Materials Science & Engineering A 763 (2019) 138119

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Materials Science & Engineering A

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

Effects of diameter and preparation of round shaped tensile specimen on T

mechanical properties
Joong-Ki Hwang
School of Mechanical Engineering, Tongmyong University, Busan, 48520, Republic of Korea

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The effect of specimen size and specimen preparation with round cross-sectional area on tensile properties in
Tensile properties twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steel has been investigated. Round type tensile specimens were prepared
Specimen preparation with two ways: the one is lathe processed specimen and the other is mechanically and chemically polished
Specimen diameter specimen after lathe processing. And then, tensile tests with various specimen diameters from 2 mm to 13 mm at
Twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steel
the fixed ratio of gage length to diameter of five were conducted. The polished specimens had similar yield
strength (YS), tensile strength (TS), total elongation (TE), and reduction in area (RA) values regardless of spe-
cimen diameter. Whereas, lathe processed specimens had a variation in tensile properties with specimen size: YS
increased and TE decreased with decreasing specimen size. The deformation twins was occurred in the surface
layer of lathe processed specimens of undeformed and at the engineering strain of 10%, which is not related to
the tensile stress during tensile test but to the torsional stress or compressive stress during specimen preparation
by lathe process and torsional stress during tensile test. The tensile properties with specimen diameter were well
explained using the concept of fraction of initially generated deformation twins during specimen preparation.
Finally, it is recommended that bigger specimens should be used as much as possible to reduce the surface effect
of specimens and experimental errors. For instance, the gage diameter of 5 mm was enough to ignore the effect of
specimen preparation and size. Inversely, the surface residual stress in specimen needed to be removed before
tensile test when small tensile specimen machined by lathe process was used.

1. Introduction
Tensile properties are considered as important material indexes in
the material research area to develop and evaluate the materials since
they include a lot of useful information such as tensile strength (TS),
yield strength (YS), total elongation (TE), and reduction in area (RA).
These valuable mechanical properties are obtained by simple uniaxial
tensile test; however, tensile properties of materials depend on not only
intrinsic microstructure features such as grain size and orientation but
also extrinsic conditions such as temperature, strain rate, specimen
size/geometry, and the way of specimen preparation. To reduce the
influence of specimen geometry on the tensile properties, their size and
geometry are determined by the ASTM standard [1]. However, in many
cases, specimen size/geometry cannot fit the ASTM standard when
specimens are cut from the small structure. That is, the size of specimen
is smaller than the minimum size specified in the ASTM standard, e.g.,
miniature specimens. Tensile test is commonly performed with speci-
mens having rectangular or round cross-sectional area. Specimen shape
is generally chosen by depending on the availability of material, but
many researchers have used tensile specimens with a rectangular cross-
section due to the convenience to use and lower cost for the experiment.
Round shaped specimens are mainly used in the field of wire, rod, and
bar industries. According to the ASTM standard, the ratio of gage length
to diameter should be four or five in case of round shaped specimens.
For a tensile specimen with a rectangular cross-section for metallic
materials, there are plenty of literature available concerning the effect
of specimen size on tensile properties using experiment and/or finite
element method (FEM). Most of the researches showed that strength
and ductility decreased with decreasing gage thickness and increasing
gage length [2–7] although the results were somewhat varied with
material type, the level of specimen size, grain size, microstructure, and
specimen shape. Wang et al. [7] reported the significant thickness effect
on the tensile properties of twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steel.
They showed that both strength and elongation increased with in-
creasing specimen thickness and explained this result with grain re-
finement by deformation twinning. An et al. [2] reported that YS in-
creased with increasing specimen thickness in ultrafine-grained copper.
Yuan et al. [3] showed that YS was almost independent of specimen
thickness in FH550 and X80 steels. Yang and Lu [6] also reported that
YS was independent of the specimen thickness in pure Cu. The size

