Materials Science and Technology

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Microstructural evolution and mechanical

behaviour of Fe-30Mn-C steels with various carbon
contents

M. Ghasri-Khouzani & J. R. McDermid

To cite this article: M. Ghasri-Khouzani & J. R. McDermid (2017): Microstructural evolution and
mechanical behaviour of Fe-30Mn-C steels with various carbon contents, Materials Science and
Technology, DOI: 10.1080/02670836.2016.1268662

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02670836.2016.1268662

Published online: 16 Jan 2017.

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MATERIALS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 2017
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02670836.2016.1268662

Microstructural evolution and mechanical behaviour of Fe-30Mn-C steels with

various carbon contents
M. Ghasri-Khouzani and J. R. McDermid
McMaster Steel Research Centre, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4L7

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

A Fe-30Mn-0.6C sheet steel was decarburised and/or annealed to obtain four Fe-30Mn-C alloys Received 19 August 2016
with carbon contents of 0.06, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 wt-%. The primary deformation products were found Accepted 28 November 2016
to be mechanical twins for the 0.2C, 0.4C and 0.6C alloys and a combination of mechanical twins KEYWORDS
and ε-martensite for the 0.06C alloy. Both the ε-martensite and mechanical twin formation kinet- High manganese steel;
ics increased sigmoidally with true strain such that the final twin volume fraction increased with Deformation; Twinning;
increasing alloy SFE and C content, where the latter finding disagrees with some of the accepted Martensitic transformation;
models for high-Mn twinning induced plasticity steels. Moreover, the activation stress for twin EBSD; X-ray diffraction;
formation was found to increase linearly with alloy SFE, per a model previously proposed by the Mechanical behaviour;
present authors. Stacking fault energy

Introduction
Efforts to meet government-mandated vehicle fuel effi-
ciency targets through body-in-white weight reduc-
tions, while maintaining or enhancing passenger safety,
have increased the demand for advanced high-strength
steels for automotive structural components [1]. To ful-
fil this objective, high manganese (Mn) steels with Mn
contents of 12–33 wt-% and carbon content of 0–1.2
wt-% – often with additions of aluminium and/or sil-
icon – have been developed [2–8]. These steels can
exhibit either the transformation induced plasticity
(TRIP) and/or the twinning induced plasticity (TWIP)
effects, where the latter leads to significantly higher
ductility owing to the high sustained work hardening
rates observed [4,9].
For high-Mn TRIP steels, the austenitic matrix par-
tially transforms to ε-martensite during plastic defor-
mation. The high work hardening rates observed for
these steels are largely explained by the dynamic forma-
tion of the highly dislocated HCP ε-martensite phase,
which is also accompanied by the creation of numerous
geometrically necessary dislocations at the austenite/ε-
martensite interface [10,11]. In the case of the high-Mn
TWIP steels, a significant population of mechanical
twins develops within the austenite matrix during plas-
tic deformation. The mechanism by which these alloys
achieve their sustained high work hardening rates con-
tinues to be a subject of some debate in the literature,
where numerous authors [7,9,12–17] have attributed
the sustained high work hardening rates observed to
dynamic twin formation, decreasing the mean free path
for dislocation motion – i.e. the so-called dynamic
Hall–Petch effect. However, other authors [18,19] have
attributed the Portevin–Le Chatelier (PLC) or dynamic
strain ageing (DSA) effect as being responsible for the
high work hardening rates observed for these steels.
The value of the stacking fault energy (SFE) plays
a critical role in determining whether the deforma-
tion products in high-Mn austenitic steels are either
ε-martensite or twins, where the SFE is a strong func-
tion of alloy chemistry and temperature [4,9,20,21].
Several models have been proposed for computing the
SFE and predicting the deformation products in high-
Mn steels [4,22–27]. The model of Allain et al. [22]
predicts that the γ → ε mechanical martensitic trans-
formation would take place if the SFE was lower than
18 mJ/m2 , whereas mechanical twins would form when
the SFE lay between 12 and 35 mJ/m2 . The more recent
extension of the Allain et al. model by Dumay et al.
[23] predicts that a lower SFE (i.e. < 18 mJ/m2 ) favours
mechanical ε-martensite formation, while a higher SFE
( ≥ 18 mJ/m2 ) favours mechanical twinning. In addi-
tion, according to the SFE model proposed by Saeed-
Akbari et al. [26], the γ → ε mechanical martensitic
transformation would take place when the SFE was
lower than 20 mJ/m2 . However, this model did not pro-
vide an SFE value range for the formation of mechanical
twins. In spite of some inconsistencies in the SFE ranges
predicted by the available models for the formation
of the ε-martensite and mechanical twin deformation
products, there is general agreement that mechani-
cal ε-martensite formation was replaced by mechan-
ical twinning when the SFE value reaches a critical
level.

