j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 4 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 255–263

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec

Grain refinement and strain hardening in IF steel during

multi-axis compression: Experiment and modelling

H. Petryk a,∗ , S. Stupkiewicz a , R. Kuziak b

a Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, Świȩtokrzyska 21, 00–049 Warsaw, Poland
b Institute for Ferrous Metallurgy, K. Miarki 12, 44–100 Gliwice, Poland

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The effect of severe plastic deformation (SPD) during cyclic multi-axis compression on grain
Received 24 April 2007 refinement and strain hardening in interstitial free (IF) steel is studied quantitatively. In the
Received in revised form experimental part, the material samples were cold deformed in the MAXStrain(R) system
3 October 2007 by successive compression in two mutually orthogonal directions. The electron backscatter
Accepted 5 November 2007 diffraction (EBSD) technique was used to measure the average spacing of the dislocation cell
(low angle) and cell-block (high angle) boundaries. In the modelling part, the decrease in
size of dislocation cells and cell blocks was expressed in terms of the effective plastic strain
Keywords: defined such that strain-rate reversals slow down its accumulation. The strengthening effect
Modelling of microstructural evolution was included in the continuum mechanics framework of finite
Microstructure strain plasticity. Examples of simulation of the behaviour of IF steel severely deformed by
Hardening multi-axis compression are calculated and compared to experimental data.
Severe plastic deformation © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction compression in two mutually orthogonal directions (Chen et

Severe plastic deformation (SPD) processing techniques are
applied to polycrystalline metallic materials in order to
refine the grain size up to the sub-micrometer or nanome-
ter level. Decrease in grain size to a sub-micrometer level
is related to beneficial mechanical properties such as very
high strength. The most widely applied SPD method is equal-
channel angular pressing (ECAP) (Segal, 1995; Valiev and
Langdon, 2006); other SPD techniques are, for instance, cyclic
extrusion–compression (CEC) (Richert and Richert, 1986), high-
pressure torsion (HPT) (Valiev et al., 1996), accumulative
roll-bonding (Saito et al., 1998), twist extrusion (Beygelzimer et
al., 2002), etc. In distinction to traditional cold rolling or draw-
ing, SPD techniques frequently employ cyclic strain paths that
can lead to an essentially unchanged shape of the material
sample after processing. In this paper, multi-axis compres-
sion is applied by using the MAXStrain(R) unit to impose cyclic
al., 2001; Ferguson et al., 2002; Kuziak et al., 2005).
Microstructural and mechanical properties of metallic
materials after large plastic deformation have been examined
experimentally in a number of papers, e.g., in Iwahashi et al.
(1997), Iwahashi et al. (1998), Richert et al. (1999), Richert et al.
(2001), Terhune et al. (2002), Prangnell et al. (2004) and Furuno
et al. (2004) for cyclic SPD and Liu et al. (1998), Hughes and
Hansen (2000) and Liu et al. (2002) for rolling. The subgrain
size, misorientation angle across boundaries, the fraction of
the high-angle boundary (HAGB) area and the flow stress or
microhardness have been measured as functions of the accu-
mulated plastic strain after processing by SPD. Based on those
extensive investigations, and also on certain concepts met
in the literature, cf. Hughes and Hansen (2000), Estrin et al.
(1998), Hansen et al. (2001), Peeters et al. (2001), Sedlacek
et al. (2002) and Kocks and Mecking (2003), a constitutive
model of grain refinement and strain hardening during large