E-mail address: jkhwang@tu.ac.kr.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2019.138119
Received 15 May 2019; Received in revised form 4 July 2019; Accepted 7 July 2019
Available online 08 July 2019
0921-5093/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
J.-K. Hwang
dependence of material properties is called as “size effect” and “surface
layer model” is widely used to explain the size effect. This model as-
sumed that the surface grains are less hard in comparison with the in-
terior grains, which means the more fraction of surface area weaken the
materials [6,8,9].
There have been several studies about the influence of diameter of a
round shaped specimen on tensile properties [10–12]. Gupta and Am-
basht [10] reported the tensile behavior of aluminum and copper round
specimens with a variety of gage diameters and lengths. They found
that the onset of necking is dependent on both gage diameter and
length, and the extension length after necking increases linearly with
gage diameter and is independent of gage length. Matic et al. [11] re-
ported that the fracture strain of HY-100 steel was increased with de-
creasing the ratio of gage length to diameter. Yuan et al. [12] reported
the size dependence of tensile properties in copper with different heat
treatments using round shaped specimens with a gage length of 25 mm
and various diameters. They showed that both TE and post necking
elongation (PE) increased with increasing diameter of specimen, and
the size dependence of the TE and PE values can be eliminated when
the ratio of gage length to diameter is above ten.
Based on the author's experiences, tensile properties depended on
the specimen diameter although the specimen was not nano/micro
scale and the ratio of gage length to diameter was five that is a standard
tensile specimen suggested by ASTM. From the scientific and industrial
point of view, it is crucial to understand the mechanism of above
phenomena and to avoid above results during tensile test. To the best of
author's knowledge, these phenomena may be mainly attributed to both
the specimen size and the way of specimen preparation. However,
unfortunately, no articles have been found to simultaneously consider
the specimen size and preparation way of tensile specimen. In addition,
the interest in the mechanical properties of steels having small di-
mension has increased since small mechanical system has become
popular and the material size has been decreased due to the improved
strength of material. This current situation invites the author to study
about the effects of specimen size and specimen preparation with round
cross-section on tensile behaviors of steel. Among the various materials,
the author chose TWIP steel as a test material due to the following two
reasons. Firstly, it had no phase transformation during cooling, which
means it had homogeneous microstructure with specimen size and area,
i.e., core and surface. Secondly, the amount of plastic deformation was
easily revealed by microstructural evolution with detecting the de-
formation twins using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) techni-
ques and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) [13,14].
Therefore, the present paper deals with the effect of specimen size
and specimen preparation with round cross-sectional area on tensile
properties of TWIP steel. Round type tensile specimens were prepared
with two ways: the one is lathe processed specimen and the other is
mechanically and chemically polished specimen after lathe processing.
And then, tensile tests with various specimen diameters at the fixed
ratio of gage length to diameter were conducted to evaluate the tensile
properties with specimen diameter and way of specimen preparation.
Tensile properties with specimen diameter and preparation way have
been rationalized using EBSD techniques, TEM observations, and
Schmid factor analysis.
2. Experimental procedure
A TWIP steel with the chemical composition of Fe-17.3Mn-0.64C-
1.38Al (wt.%) was fabricated by vacuum induction melting under an
argon atmosphere. The as-cast steel ingot of 125 mm in thickness was