CONTACT J. R. McDermid mcdermid@mcmaster.ca

© 2017 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. Published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Institute.
2 M. GHASRI-KHOUZANI AND J. R. MCDERMID
Carbon plays a variety of roles in high-Mn Fe-Mn-C
steels. In addition to the role of C in the solid solution
strengthening of austenitic steels and its role in chemi-
cally stabilising austenite, it is generally agreed that the
SFE value of high-Mn steels increases with increasing
alloy carbon content [22–24,26,28], although the rate of
increase was not consistent within these contributions.
Increased alloy carbon content has also been reported
to be linked to the appearance of serrations in the ten-
sile curve for high-Mn TWIP steels with more than 0.4
wt-% C [9,13–15,29–33].
Although numerous contributions on the micro-
structure, deformation products and mechanical
behaviour of various high-Mn Fe-Mn-C alloys can
be found in the literature [2,6,12–15,29,34,35], only a
limited number have focused on the effect of carbon
content on the microstructural and mechanical prop-
erty evolution while keeping other compositional and
microstructural parameters constant [9,36,37]. Thus,
the main objective of the current study is to determine
the influence of alloy carbon content on the microstruc-
tural evolution and mechanical properties of a series of
Fe-30Mn-C alloys as a function of applied deformation,
where the carbon contents ranged from approximately
0.06 to 0.6 wt-%. An additional objective of this study
is to extend and enhance some of the general models of
the mechanical behaviour of high-Mn steels previously
reported by the present authors [9] with the data from
this contribution.
Experimental procedure
The starting material was cold-rolled Fe-30Mn-0.6C
steel sheet with a thickness of 1.6 mm. A series of Fe-
30Mn-C steels with carbon contents of approximately
0.06, 0.2 and 0.4 wt-% were obtained through decar-
burisation heat treatments of the as-received steels,
where wet hydrogen was used as the decarburising
agent. To achieve homogenous alloys with respect to
carbon distribution and grain size, annealing heat treat-
ments under an argon atmosphere were also applied.
Both decarburisation and annealing heat treatments
were performed in a horizontal tube furnace, after
which samples were quenched in oil. Heat treat-
ment specimens comprised 102 mm × 36 mm coupons.
Table 1 presents the heat treatment parameters for all
experimental alloys. Optical microscopy and the ASTM
linear intercept method [38] were used to measure the
Table 1. Heat treatment parameters for all experimental alloys
Decarburisation Annealing Decarburisation
time (by wet H2 time (by Ar and annealing
Alloy name (5.2%)+Ar (94.8%)) (99.999%)) temperature
0.06C 7h 0 1000°C
0.2C 2 h + 50 min 4 h + 10 min 1000°C
0.4C 50 min 6 h + 10 min 1000°C
0.6C 0 7h 1000°C
average grain size of the as heat-treated alloys, where
seven fields within the optical micrographs were anal-
ysed for each alloy. A LECO HF-400 carbon combus-
tion analyser was used to determine the bulk carbon
content of the as heat-treated alloys. To construct car-
bon concentration profiles in the through thickness
direction to determine the homogeneity of the C distri-
bution, successive sample surface layers were removed
by grinding and carbon analyses performed as a func-
tion of the sample through thickness using a Jobin
Yvon Glow Discharge Optical Emission Spectrograph
(GDOES), where the GDOES was calibrated using cer-
tified standards. In this way, it was determined that the
C distribution was homogeneous through the sample
thickness for all samples.
Room temperature uniaxial tensile testing was car-
ried out at a crosshead speed of 1 mm/min (strain
rate of approximately 10−3 s−1 ) using a 10 kN Instron
5566 tensile frame. Sub-size tensile samples were cut
from the heat-treated coupons using electric discharge
machining (EDM) with dimensions in accordance with
ASTM E8M [39]. Tensile tests were conducted until
fracture to determine the overall sample tensile charac-
teristics or were interrupted at defined true strains for
microstructural evolution analysis. In all cases, a 25 mm
gauge length extensometer was employed to monitor
sample elongation. The sample uniform elongation was
determined from the true stress-true strain plots using
the Considère criterion:
dσ
= σ, (1)
dε
where σ and ε denote true stress and true strain, respec-
tively.
Since ε-martensite and twins are microstructurally
similar and cannot be differentiated by conventional
SEM or optical microscopy, Electron Back-Scattered
Diffraction (EBSD) was carried out using a JEOL JSM-
7000 FEG–SEM to analyse the microstructural evolu-
tion of the sample cross-sections before, during and
after deformation. An acceleration voltage of 20 keV
and a working distance of 18.4 mm were used for all
SEM analyses. The specimen was tilted 70° towards
the EBSD detector to increase the backscattered elec-
tron yield. The magnification was 400 × in all cases.
For all EBSD phase maps, the step size was 0.4 μm
to obtain sufficient resolution within a relatively large
microstructural region. HKL Channel 5 software was
used for the operation and control of all EBSD analy-
ses as well as analysis of the EBSD results. In prepar-
ing the EBSD specimens, sample cross-sections were
initially prepared using standard metallographic pro-
cedures followed by Ar ion milling with a JEOL IB-
09010 Cross-section Polisher (CP) to eliminate any
residual surface stresses which may adversely affect the
local transformation products. To determine the twin
 MATERIALS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 3

