Strengthening an austenitic Fe–Mn steel using nanotwinned austenitic grains

An austenitic Fe-25Mn steel with a low stacking fault energy was subjected to dynamic plastic deformation (DPD) followed by thermal annealing. The as-DPD sample is structurally characterized by a mixed nanostructure consisting of nanosized grains with an average size of 43 nm and bundles of nanoscale twins (with an average twin/matrix lamella thickness of 5 nm), as well as some dislocation structures, which exhibits a high yield strength of about 1470 MPa but a limited tensile ductility. Thermal annealing leads to static recrystallization (SRX) of the nanostructures forming a hierarchical structure of nanotwinned grains embedded in microsized SRX grains, owing to the higher thermal stability of the nanotwinned bundles than that of nanosized grains. With an increasing number of SRX grains the yield strength and ultimate tensile strength drop while the tensile ductility increases. The calculated yield strength of the nanotwinned grains is about 1.5 GPa, much lower than that determined from Hall-Petch strengthening extrapolated to the nanoscale. Work hardening rates of the nanotwin grains, comparable with that of the microsized grains, are higher than that of the original coarse grained sample. The micrograined austenitic Fe-Mn samples strengthened by nanotwinned grains exhibit enhanced strength ductility synergy in comparison with the deformed samples. A combination of a 977 MPa yield strength with a uniform elongation of 21% is achieved in the annealed samples, well above that of the deformed samples. (C) 2012 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.