Evolution of microstructure and texture during deformation and annealing of transformation-induced plasticity high Mn steel

An as-cast Fe-17Mn-3Al-2Si-1Ni-0.06C (wt. %) high Mn steel slab was subjected to hot rolling to 52% thickness reduction and quenched to room temperature. Thereafter, the hot-rolled plate was plane strain compressed to 5, 10, 15 and 20% thickness reductions at room temperature and cold-rolled to a further 42, 66 and 88% thickness reductions. The samples after 42% cold rolling were isochronally annealed at 500, 600, 625, 650, 700, 750, 800 and 850 °C for 300 s. Microstructure characterisation was undertaken via electron back-scattering diffraction (EBSD), conventional, high-resolution scanning and in-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Mechanical behaviour was investigated using a combination of uniaxial tensile testing and digital image correlation on dog-bone samples after 42% cold rolling and annealing at 500, 625, 650, 700 and 800 °C.