volume fraction from the EBSD phase maps, the point the models of Dumay et al. [23], Nakano and Jacques
counting method proposed by Renard and Jacques [7] [24] and Saeed-Akbari et al. [26], as summarised in
was used. Table 2. For all the alloys except the 0.06C alloy, the
The volume fraction of ε-martensite in the as heat- measured carbon contents were very close to the tar-
treated and deformed samples was quantitatively deter- get levels. In the case of the SFE values computed using
mined via X-ray diffraction using a Bruker D8 Discover the Dumay et al. [23] model, the deformation prod-
diffractometer. The X-ray beam was generated from a ucts were predicted to be mechanical twins for the 0.2C,
Co source with a Kα line wavelength of 1.79026 Å using 0.4C and 0.6C alloys and a combination of mechani-
a voltage and current of 35 keV and 45 mA, respectively. cal twins and ε-martensite for the 0.06C alloy. The SFE
Spectra were taken in the 2θ range from 36° to 120° with model of Nakano and Jacques [24] predicted mechan-
a 0.03° step size and a dwell time of 1.3 s per step. Sample ical ε-martensite formation for the 0.06C alloy with-
cross-sections were analysed using a 1.0 mm diameter out providing any predictions for mechanical twinning
aperture in all cases. The sample was moved back and for the remaining alloys. The SFE model proposed by
forth along its length and also rotated continuously to Saeed-Akbari et al. [26] did not predict mechanical ε-
mitigate any preferred orientation effects on the analy- martensite formation for any of the experimental alloys.
sis. Each analysis was run in triplicate for each sample It should be noted that the results listed in Table 2 show
and the average of the results presented. that the Dumay et al. model [23] showed a stronger
effect of alloy carbon content on the SFE value com-
Results pared to that of other models.
The average grain size of the as heat-treated samples
As heat-treated alloy carbon content and was 104 ± 4 μm, 101 ± 2 μm, 110 ± 3 and 108 ± 4 μm
microstructure for the 0.06C, 0.2C, 0.4C and 0.6C alloys, respectively.
The carbon contents of the as heat-treated experimen- From these data, it can be concluded that there were no
tal alloys were used to compute their SFE values using significant differences in alloy grain size. Typical EBSD
phase maps from the cross-sections of the as heat-
treated alloys are shown in Figure 1. For all EBSD phase
Table 2. Carbon content and calculated SFE values for all exper-
imental alloys at room temperature maps presented, it should be noted that FCC austenite is
denoted in red, HCP ε-martensite in blue, twin bound-
Carbon
Alloy content SFE (mJ/m2 ) SFE (mJ/m2 ) SFE (mJ/m2 ) aries in yellow and un-indexed areas black. Moreover,
Name (wt-%) by Ref. [23] by Ref. [24] by Ref. [26] grain boundaries are shown as black lines. As can be
0.06C 0.06 17.9 35.3 28.4 seen, the as heat-treated alloy microstructures com-
0.2C 0.20 23.5 37.8 31.1 prised an equiaxed, fully austenitic matrix with some
0.4C 0.41 29.6 40.6 35.1
0.6C 0.59 33.2 43.4 38.5 annealing twins and no detectable ε-martensite.

Figure 1. Typical EBSD phase maps from the cross-section microstructure of the as heat-treated alloys; (a) 0.06C, (b) 0.2C, (c) 0.4C
and (d) 0.6C.
4 M. GHASRI-KHOUZANI AND J. R. MCDERMID