soaked at 1200 °C for 12 h to avoid Mn, C, and Al segregation. And then
it was rolled to a final thickness of 20 mm in the temperature range of
950–1150 °C, and subsequently air-cooling to room temperature. Based
on the thermodynamic approach of Saeed-Akbari et al. [15] and Dumay
et al. [16], the calculated stacking fault energy (SFE) of this steel is
about 27.7 mJ/m2 at room temperature, indicating that this steel
2
Materials Science & Engineering A 763 (2019) 138119
Table 1
Specimen size for tensile test in this experiment.
Specimen name Average gage Average gage Ratio of gage length
diameter (mm) length (mm) to diameter
D2, DP2 2 10 5
D4, DP4 4 20 5
D7, DP7 7 35 5
D10, DP10 10 50 5
D13, DP13 13 65 5
mainly deformed by deformation twin rather than martensitic trans-
formation or perfect dislocation [17,18].
The hot-rolled steel plate in the thickness of 20 mm was machined
into round type tensile specimens having a gauge diameter of 2–13 mm
and gauge length of 10–62 mm along the rolling direction as given in
Table 1. The specimens were fabricated using numerically controlled
lathe machine at the lathe rotating speed of 1800 RPM. One group was
tested using specimens after lathe processing, which is a typical case for
tensile test using round type specimen. For convenience, these tensile
specimens are referred to as ‘D2′, D4′, ‘D7′, ‘D10′, and ‘D13′ according
to the diameter hereafter, respectively as shown in Table 1 (D group).
Here, the number indicates specimen diameter. In contrast, the other
group was tested using mechanically and chemically polished speci-
mens after lathe processing. The surface of tensile specimen was ground
in successive stage from 150 to 2000 grit by abrasive papers to remove
the deformed area by lathe process. And then it was polished me-
chanically using the fine texture with diamond suspensions from 6 μm
to 1 μm to get smooth and mirror surface. Mechanical polishing was
applied until the residual stress in surface area of specimen during lathe
processing was removed, which was checked by EBSD observation.
Finally, it was chemically polished using the solution of 5% perchloric
acid and 95% acetic acid to remove the residual stress generated by
mechanical polishing. For convenience, these tensile specimens are
referred to as ‘DP2′, DP4′, ‘DP7′, ‘DP10′, and ‘DP13′, respectively as
given in Table 1 (DP group). Here, ‘P’ means polishing. They were
tested at a strain rate of 10−3 s−1 using an Instron machine with a
mechanical extensometer at room temperature. After tensile test, the
minimum reduced diameter was carefully measured using a well-de-
signed magnifier to evaluate RA value.
The microstructures were examined by EBSD using a FE-SEM
equipped with a TSL system. The equipment was operated at 20 keV
and a sample tilt angle of about 70°. The samples for EBSD analysis
were mechanically polished using several diamond pastes, followed by
a colloidal silica slurry polish. The EBSD data were obtained using a
spatial step size of 0.1 μm and an observation area of 140 μm × 140 μm.
The acquired data were evaluated using the OIM commercial software.
Microstructural measurements were also performed by TEM. TEM
samples were prepared by twin-jet machine and images were taken on
the 3 mm disk foil at an accelerated voltage of 200 kV. EBSD and TEM
measurements were carried out on the cross section of specimen per-
pendicular to the tensile direction.
3. Results
3.1. Comparison of tensile properties
The engineering stress-strain curves of the five specimens (D group)
with different diameter are exhibited in Fig. 1. All the samples revealed
the high uniform elongation (UE), leading to large TE and TS. However,
small PE, low YS, and serrations were observed. These tensile behaviors
are known as the typical characteristics of C-added TWIP steels
[13,19–22]. It is clear that there is obvious change in YS and TE with
specimen size: YS increased and TE deceased with decreasing specimen
diameter. The influence of specimen size on the tensile properties in-
cluding YS, TS, TE, RA, and PE in both D group and DP group is
J.-K. Hwang Materials Science & Engineering A 763 (2019) 138119