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: hpetryk@ippt.gov.pl (H. Petryk).
0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2007.11.068
256 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 4 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 255–263
plastic deformation has recently been developed (Petryk and
Stupkiewicz, 2007). In that paper the model was used to simu-
late numerically the effect of applying different SPD routes to
pure aluminium. In the present paper, the behaviour of inter-
stitial free (IF) steel is modelled, and the results are compared
to the experimental data obtained by multi-axis compres-
sion.
2. Experimental results
2.1. Experimental procedure
In conventional processes of plastic deformation like (single-
axis) compression or rolling, the maximum strain in the
sample is limited by the amount of material in the axis of com-
pressive deformation. Research in the range of severe plastic
deformation requires equipment capable of performing more
complex deformation paths that lead to accumulated strain
of 4 or more. The present investigations have been conducted
by using the MAXStrain(R) system developed by Dynamic Sys-
tems Inc., http://www.gleeble.com. Essentially, it incorporates
the hydraulic system, stop mechanism preventing the over-
shooting in strain while maintaining constant strain rate, and
a specimen rotation device.
The principle of the deformation in the MAXStrain system
is shown in Fig. 1. The central part of the sample of ini-
tial square cross-section is compressed by two synchronized
tungsten anvils. After the deformation, the sample is rotated
(clockwise, say) by 90◦ around its longitudinal axis and com-
pressed again in the direction perpendicular to the original
compression direction. Next, it is rotated (anti-clockwise, say)
by 90◦ to the previous orientation and deformed again. This
cycle may be repeated many times which results in the strain
accumulation in the deformed sample. The sample may be
restrained at the ends or may be allowed to expand along its
axis during deformation (unconstrained or free ends), cf. Fig. 2.
The specimens shown had the initial central square cross-
section of 10 mm × 10 mm (12 mm × 12 mm was also applied)
and the width of the anvils in contact with the sample was
10 mm.
A substantial strain accumulation during multi-cycle
deformation occurs in the sample’s centre causing a sig-
nificant grain refinement in the original microstructure.
Therefore, the MaxStrain system provides an alternative way
of developing ultra-fine grained microstructures (Chen et al.,
Fig. 1 – Scheme of the deformation route in the MAXStrain
system.
Fig. 2 – Steel samples after deformation with free ends (top)
and constrained ends (bottom).
2001; Ferguson et al., 2002; Kuziak et al., 2005), comparable
to other methods employing the effect of severe plastic
deformation on grain refinement in bulk samples, such as
the equal-channel angular pressing (Valiev and Langdon,
2006). As opposed to those techniques, the system provides
excellent thermal control during the deformation due to the
resistance heating by allowing the flow of electric current
through the grips along the specimen. The temperature of the
specimen can be measured by a thermocouple inserted into a
drilled hole close to the deformation zone or using pyrometer.
The experiments reported on here were performed in the cold
deformation regime.
The present experiments were aimed at achieving ultra-
fine grained microstructure in the originally coarse-grained
IF steel samples by the plastic strain accumulation. For this
purpose, the commercial interstitial free steel samples, with
carbon content less than 0.003%, were cold deformed in the
MAXStrain system. Average equivalent strain in a single pass
was 0.4–0.6, and 1–67 passes were applied. The anvil velocity
in the course of deformation was 3.75 mm/s, giving the aver-
age strain rate in the sample around 1 s−1 . The time interval
between the subsequent deformations was 4 s. By increasing
the number of deformations in subsequent experiments, it
was possible to investigate the microstructure evolution as a
function of strain accumulation in the deformed zone.
During the deformation, the displacement of anvils and the
force were measured by specially designed transducers and
recorded on the computer. The dimensions of the deformed
part of the sample after deformation were also measured.
These measurements were used to calculate the changes of
force versus strain during the deformation and for the quan-
titative characterization of microstructure evolution for the
model development and validation. Some registered force-
displacement diagrams are presented in Section 3.3 along with
numerical simulations.
The analysis of the microstructure in the samples was
conducted with the Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron
Microscope (FEG SEM) LEO 1530 capable of performing elec-
tron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). With this method, the
quantitative analysis of grain/subgrains structures was car-
ried out applying the methodology described in Humphreys
(2001). In this paper, only the results of the investigation con-
ducted on the samples with constrained ends are presented.
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 4 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 255–263
Fig. 3 – Microstructure after: one pass (a), 4 passes (b) and
67 passes (c) (FEG SEM). The length of the marker
corresponds to 10 ␮m in (a) and to 1 ␮m in (b and c).
The specimens for the microstructural investigation were pre-
pared from the central part of the sample’s deformed volume.
The sample was cut perpendicularly to the long axis direc-
tion and then the surface was polished with the ion thinning
device produced by Gatan Inc.
2.2. Results
Fig. 3 (a) shows the microstructure of the sample after the first
deformation. In this figure the original ferrite grain bound-
aries are clearly seen. The grain size (mean linear intercept) in
257
the initial state of the sample was around 90 ␮m. In the grains,
the development of the substructure in the form of dislocation
cells is also visible. Further changes in the microstructure dur-
ing the strain accumulation are shown in Fig. 3(b and c) in SEM
micrographs and in Figs. 4 and 5 as EBSD patterns measured
after 4th and 67th deformations. Generally, the advancement
of grain fragmentation as a function of cumulative strain is vis-
ible. However, the nature of the boundaries must be identified
by measuring the misorientation angle between neighbouring
grains.
In Figs. 4 and 5, the low and high-angle boundaries are
revealed by the EBSD technique by applying different criteria
with respect to misorientation angle between neighbouring
domains. Furthermore, the EBSD technique was used to mea-
sure the average spacing of the statistically distributed (low
angle) boundaries and of the geometrically necessary bound-
aries (cell-block boundaries of disorientation angle greater
than 15◦ ). These dimensions were measured in two directions:
perpendicular (Dx ) and parallel (Dy ) to the direction of the most
recent compression, and averaged over 300–500 grains. The
results obtained for cyclic compression with constrained ends
as functions of accumulative strain are given in Table 1.
Results of the investigation show that at the beginning
of the deformation, a rapid fragmentation of the original
grains occurs. This causes a sudden decrease in the distances
between all types of boundaries. After initial deformation,
the most of the boundaries between neighbouring domains
are classified as low angle. With further strain accumulation,
the decrease in distance between the boundaries slows down,
while the peak in the distribution of misorientation angle
shifts towards high-angle orientation.
3. Modelling
3.1. The effective strain
In cyclic SPD processes like ECAP, CEC or multi-axis compres-
sion in the MAXStrain system, the material is subjected to
multiple strain-rate reversals. In the standard case of cyclic
plastic straining of a small magnitude, typical stress–strain
diagrams exhibit a stabilized hysteresis loop, i.e., saturation
of isotropic work-hardening (Chaboche, 1986). This can be
attributed to the suspension of dislocation multiplication
upon a strain-rate reversal until the process of transforma-
tion of dislocation cell walls during reverse activation of slip
systems is completed. If the cyclic strain amplitude is larger
as in SPD processes then the suspension period is shorter
than a half-cycle and the microstructural evolution takes place
as the accumulated (equivalent or von Mises) plastic strain
εvM increases. Nevertheless, the microstructural changes are
expected to be slowed down in comparison to monotonic
deformation.
To take this effect into account, the effective plastic strain,
εeff , was recently introduced in Petryk and Stupkiewicz (2007).
Its rate is defined by:

ε̇vM , if dp · er > 0 and er  > r
ε̇eff = (1)
0, otherwise.
258 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 4 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 255–263

Fig. 4 – EBSD patterns after 4 passes. Low angle (> 2◦ ) boundaries (a) and high-angle (> 15◦ ) boundaries (b) are indicated.
The length of the marker corresponds to 10 ␮m.

Fig. 5 – EBSD patterns after 67 passes. Low angle (> 2◦ ) boundaries (a) and high-angle (> 15◦ ) boundaries (b) are indicated.
The length of the marker corresponds to 10 ␮m.

Table 1 – Average spacing of geometrically necessary (GNB) and statistically distributed (SDB) boundaries measured in
the sample deformed with constrained ends
Number of passes Equivalent strain GNB SDB

Dx (␮m) Dy (␮m) Dxc (␮m) Dyc (␮m)

1 0.42 24.7 2.3 1.22 0.48

2 0.92 15.4 2.1 0.82 0.38
3 1.6 10.1 2.1 0.61 0.32
4 2.3 6.9 1.8 0.51 0.29
10 4.2 3.2 1.2 0.33 0.26
27 12.3 0.36 0.28 0.25 0.21
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 4 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 255–263 259

The first inequality condition above means that the plastic

strain-rate dp does not oppose a prestrain tensor er defined
below. The second condition is that the magnitude of er
exceeds a threshold value r, which was proposed in the form
r = r∞ (1 − e−εeff /εr ). The asymptotic value r∞ of r is the major
factor in determining the ratio εeff /εvM for a given cyclic SPD
process. For monotonic deformation
 we have εeff /εvM = 1 since
in this case ε̇eff = ε̇vM = 2/3dp  identically. In turn, after a
strain-rate reversal ε̇eff is zero until the two inequality condi-
tions in (1) are met again, and εeff /εvM < 1.
The prestrain tensor er is defined incrementally as follows:

∇ er dp  ∇
e r = dp − , ( er ≡ ėr + er w − wer ) (2)
εr

∇
where er is the corotational (Zaremba-Jaumann) objective rate
of er , and εr is a material parameter. The term (−er dp /εr )
∇
restricts er to a recent prestrain. In the definition of er quoted
above, ėr denotes the material time derivative of er , and w the
material spin.
The effective strain εeff is shown in Fig. 6 as a function of
the equivalent von Mises strain εvM for several SPD processes:
multi-axis compression in the MAXStrain unit with 40% height
reduction in each cycle and with constrained or free ends of
the material sample, equal-channel angular pressing for route
C with 90◦ die angle, and high-pressure torsion. In each case,
an idealized local deformation path is examined that corre-
sponds to the respective simplest kinematics of plastic flow. Fig. 7 – Schematic view of microstructure created during
No attempt is made here to study the effect of macroscopically plastic deformation at moderate (a) and large (b) strain.
non-uniform deformation, e.g. due to boundary conditions or
to formation of shear bands. The diagrams in Fig. 6 depend
on two parameters, r∞ = 0.16 and εr = 0.2. In case of HPT, as 3.2. Evolution equations for microstructural
for rolling, εeff is just equal to εvM . The lower strain amplitude parameters
during multi-cycle deformation in the MAXStrain system in
comparison to ECAP results in a relatively slower accumula- The microstructure created during plastic deformation is
tion of εeff . examined here as being composed of equiaxed ordinary
dislocation cells located between geometrically necessary
boundaries (GNBs) of cell blocks, Fig. 7. Boundaries of dis-
location cells are incidental dislocation boundaries (IDBs)
and carry low-angle misorientation unless they coincide with
cell-block boundaries. Low-angle boundaries are illustrated
in Fig. 7 by thin lines. Dc denotes the usual mean diam-
eter of dislocation cells, Db is the mean spacing between
parallel cell-block boundaries, and Dw stands for the mean
cell-block length or width. These dimensions are assumed to
decrease to respective asymptotic values as the effective plas-
tic strain increases unboundedly. To describe such behaviour,
simple expressions are proposed (Petryk and Stupkiewicz,
2007), viz.
   −ε 
1 1 1 1 eff
= ∞ + − exp (3)
Dc Dc D0c D∞
c εc