serrations, which can be attributed to the PLC or DSA

effect [31,33].
To assess the effect of increasing alloy Mn content
on alloy yield stress, the data for the present 0.4C and
0.6C alloys (Table 3) were compared to the yield stresses
of the Fe-22Mn-0.4C (223 MPa) and Fe-22Mn-0.6C
(265 MPa) alloys previously documented by the present
authors [9], where the grain sizes, phase make-up and
carbon contents were insignificantly different across the
two sets of alloys. From this comparison, it can be seen
that the yield stress increased with increasing alloy Mn
level. This result disagrees with the previously discussed
model of Bouaziz et al. [29] for the effect of compo-
sition on the yield stress of high-Mn Fe-Mn-C steels,
where the yield strength was predicted to decrease with
increasing alloy Mn content. For the present as heat-
treated 0.06C and 0.2C alloys, it should be noted that
their properties cannot be directly compared to those of
their Fe-22Mn-C counterparts, as the latter contained
significant volume fractions of ε-martensite [9].
It can also be seen from Figure 2(a) and Table 3 that
the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of the experimental
alloys increased with increasing alloy carbon content,
which can be attributed to the sustained high work
hardening rates exhibited by all the alloys (Figure 2(b))
as well as the solid solution strengthening effect of car-
bon. From Figure 2(a) and Table 3, it can be seen that
the uniform elongation of the experimental alloys did
not significantly change with the alloy C level except in
the case of the 0.6C alloy, which had a slightly higher
Figure 2. (a) Representative room temperature true elongation. Macroscopically, this occurred because the
stress–strain plots of the experimental alloys. (b) Corresponding 0.6C alloy exhibited the highest sustained work hard-
work hardening rate versus true stress. ening rates (i.e. dσ /dε) of the experimental alloys
(Figure 2(b)) owing to the dynamic grain refinement
Mechanical properties effect of the mechanical twins (i.e. reduction of dislo-
cation mean free path). As will be discussed below, this
Representative room temperature true stress–true
was also likely due to the 0.6C alloy having a higher
strain curves for all experimental alloys are provided
volume fraction of twins in the microstructure versus
in Figure 2(a) and the derived tensile characteristics
the other alloys. However, the apparent lack of benefit
for all alloys listed in Table 3. All tensile curves dis-
from the increased volume fraction of twins can likely
played continuous yielding. Furthermore, it can be seen
be attributed to the critical damage process in the lower
that alloy yield stress (YS) increased with increasing
C alloys not being dominated by either ε-martensite or
alloy carbon content (Figure 2(a), Table 3). This can be
twin boundary void nucleation, but being controlled by
explained by the solid solution strengthening effect of
the normal processes found in austenitic alloys – e.g.
carbon in austenite [29,40] and is in qualitative agree-
void nucleation at grain boundaries.
ment with the model proposed by Bouaziz et al. on
Inspection of Figure 2 will show that the experimen-
the effect of composition on the yield strength of high-
tal alloys displayed distinctly different work harden-
Mn steels [29]. As can be seen in Figure 2(a), the flow
ing histories, where the 0.06C and 0.2C alloys showed
curves of the 0.4C and 0.6C alloys showed significant
relatively low work hardening rates (i.e. dσ /dε) ver-
sus the 0.4C and 0.6C alloys and which continuously
Table 3. Tensile characteristics of the experimental alloys at declined with increasing stress. These work harden-
room temperature
ing histories are consistent with that observed by Liang
Yield stress Uniform et al. [6] for a Fe-30Mn-0.02C alloy (wt-%), in which
Alloy name (MPa) UTS (MPa) elongation
dislocation glide was determined to be the dominant
0.06C 153 ± 3 775 ± 7 0.48 ± 0.03
0.2C 174 ± 4 892 ± 8 0.47 ± 0.02 deformation mode. However, the 0.4C and 0.6C alloys
0.4C 251 ± 6 1165 ± 10 0.50 ± 0.03 exhibited several distinct changes in their dσ /dε values
286 ± 5 1457 ± 9 0.61 ± 0.04
0.6C
typical of true TWIP alloys, where the dσ /dε curve

