The mechanical stability of retained austenite in low-alloyed TRIP steel under shear loading

The microstructure evolution during shear loading of a low-alloyed TRIP steel with different amounts of the metastable austenite phase and its equivalent DP grade has been studied by in-situ high-energy X-ray diffraction. A detailed powder diffraction analysis has been performed to probe the austenite-to-martensite transformation by characterizing simultaneously the evolution of the austenite phase fraction and its carbon concentration, the load partitioning between the austenite and the ferritic matrix and the texture evolution of the constituent phases. Our results show that for shear deformation the TRIP effect extends over a significantly wider deformation range than for simple uniaxial loading. A clear increase in average carbon content during the mechanically-induced transformation indicates that austenite grains with a low carbon concentration are least stable during shear loading. The observed texture evolution indicates that under shear loading the orientation dependence of the austenite stability is relatively weak, while it has previously been found that under tensile load the {110}〈001〉 component transforms preferentially. The mechanical stability of retained austenite in TRIP steel is found to be a complex interplay between the interstitial carbon concentration in the austenite, the grain orientation and the load partitioning.