Al addition on deformation and fracture mechanisms in two high TWIP steels with the cup method. Finally we present a schematic illustration of stress-induced hydrogen diffusion in front of crack tip of high-strength steels

Tensile Deformation

Figure 1. Bright-field images of the 31 wt. % Mn3 wt. % Al3 wt.% Si (TWIP) steels with initial grain sizes of 49.6 lm (a) or 1.8 lm (b) after tensile deformation to a true strain of 0.2. This means that grain refinement limits deformation twinning in TWIP steel. This restraining effect of grain refinement on twinning has been reported in several FCC metals. It should be noted that both fine-grained and the coarsegrained TWIP steel has many dislocations besides deformation twins.

Figure 2. TEM micrograph of deformed Fe0.6C18Mn TWIP steel. Large amounts of twins, often oriented in parallel, are observed in the microstructure after tensile testing. The width of the deformation twins is approximately 60 nm. The observed twin boundaries are not flat and most twins are internally faulted by micro-twin formation. In the un-deformed samples, large grains (~30 m) and wide annealed twins (~500 nm) were observed. The dislocation density before testing was very low. Widely dissociated partial dislocations and corresponding wide stacking fault were however observed. This is indicative of the low stacking fault energy of Fe18Mn0.6C. Figure 2 shows that the twin boundaries are non-planar. The twins are also internally faulted. The mean width of larger deformation twins was about 60 nm.

Figure 3. microstructures of (a) 350C-specimen transformed isothermally at 350C, and (b) 550C85%-specimen transformed isothermally at 550C and then cold-drawn with 85 % reduction of area obtained by TEM . At the left one is fine Fe3C () which is bainite that is precipitated in ferrite, and after this procedure it takes the morphology of tempered martensite. At the right site the fine Fe3C is lengthened and arranged along the cold-drawing direction, that is, the metallurgical microstructure of the 550C85 %specimen is cold-drawn pearlite

Cup Forming Test.

Hydrogen Diffusion Effect

Figure 4. the twinning occurs more frequently in the cup forming test due to higher strain rates than in the tensile test; hence the deformation and fracture mechanismsmay be different in tensile and cup forming tests. The deformation during the tensile test is homogeneous in the whole deforming gage region until the neck onset, and thus the twinning appears homogeneously throughout the entire specimen at the same time. In order to investigate the differences in deformation and fracture between tensile and cup forming tests, the FEM using the commercial package ABAQUS (Dassault Systemes Simulia, Inc., Seoul, Korea) was employed. The simulated effective stress contours after the cup forming test of the 22Mn and 18MnAl steels are shown in figure (a) and (b), respectivelyThe stress analysis along specific directions based on sample coordinates is necessary for understanding the crack initiation and growth in the cup forming. Figure (a) represents the predicted stress (11, normal to the thickness direction) distribution during the cup forming test (under the loaded state).

Figure 5. Schematic illustration of stress-induced hydrogen diffusion in front of crack tip of high-strength steels with (a) or without (b) cold-drawing like the above specimens. The stress-induced diffusion of hydrogen is depicted by arrows. The gray scale in front of the crack tip indicates the stress level, where the black region corresponds to a high stress level. In the triaxial stress field in front of the crack tip, hydrogen accumulates in the region of the elongated lattice by means of elastic interaction. Ductile fracture has been known to be nucleated at inclusion particles ,although the early observations of "macroinclusion" (> 1 m) nucleation of voids in fact describe only one part of the process. It is therefore the population of small inclusions,those smaller than 1 m, which plays an essential role, both in ductile fracture and in hydrogen-assisted fracture. A very small,widely spaced inclusion population can account for observed ductile fracture morphologies.

Conclusions
1) Tensile tests in high pressure hydrogen, results in ductile fracture with a loss in ductility. 2) Comparison between the Cup forming test and tensile test 3) In front of the crack tip, hydrogen accumulates in the region of the elongated lattice by means of elastic interaction. 4) Study of the mechanical properties and twinning behavior in TWIP steel 5) Deformation twinning is significantly suppressed by the grain refinement 6) TWIP steels exhibit high strength with adequate elongation at high strain rates. Consequently, they are expected to be suitable for automotive use.

References
1) J. Kameda, C.J. McMahon Jr Solute segregation and hydrogen-induced intergranular fracture in an alloy steel Metal. Trans. A 14A (1983) 903911. 2) Kwang-Geun China, Chung-Yun Kanga et al Effects of Al addition on deformation and fracture mechanisms in two high manganese TWIP steels Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 29222928 3) Kenichi Takai and Ryu Watanuki Hydrogen in Trapping States Innocuous to Environmental Degradation of Highstrength Steels ISIJ International, Vol. 43 (2003), No. 4, pp. 520526 4) R. Ueji, N. Tsuchida et al Tensile properties and twinning behavior of high manganese austenitic steel with finegrained structure, Scripta Materialia 59 (2008) 965966 5) Kyoung Ho SO, Ji Soo KIM et al Hydrogen Delayed Fracture Properties and Internal Hydrogen Behavior of a Fe 18Mn1.5Al0.6C TWIP Steel ISIJ International, Vol. 49 (2009), No. 12, pp. 19521959