for the 0.4C alloy initially declined with increasing
stress and strain until σ ≈ 570 MPa (ε ≈ 0.15) before
attaining a maximum at σ ≈ 890 MPa (ε ≈ 0.33), after
which the alloy work hardening rate declined to frac-
ture (Figure 2). Similarly, the dσ /dε values for the
0.6C alloy initially declined with increasing stress until
σ ≈ 660 MPa (ε ≈ 0.18), after which they increased
until σ ≈ 1050 MPa (ε ≈ 0.38), followed by declining
work hardening rates to fracture. This behaviour is con-
sistent with stages A through C of the work hardening of
a Fe-20Mn-1.2C TWIP steel described by Renard and
Jacques [7] and is consistent with the work hardening
behaviour generally observed for high-Mn TWIP steels
[9,13,15,17,31–33,37,41–43].
Microstructural evolution with tensile deformation
To determine the deformation products in the micro-
structures, EBSD and XRD analyses were performed on
the experimental alloys as a function of plastic strain.
Twins were observed in all of the alloys in varying vol-
ume fractions, whereas significant volume fractions of
ε-martensite were only observed in the 0.06C alloy. A
plot of ε-martensite volume fraction versus true strain
for the 0.06C alloy is shown in Figure 3, where the
plot error bars represent the 95% confidence intervals
for the average ε-martensite volume fraction. For the
un-deformed 0.06C alloy microstructure (at ε = 0),
the ε-martensite volume fraction was approximately
0.025. This observation is reasonably consistent with
the microstructural observations of the as heat-treated
0.06C alloy illustrated in Figure 1. From Figure 3, it can
be seen that the ε-martensite volume fraction increased
with increasing true strain in a sigmoidal fashion. It can
also be seen that the rate of γ → ε martensitic trans-
formation declined for ε ≥ 0.3. These observations are
qualitatively consistent with the Fe-22Mn-0.06C and
Fe-22Mn-0.2C alloy ε-martensite formation kinetics
previously reported by the present authors [9].
Figure 3. Evolution of ε-martensite volume fraction with ten-
sile strain for the 0.06C alloy, measured via XRD.
MATERIALS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 5
Figure 4 presents cross-sectional EBSD phase maps
as a function of true strain for the 0.06C and 0.2C alloys.
For both alloys, the microstructures at low strains
(ε ≤ 0.1, Figure 4(a) and (e) for the 0.06C and 0.2C
alloys, respectively) comprised an equiaxed austenite
matrix with some annealing twins. These microstruc-
tures were insignificantly different from those of the
as heat-treated 0.06C and 0.2C alloys, as illustrated in
Figure 1(a) and (b), respectively, and are consistent
with the XRD results shown in Figure 3 for the 0.06C
alloy. The first deformation products were observed as
the true strain approached ε = 0.2 (Figure 4(b) and
(f)). For the 0.06C alloy, the deformation products
(Figure 4(b–d)) were small volume fractions of both
mechanical twins and ε-martensite, where the latter
was consistent with the XRD data shown in Figure 3. In
the case of 0.2C alloy, however, mechanical twins were
the only significant deformation products observed
(Figure 4(f–h)).
EBSD phase maps from the cross-sections of the
0.4C and 0.6C alloys as a function of applied strain are
presented in Figure 5. For true strains of up to ε ≈ 0.1,
the microstructures contained no significant deforma-
tion products and comprised an austenitic matrix with
some annealing twins, as illustrated in Figure 5(a) and
(e) for the 0.4C and 0.6C alloys, respectively. For both
alloys, mechanical twins appeared in the microstruc-
tures as the true strain approached 0.2 (Figure 5(b) and
(f)). The twin population then increased sharply with
increasing strain, as can be seen in Figure 5(c) and (d)
for the 0.4C alloy and Figure 5(g) and (h) for the 0.6C
alloy. It should be noted that no significant ε-martensite
was observed in the 0.4C and 0.6C alloys for any strain.
Furthermore, comparison of Figs. 4 and 5 will show that
the twin volume fractions at higher strains were signif-
icantly greater for the 0.4C and 0.6C alloys versus that
for the 0.06C and 0.2C alloys.
Further examination of Figs. 4(e–h) and 5 will reveal
that the twin population for different grains was not
the same, which is consistent with general findings in
the literature concerning the effect of the local Schmid
factor on twin activation [8,13,44,45]. Based on the
EBSD phase maps in Figs. 4(e–h) and 5, the dominant
deformation product for the 0.2C, 0.4C and 0.6C alloys
was determined to be mechanical twins. The latter two
results are in agreement with the deformation products
reported by Wang et al. for a Fe-30Mn-0.5C alloy ten-
sile tested at room temperature [46]. It should be noted
that for all experimental alloys, the observed deforma-
tion products generally confirmed the predictions of
the Dumay et al. SFE model [23].
The point counting method of Renard and Jacques
[7] was used with the EBSD phase maps to deter-
mine the volume fraction of twins as a function of
alloy C content and applied strain for all experimental
alloys, the results of which are shown in Figure 6. From
Figure 6, it can be seen that the twin volume fraction
6 M. GHASRI-KHOUZANI AND J. R. MCDERMID

Figure 4. EBSD phase maps of cross-sections for the 0.06C and 0.2C alloys as a function of true strain: (a) 0.06C, ε = 0.1; (b) 0.06C,
ε = 0.2; (c) 0.06C, ε = 0.3; (d) 0.06C, ε = 0.44; (e) 0.2C, ε = 0.1; (f) 0.2C, ε = 0.2; (g) 0.2C, ε = 0.3; (h) 0.2C, ε = 0.43.

