Effect of processing conditions on structure development and mechanical response of Si–Mn ‘TRIP’ steel

Abstract The main emphasis of this study has been placed on thermomechanical (TM) processing simulations of Mn–Si transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP)-aided steel using press forging. In order to rationalize the retained austenite volume fraction in multiphase structure, three TM schedules were employed at experiment where austenite different conditioning was considered. The choice of applied strain and thermal parameters had strong impact on austenite conditioning and consequently on the kinetics of isothermal ferrite and bainite transformation. The different multiphase structure characteristics were obtained after TM, with different volume fraction of retained austenite. Modification of structural characteristics consequently influenced the mechanical behaviour of TRIP steel. The present work also reports on the results received from in situ neutron diffraction experiments focused on monitoring of retained austenite transformation during mechanical incremental straining and evaluation of the lattice strains redistribution in present phases.