Effect of microstructure on the fracture response of advanced high strength steels

The effect of constituent hardness on formability performance for higher-strength dual phase (DP) steels was evaluated. A commercially-produced DP steel with 1080 MPa ultimate tensile strength (UTS) was processed to create eight additional constituent hardness conditions by tempering and cold-rolling, processes that primarily affected constituent hardness properties. Using nanoindentation, ferrite and martensite hardness values for the nine conditions of the DP steel (as-received, four as-tempered, four temper cold-rolled) provided a range of hardness values to evaluate formability performance.;Formability performance for the nine steel conditions was evaluated using tensile and hole expansion testing. A decrease in martensite/ferrite hardness ratio corresponded to an increase in hole expansion ratio (HER), and an increase in yield strength (YS). A lower hardness ratio (increased similarity of ferrite and martensite hardness) was interpreted to increase strain-sharing between ferrite and martensite, which suppressed plastic strain localization to higher stresses for the case of YS, and to higher formability limits for the case of HER. A lower hardness ratio corresponded to a decrease in work-hardening, and was interpreted to be caused by the suppression of strain localization in ferrite. Multiple studies from literature correlated HER to tensile properties, and the nine steel conditions produced consistent trends with the data reported in each study, confirming the experimental HER and tensile properties obtained in the current study are consistent with literature.;The microstructural response to plastic deformation was evaluated using two DP steels with equivalent UTS and different hardness ratios. Nanoindentation analyses on tensile specimens deformed to the UTS revealed a greater increase in ferrite hardness for the higher hardness ratio steel, interpreted to be caused by the greater amount of work hardening. EBSD crystallographic orientation maps for the two DP steels showed that, whether by cold-rolling or tensile deformation, a DP microstructure heterogeneously accommodates strains imparted by plastic deformation. Strain maps generated using digital image correlation on deformed tensile specimens for both DP steels showed that strains heterogeneously develop in the microstructure at locations consistent with preferential fracture sites in DP steels, such as ferrite/martensite interfaces. The hardness ratio primarily affected the magnitude of the strain gradients, with a larger hardness ratio yielding a greater strain gradient. With further deformation, isolated regions of high strain linked to form bands of strain localization throughout the microstructure. A plane strain tensile analysis showed the DP steel with lower hardness ratio to have a lower void population, a finding consistent with results established in the M.Sc. thesis of M. D. Taylor. Using fractured tensile specimens, a lower void area pct at equivalent stress and strain was observed for the DP steel with lower hardness ratio, confirming a lower hardness ratio suppresses microstructural damage.