Prediction of steel flow stresses under hot working conditions

An austenitic stainless steel was deformed in torsion over a temperature range of 900-1200 °C using strain rates of 1, 5 and 10 s-1. The stress vs. strain curves determined were corrected for deformation heating and the flow stress was found to rise in the initial work-hardening regime, reaching a maximum before dropping to the steady state due to softening brought about by dynamic recrystallization. In order to determine the onset of dynamic recrystallization, diagrams of work-hardening rate vs. applied stress were drawn up for the hardening region of the flow stress curves. The flow stress curves were modeled by adjusting an evolution equation having one internal variable that describes the plastic behavior in the work-hardening regime to the experimental data. The flow stress after the onset of dynamic recrystallization was determined by incorporating the fractional softening into the evolution equation. Describing the effects of temperature and strain rate on the evolution equation through Zener-Hollomon parameters, a database was constructed for use in computer models to predict the roll force of rolling or forging loads under hot working conditions.