for all alloys was very low ( ≈ 0.03) for strains of less
than 0.1. This can be explained by invoking a criti-
cal stress for twin nucleation, which has been shown
by several authors to be proportional to the alloy SFE
[9,43,44]. This correlation, within the context of the
present alloys and previous literature, will be discussed
below. For all of the alloys, the twinning kinetics fol-
lowed a sigmoidal rate, with the rate of mechanical twin
formation being relatively high for strains of 0.1 to 0.3,
after which the rate of twin formation decreased as the
alloys approached twin saturation. It can also be seen
that the volume fraction of mechanical twins at fracture
increased with increasing C content. All of these obser-
vations are consistent with the microstructural trends
observed in Figs. 4 and 5.
Comparison of the twinning kinetics in Figure 6 to
the mechanical properties and work hardening rates
shown in Figure 2 and Table 3 will show that the work
hardening rates (and consequent mechanical prop-
erties) were directly proportional to the trends seen
in the relative volume fractions of twins and rate of
twin formation, as would be expected for the case
 MATERIALS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 7

Figure 5. EBSD phase maps of cross-sections for the 0.4C and 0.6C alloys as a function of true strain: (a) 0.4C, ε = 0.1; (b) 0.4C,
ε = 0.2; (c) 0.4C, ε = 0.3; (d) 0.4C, ε = 0.49; (e) 0.6C, ε = 0.1; (f) 0.6C, ε = 0.2; (g) 0.6C, ε = 0.3; (h) 0.6C, ε = 0.45.

of twin boundaries decreasing the dislocation mean
free path through dynamic refinement of the grain
structure. This finding is consistent with the so-called
dynamic Hall–Petch effect explanation for the mechan-
ical behaviour of high-Mn TWIP steels advocated by a
number of authors [7,9,12–17,22,29].
Discussion
In the case of the 0.06C alloy, an examination of the
EBSD phase maps (Figure 4(a–d)) in addition to the
ε-martensite (Figure 3) and twinning kinetics data
(Figure 6) will show that the total volume fraction of
deformation products in the microstructure was less
than 0.3 for all strains, indicating that the dominant
deformation mechanism for the 0.06C alloy was dis-
location glide. These findings are in general agreement
with those reported by Liang et al. for a Fe-30Mn-0.02C
alloy subjected to uniaxial tensile deformation at 293
K [6]. A mixture of ε-martensite and mechanical twin
deformation products has been previously reported
for a Fe-22Mn-0.4C alloy by the present authors [9],
where the SFE for the Fe-22Mn-0.4C alloy (15.0 mJ/m2
by the Dumay et al. model [23], to be used for all
8 M. GHASRI-KHOUZANI AND J. R. MCDERMID
Figure 6. Evolution of twin volume fraction with true strain for
all experimental alloys.
subsequent SFE computations unless otherwise noted)
was slightly lower than that of the present Fe-30Mn-
0.06C alloy (17.9 mJ/m2 ). For both the Fe-22Mn-0.4C
and Fe-30Mn-0.06C alloys, the final ε-martensite vol-
ume fraction was approximately 0.12. However, a larger
final volume fraction of mechanical twins ( ≈ 0.25) was
observed for the Fe-22Mn-0.4C alloy versus that for the
present 0.06C alloy ( ≈ 0.14).
For the 0.2C alloy, the twin volume fraction
increased sigmoidally with increasing deformation
with a trend similar to that observed for the 0.06C alloy
(Figure 6). It should be noted, however, that the twin
volume fraction was uniformly higher versus that of the
0.06C alloy for all strains greater than 0.1, with the final
twin volume fraction in the 0.2C alloy being approxi-
mately 0.20. This explains the higher work hardening
rate observed for the 0.2C alloy compared to that for
the 0.06C alloy (Figure 2(b)), which led to the higher
observed UTS for the 0.2C alloy (Figure 2(a) and Table
3). The higher twin volume fraction of this alloy com-