   −ε 
1 1 1 1 eff
= ∞ + − ∞ exp (4)
Db Db D0b Db εb

Fig. 6 – Effective strain εeff as a function of the equivalent Each of the above equations involves three parameters. In
von Mises strain εvM for different SPD routes; r∞ = 0.16, the formula for Dc , parameters D0c and D∞c are the initial and
εr = 0.2. the asymptotic cell size, respectively, and εc defines how fast
260 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 4 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 255–263
Fig. 8 – Average cell size Dc and spacing of cell-block
boundaries Db versus the equivalent strain εvM , calculated
and measured for multi-axis compression with 40% height
reduction in each cycle.
Dc is evolving. The parameters in the expression for Db have
analogous meaning.
The plots in Fig. 8 show the evolution of the average cell size
Dc and spacing of cell-block boundaries Db versus equivalent
strain εvM simulated for cyclic deformation in the MAXStrain
unit with 40% height reduction in each cycle. The point sym-
bols as labelled in Fig. 8 represent experimentally measured
 of the effective plastic strain εeff but also depends, the more
values taken from Table 1, with Dc = Dxc Dyc . However, it
should be mentioned that Dy is only a rough estimation of
the actual average cell-block thickness, and that the material
flow in the longitudinal direction could not be fully prevented
in the experiments. Analogous remarks apply to the experi-
mental results shown below in Fig. 9. The solid lines in Fig. 8
have been determined by using analytic expressions (3) and
(4) and the relationship for effective strain εeff visualized in
Fig. 6. The results calculated for constrained and free ends
are very close to each other, as a consequence of only slightly
distinct respective relationships for εeff ; the results visualized
in Fig. 8 are for constrained ends. In experiments, Dy for free
ends decreases somewhat faster than for constrained ends.
The parameters D0b = 12 ␮m, D∞ = 0.2 ␮m, εb = 7.5 for Db and
b
D0c = 4 ␮m, D∞
c = 0.2 ␮m, εc = 1.8 for Dc have been adopted to
fit the results of measurements with a reasonable accuracy.
The value of Dw is expected to decrease faster on com-
plex deformation paths, such that the newly created cell-block
boundaries intersect older ones, cf. Furukawa et al. (2002) and
Xu et al. (2005). Accordingly, a differential equation for Dw is
postulated (Petryk and Stupkiewicz, 2007) that takes this effect
into account, viz.
d 1 + mw sin(dp , es )
Dw = −(Dw − D∞
w) , (5)
dεeff εw
where es is a prestrain tensor defined similarly to er , cf. Eq. (2),
with the only difference that parameter εr is replaced with εs
Fig. 9 – Cell-block length Dw as a function of the equivalent
strain εvM during mutli-axis compression in the MAXStrain
unit with 40% height reduction in each cycle.
of higher value which corresponds to a larger prestrain magni-
tude. In the present calculations, εs = 0.5 while εr = 0.2. In Eq.
(5), sin(dp , es ) denotes sinus of the angle between the direc-
tions of tensors dp and es , and is calculated in the standard
manner by determining first the cosinus value, cos(dp , es ) =
dp · es /(dp es ). It is emphasized that in contrast to Dc and
Db , the calculated current value of Dw is not only a function
strongly the higher the value of parameter mw , on the strain
path complexity.
Fig. 9 shows how the cell-block length Dw varies during
cyclic deformation in the MAXStrain unit with 40% height
reduction in each cycle as examined above. The experimental
data points in Fig. 9 taken from Table 1 correspond nominally
to the case of constrained ends, but especially at lower accu-
mulated strains some longitudinal strain component could
not be avoided as already mentioned. In this case the differ-
ence between the simulation results for constrained and free
ends is more substantial due to the path complexity effect
incorporated in Eq. (5). The parameters involved in Eq. (5) have
been taken as D∞ w = 0.32 ␮m, εw = 0.8, mw = 4, with the initial
value D0w = 50 ␮m.
At large strains examined here, it is assumed that cell-block
boundaries, indicated by thick lines in Fig. 7, develop into high-
angle grain boundaries. It means that the mean HAGB spacing
in the directions normal and parallel to longer cell-block
boundaries at large strains is equal to Db and Dw , respectively,
while the remaining cell boundaries correspond to low-angle
misorientation. For the assumed simplified geometry of the
microstructure, from pure geometry for regular cubic cells, the
high-angle boundary area fraction h can be roughly estimated
as follows
(1/Db + 2/Dw )
h ≈ Dc . (6)
3
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 4 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 255–263
Fig. 9 shows that the calculated length Dw of cell blocks, and
hence the related estimate (6) of the high-angle boundary area
fraction, are not only functions of the effective plastic strain
εeff but also depend on the strain path complexity. It has been
reported (Richert et al., 2001; Terhune et al., 2002; Prangnell et
al., 2004) that the HAGB area fraction saturates at very large
strain at a value less than unity. For the asymptotic values
D∞ ∞ ∞
c , Db and Dw given above and used to obtain the plots in
Figs. 8 and 9, the HAGB area fraction estimated from formula
(6) saturates at a value h = 0.75.
3.3. Isotropic and kinematic hardening
For evolving microstructures of the type visualized in Fig. 7 at a
single grain level, the strain hardening is described here as the
sum of the cell-block (or high-angle) boundary strengthening,
expressed by a Hall–Petch relationship, and the dislocation
strengthening, expressed by a term inversely proportional to
the dislocation cell size. This proposal is motivated by that in
references Hughes and Hansen (2000) and Hansen et al. (2001).
A new expression for the (isotropic) yield stress for a poly-
crystal has recently been proposed in the form (Petryk and
Stupkiewicz, 2007)
1 1
y = 1 + (1 − h )kc Gb + h kb  .
Dc D compared to the results of modelling. Typical values of G =
b
The first term 1 can be interpreted as a frictional stress.
The second term represents the contribution from disloca-
tions in low-angle boundaries (of average spacing Dc ) and from
dislocations between boundaries; G is the elastic shear mod-
ulus and b the magnitude of the Burgers vector. The third
term represents the contribution from high-angle boundaries,
essentially from parallel cell-block boundaries (of average
spacing Db ). The leading factors (1 − h ) and h (the HAGB area
fraction) at the second and third term, respectively, are vary-
ing with the effective plastic strain. The coefficients kc and kb
are here material constants.
The above isotropic yield stress y is incorporated in
the continuum mechanics framework of plasticity. It is well
known that internal stresses develop due to heterogeneity of
plastic deformation. They increase the stress needed to con-
tinue the plastic flow in the current direction and decrease the
resistance in the opposite direction. The related Bauschinger
effect is modelled in the usual phenomenological way by intro-
ducing the back-stress tensor ˇ into the Huber-von Mises yield
criterion, viz.