pared to that of the 0.06C alloy can be explained by con-
sidering their relative SFE values, where this increased
from 17.9 mJ/m2 for the 0.06C alloy to 23.5 mJ/m2
for the 0.2C alloy. However, the increased twin vol-
ume fraction of the 0.2C alloy was not sufficient to
prevent a continuous decease in the work hardening
rate during the deformation of this alloy, as observed
in Figure 2(b). No ε-martensite was observed in the
microstructure of this alloy for all applied strains, as
shown in (Figure 4(e–h)). Thus, it can be concluded
that dislocation glide was also the dominant deforma-
tion mode for this alloy and that, furthermore, the twin-
ning kinetics and saturated twin volume fraction were
insufficient to produce the dynamic Hall–Petch effect
typical of that desired in true TWIP alloys. This resulted
in the tensile behaviour of this alloy being similar to that
of the 0.06C alloy (see Figire 2).
From Figure 5, it can be seen that mechanical twins
were the dominant deformation products for the 0.4C
and 0.6C alloys, with no significant ε-martensite being
detected within the microstructures. From Figure 6,
it can be seen that the onset of mechanical twinning
occurred between ε = 0.1 and ε = 0.2 for both the
alloys. This onset strain was slightly higher than that
reported for the Fe-20Mn-1.2C [7], Fe-18Mn-0.6C-
1.5Al [17], Fe-22Mn-0.4C and Fe-22Mn-0.6C [9] alloys
within the literature. As previously reported [7,9], the
activation stress for mechanical twinning can be deter-
mined using the inflection point associated with the
first increase in the alloy dσ /dε value from the work
hardening curves. From Figure 2(b), this was deter-
mined to be at ε = 0.15 (σ = 570 MPa) and ε = 0.18
(σ = 660 MPa) for the present 0.4C and 0.6C alloys,
respectively.
The activation stress for the onset of mechanical
twinning for high-Mn Fe-Mn-C steels, where twinning
is the dominant deformation product, has been shown
by the present authors to increase linearly with increas-
ing alloy SFE [9] (computed using the model of Allain
et al. [22]), as proposed by Byun [47] for austenitic
stainless steels. These data are re-plotted in Figure 7(a)
using the more recent multicomponent SFE model of
Dumay et al. [23]. This relationship is further explored
and expanded in Figure 7(b), which includes the acti-
vation stress for mechanical twinning for the present
0.4C and 0.6C TWIP steels. It should be noted that
the revised plot includes the previously presented data
derived from Renard and Jacques [7], Ghasri-Khouzani
and McDermid [9], Jin and Lee [17] and Yang [48]. It
was found that the data in Figure 7 obeyed the linear
relationship:
SFE
σt = (2.95 ± 0.07) r2 = 0.99
bp
SFE ≥ 13.6 mJ/m2 , (2)
where σ t is the activation stress for the onset of
mechanical twin formation (Pa),  SFE (J/m2 ) the SFE
and bp (m) the magnitude of the Burgers vector for the
Shockley partial dislocation, calculated to be 0.144 nm
based on the previously reported magnitude of the
Burgers vector in TWIP steels of 0.25 nm [14]. Compar-
ison of Figure 7(a) to 7(b) will show that the addition of
the present data did not significantly change the previ-
ously derived linear relationship. Thus, it can be said
that the onset stress for mechanical twinning under
uniaxial tension, and the consequent increase in work
hardening rate for high-Mn TWIP steels, is linearly
dependent on the alloy SFE as described using eq. (2).
However, it should be noted that eq. (2) is applicable
only to the case of high-Mn TWIP steels where the alloy
SFE values are computed using the model of Dumay
et al. [23]. When using other SFE models, the constant
in eq. (2) may be different as was the case in the previous
analysis of this relationship by the present authors [9].
 MATERIALS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 9