3
f (, ˇ,  y ) ≡  − ˇ −  y = 0
2
where  = J is the Kirchhoff stress tensor (the true stress
tensor  multiplied by the reference-to-current material den-
sity ratio J), and  is the deviator of . The external stress
is influenced by ˇ whose changes produce another type of
strain hardening known as kinematic hardening, cf. Chaboche
(1986). Eq. (8) is complemented with the usual associated flow
261
rule for the plastic strain-rate dp ,
∂f 3  − ˇ
dP = ˙ = ˙ (9)
∂ 2 y
and a nonlinear kinematic hardening rule, e.g.,
∇
ˇ = h1 dP − h2 ˇ
˙ (10)
∇
that involves the objective, corotational time derivative ˇ
of back-stress ˇ. The plastic multiplier ˙ ≥ 0 is to be deter-
mined from the consistency condition ḟ = 0 during plastic
flow. Parameters h1 and h2 are to be determined by fitting an
experimental stress–strain curve. A quantitative relationship
between the microstructure evolution and kinematic harden-
ing in SPD processes is not investigated here.
In Petryk and Stupkiewicz (2007) the above constitutive
framework has been used to simulate the behaviour of pure
aluminium subjected to severe plastic deformation. Here,
the attention is focused on simulation of the mechanical
response of IF steel during simple compression and during first
four passes of multi-axis compression using the MAXStrain
unit.
Fig. 10 shows experimental data points in the true
strain–true stress diagram for simple compression of IF steel
(7)
81.6 GPa and b = 0.248 nm have been taken, for which the
parameters kc = 4, kb = 200 MPa ␮m1/2 and 1 = 200 MPa give
the plot of the isotropic part y of the flow stress shown as the
broken line in Fig. 10. To match the experimental data points,
coefficients in the expression (10) that defines kinematic hard-
ening have been adjusted as h1 = 1250 MPa and h2 = 11.2 so
that the resulting total yield stress follows the solid line in
Fig. 10.
(8)
Fig. 10 – Experimental strain–stress diagram for simple
compression of IF steel compared to the results of
modelling. Total compressive stress calculated from the
model is marked by solid line, while dashed line represents
the isotropic part  y of the flow stress.
262 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 4 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 255–263
Fig. 11 – Forging force during first four passes of multi-axis
compression using the MAXStrain unit with free ends for
40% height reduction in each cycle.
In Fig. 11 the forging force measured during first four passes
of multi-axis compression using the MAXStrain unit with free
ends and with 40% height reduction in each cycle is com-
pared to the predictions of the model. An idealized uniform
deformation has been examined such that the punch travel
in each pass conforms to the measured value. The transver-
sal strain was not prescribed but has been calculated at each
time step from the requirement that only one stress compo-
nent is non-zero, which corresponds to the no-restraint case
with negligible friction. The agreement with the experimental
data is good in spite of the idealized kinematics assumed in
calculations.
4. Summary and conclusions
The experimental results presented above show that the
multi-axis compression in the MAXStrain(R) system, as a
method of applying severe plastic deformation, is capable of
refining the grain size in IF steel to about 300 nm without
affecting significantly the initial shape of the material sam-
ple with constrained ends. In the case of free ends, a graded
structure along the sample axis can be obtained.
A quantitative description of grain subdivision and strain
hardening during multi-axis compression has been provided
by applying a new, physically motivated constitutive model
(Petryk and Stupkiewicz, 2007). The effective plastic strain εeff
is used whose growth is suspended for a transitory period after
a strain-rate reversal. The spacing of geometrically necessary
boundaries (GNBs) of cell blocks and of incidental boundaries
(IDBs) of dislocation cells decrease to respective asymptotic
values as εeff increases to very large values. Accordingly, the
microstructure refinement at comparable values of the equiv-
alent strain εvM is predicted to be slower for a lower cyclic
strain amplitude. The calculated length of cell blocks, and the
related estimate of the high-angle boundary area fraction, are
not only functions of the effective plastic strain εeff but also
depend on the strain path complexity.
Isotropic strain-hardening during large plastic deformation
is influenced by both dislocation and boundary strength-
ening, described in the flow stress formula by the additive
terms with variable weighting factors equal to the estimated
area fractions of low and high-angle boundaries, respec-
tively. This microstructural description of isotropic hardening
is incorporated in the continuum mechanics framework of
plasticity by combining it with the phenomenological model
of nonlinear kinematic hardening related to internal stress
development.
The comparison of the modelling results to experimen-
tal data obtained for IF steel confirms the capability of the
model to capture essential features of the behaviour of metal-
lic materials during severe plastic deformation on complex
paths. The proposed model of grain refinement and strain
hardening provides a tool for quantitative comparison of dif-
ferent SPD processes.
Acknowledgement
This work has been supported by the State Committee for
Scientific Research (KBN) in Poland through Grants Nos. PBZ-
KBN-096/T08/2003 and PBZ-KBN-102/T08/2003.
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