Figure 7. Activation stress for mechanical twinning versus the SFE for various high-Mn steels: (a) data of Ghasri-Khouzani and
McDermid [9] re-plotted using the SFE equation of Dumay et al. [23], (b) Figure 7(a) with addition of data from present study.

For both the 0.4C and 0.6C alloys, the rate of twin
formation was highest for the 0.2–0.3 true strain range,
while the rate of twin formation decreased significantly
for higher strains (Figure 6). This decrease in the rate
of twin formation corresponded to a drop in the work
hardening rate for these alloys, as shown in Figure 2(b).
The decrease in twin formation rate (and correspond-
ing drop in work hardening rate) was reported to occur
at ε ≥ 0.3 for Fe-20Mn-1.2C [7], Fe-22Mn-0.4C and
Fe-22Mn-0.6C steels [9] and at ε ≥ 0.37 for a Fe-18Mn-
0.6C-1.5Al alloy [17]. The correspondence between the
decline in the rate of twin formation and the evolution
of the work hardening rate in the present contribution
and similar studies within the authors’ research group
[9,37,48,49] agree with the studies of other authors
[7,12–17,22,29], who attributed the high work harden- Figure 8. Final twin volume fraction as a function of SFE for
ing rates of high-Mn TWIP steels to the role of mechan- various high-Mn alloys.
ical twins in decreasing the mean free path for disloca-
tion motion – also widely referred to as the dynamic
Hall–Petch effect. It should be noted that these find- in Figure 8. It can be seen that the final volume frac-
ings disagree with those of authors who attribute the tion of twins generally increased with increasing SFE;
observed high work hardening rates in high-Mn TWIP however, the increase was not significant for higher
steels to the DSA or PLC effect [18,19]. SFE values. This can be explained by the suppression
From Figure 6, it can be seen that the final volume of mechanical twinning for high-Mn steels with rela-
fraction of mechanical twins increased with increas- tively high SFE values ( > 33 mJ/m2 ) and the increasing
ing alloy carbon level. Furthermore, the final volume dominance of dislocation glide as the primary deforma-
fraction of twins for the 0.4C and 0.6C alloys was tion mode [50]. The 0.06C and 0.2C alloys did not obey
higher than that of their previously studied Fe-22Mn- the trend presented in Figure 8 because they deformed
C counterparts [9], indicating that the final population mainly through dislocation glide despite their relatively
of mechanical twins also increased with increasing alloy low SFE.
manganese level. Furthermore, using the SFE model of However, it must be noted that the trend observed
Dumay et al. [23], the SFE of the previously studied Fe- for the twinning kinetics of the present alloy system
22Mn-C series of TWIP alloys was systematically lower – i.e. the increase in twinning kinetics with increasing
than those of their present 30Mn counterparts, indi- alloy SFE documented in Figure 6 – is not in agree-
cating that the final twin volume fraction may be pro- ment with the model proposed by Bouaziz and Guelton
portional to the alloy SFE. This relationship is explored [15], where the twin formation rate was predicted to
for the present system and others from the literature decrease with increasing alloy SFE. However, it should
10 M. GHASRI-KHOUZANI AND J. R. MCDERMID
be noted that the Bouaziz and Guelton model was based
on the relative stacking fault energies of an AISI 304L
stainless steel and a Fe-22Mn-0.6C TWIP steel and not
on variations in SFE within the Fe-Mn-C TWIP family
of alloys itself [15]. Furthermore, this trend in the rate
of mechanical twin formation increasing with increas-
ing Fe-Mn-C TWIP alloy SFE had previously been
observed for the family of Fe-22Mn-C alloys previously
studied by the present authors [9]. Reasons for this dis-
agreement with predictions of the Bouaziz and Guelton
model [15] are not known at this time and should be the
subject of further study, but a possible hypothesis for
this disagreement may be the extensive secondary twin-
ning observed in both the 22Mn and 30Mn TWIP alloy
systems which may not be accounted for in the Bouaziz
and Guelton model. For example, it has been observed
by Lü et al. [49], that secondary twinning is a significant
component of mechanical twinning in a Fe-22Mn-0.6C
TWIP steel where the secondary twinning kinetics are
a strong function of strain path. These secondary twins
would contribute fresh obstacles for dislocation move-
ment and result in increased work hardening rates until
the twin fraction approached saturation.
Conclusions
By investigating the microstructural evolution as a
function of carbon content and strain for a series of
Fe-30Mn-C alloys, the following can be concluded:
(i) The deformation products for the 0.06C alloy con-
sisted of minor volume fractions of both mechan-
ical ε-martensite and twins, leading to an alloy
exhibiting a lower work hardening rate likely dom-
inated by dislocation glide. However, the observed
work hardening rates were high compared to those
of higher-SFE materials, such as Al and its alloys
(ii) The deformation products for the 0.2C alloy were
determined to be a relatively small volume fraction
of mechanical twins, with dislocation glide being
the dominant deformation mode for this alloy
(iii) The deformed microstructures of both the 0.4C
and 0.6C alloys revealed significant volume frac-
tions of mechanical twins as their dominant
deformation products, leading to alloys displaying
higher sustained work hardening rates and giv-
ing rise to the conclusion that mechanical twin-
ning was the critical deformation mode leading
to true TWIP behaviour for these alloys with the
overall deformation behaviour continuing to be
dominated by dislocation glide
(iv) The yield stress and tensile strength of the exper-
imental alloys increased with increasing the alloy
carbon content and alloy SFE, whereas the uni-
form elongation was not significantly affected by
the alloy C content except for the 0.6C alloy, which
displayed a slightly higher uniform elongation.
This was likely due to either ε-martensite or twin
boundaries not being the dominant damage for-
mation site during the tensile deformation of the
lower C alloys
(v) The evolution of twin volume fraction with true
strain followed a sigmoidal kinetic for all the exper-
imental alloys, where the twinning kinetics and
twin volume fraction for a given stress or strain
increased with increasing alloy SFE and C con-
tent. Reasons for disagreement of this trend with
the predictions of the Bouaziz and Guelton model
should be the subject of further investigations, but
may have arisen from the effects of secondary twin
formation
(vi) For the higher SFE 0.4C and 0.6C TWIP alloys,
the activation stress for the start of mechani-
cal twinning increased linearly with alloy SFE.
This relationship was consistent with the empiri-
cal equation previously derived for other high-Mn
TWIP alloys taken from the open literature.
Acknowledgements
The Resource for the Innovation of Engineered Materi-
als (RIEM) programme of CANMETMaterials is gratefully
acknowledged for fabrication of the Fe-30Mn-0.6C sheet
steels used in the experiments. All electron microscopy for
this contribution was carried out in the Canadian Centre
for Electron Microscopy (CCEM) and all X-ray Diffrac-
tion was carried out within the McMaster Analytical X-Ray
Diffraction Facility (MAX) within the Brockhouse Institute
for Materials Research.
Funding
This work was supported by Natural Sciences and Engineer-
ing Research Council of Canada (NSERC Discovery).
ORCID
J. R. McDermid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0361-7829
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