Fig. 1. (a) Engineering stress-strain curve, (b) magnified necking area of stress-strain curve with specimen size, and (c) picture of fractured specimens after tensile
test (D group).

Fig. 2. Variations in (a) yield strength, (b) tensile strength, (c) ductility, and (d) post necking elongation with specimen size and preparation.

summarized in Fig. 2. Three specimens were tested for each case. larger, e.g., higher thickness than 1 mm in plate type specimen [23]. In
Comparing D group, the DP group had similar tensile properties re- D group, the RA and PE values were relatively insensitive to the spe-
gardless of specimen size. It is well known that tensile properties are cimen size: the RA remained a constant value of approximately 60%
generally independent of the specimen size when the specimens size is and the PE had an average value of 5%. While, the TE increased sharply

3
J.-K. Hwang Materials Science & Engineering A 763 (2019) 138119

Fig. 3. Comparison of EBSD IPF maps, twin boundary maps, and TEM images at the engineering strain of 0% of D2, D10, DP2, and DP10 specimens at surface area.
Zone axis of TEM was < 110 > and DF means dark field image.

with increasing specimen size, and then reached a saturation value
when specimen size was about 5 mm. And the YS gradually decreased
with increasing specimen size, and then reached a saturation at the
specimen size of 7 mm in D group. Meanwhile, the TS of specimen
prepared by lathe processing was somewhat unchanged with specimen
size, which is highly related to the behavior of YS and TE. That is, al-
though smaller specimen had higher YS, it had lower TE, resulting in
similar TS with specimen size. Interestingly, although smaller speci-
mens had lower TE (Fig. 2c), they had higher PE (Fig. 2d) in D group.
3.2. Comparison of the deformed microstructure
Fig. 3 shows the inverse pole figure (IPF) maps with image quality
(IQ), twin boundary maps, and TEM images of D2, D10, DP2, and DP10
initial tensile specimens at surface area. Twin boundaries were selected
from the high angle boundaries having a misorientation angle of
58° < θ < 62° because the Σ3 twin boundaries have a misorientation
angle of 60° between twin and neighboring matrix at the (111) planes in
FCC structure. The lower region in these figures is outer surface. The
microstructure of undeformed specimens consists of fully recrystallized
grains with an average grain size of 39.2 μm. Parallel blue lines inside
grains in EBSD twin boundary map and black lines in EBSD IPF map
were twin bundles consisting of several individual thin twins [24–26].
No deformation twin was observed at the surface area in DP group;
however, deformation twins were clearly observed at the outer surface
area in both D2 and D10 specimens. Also, from the < 110 > zone axis
of TEM observations, deformation twins having lamellar structure were
clearly observed in D2 and D10 specimens (Fig. 3i and j); whereas,
deformation twin was hardly observed at the surface area of DP2 and
DP10 specimens. Interestingly, the deformation twins only occurred in
outer surface, which means the deformation twins were came from
during the specimen preparation. For instance, the tensile specimens
fabricated by only lathe machining (D group) had deformation twins in
outer surface due to the plastic deformation in outer surface by ma-
chining tools, i.e., bites. In contrast, DP group did not have any de-
formation twins due to the elimination of deformed surface area in
specimens using mechanical and chemical polishing.
Fig. 4 shows the EBSD IPF maps, twin boundary maps, KAM maps,
and Schmid factor contour maps at the engineering strain of 10% at
both center and surface areas of specimen in D group. It is well known
that the propensity for deformation twinning is dependent on the grain
orientation, especially uniaxial deformation process. Schmid factor
analysis was thus conducted to evaluate the twinning behaviors under
tensile stress. Schmid factors were determined by calculating the
leading partial dislocations of (11–1)[112] systems, which is the
highest Schmid factors for twin under tensile stress [24,27]. The black
circles depicted in orientation triangle maps indicate twinned grains
and white circles indicate non-twinned grains. The twinning behaviors
were similar regardless of specimen size: no deformation twins in center
area and some deformation twins in outer surface area. According to
the Schmid factor analysis, orientation dependence of deformation
twinning [21,24,28–30] was not observed in surface area. For instance,
all the grains in the outer surface area had deformation twins regardless
of grain orientations. It is well known that the grains near < 111 >
orientation tend to have deformation twin under the tensile stress [28]
and the grains near < 100 > orientation have deformation twin under
the compressive stress [29]. Consequently, these deformation twins in
the grains at outer surface were not occurred by tensile stress although
the specimen was under tensile stress.
Fig. 5 also shows the EBSD IPF maps, twin boundary maps, TEM
images, and Schmid factor contour maps at the engineering strain of
20% with areas in D group. EBSD and TEM measurements revealed the

4
J.-K. Hwang
Fig. 4. Comparison of EBSD IPF maps, twin boundary maps, KAM maps, and Schmid factor contour maps at the engineering strain of 10% of D2 and D10 specimens
with area. Schmid factors contour map was drawn by calculating the leading partial dislocations of (11–1)[112] systems, and black circles indicate twinned grains
and white circles mean non-twinned grains in orientation triangle map.
occurrence of deformation twins at both areas. Schmid factor analysis
showed that most of the grains except for < 100 > orientation had
deformation twins at center area regardless of specimen size. This
means the deformation twins at center area were generated by tensile
stress during tensile test since the grains close to < 110 > and < 111
> orientations had higher Schmid factor for twinning. While, all the
grains near the outer surface area had deformation twins including <
100 > orientation, which means surface area did not comply with the
Schmid law under tensile stress. That is, other stress states were applied
at the surface area.
For the quantitative information on the twinning and plastic de-
formation behaviors during tensile test, the relative twin volume frac-
tion and KAM value were measured at both center and surface areas of
D2 and D10 specimens with strain using the EBSD techniques as shown
in Fig. 6. The twin boundaries having a misorientation angle of
58° < θ < 62° were determined and annealing twin boundaries were
excluded from this calculation. The total length of twin boundary was
divided by the total measured area, μm/μm2. The twin density pro-
gressively increased with increasing strain at both areas; however, the
difference of twin density between center and surface was clearly ob-
served. Deformation twinning was significantly activated at the surface
area compared to the center area although the same strain was applied
5
Materials Science & Engineering A 763 (2019) 138119
at center and surface areas during tensile test. Especially, the de-
formation twins at surface area of initial specimen were generated
during specimen preparation. Misorientation mapping is generally used
to examine the amount of plastic deformation in materials during
plastic forming process because the local orientation gradient partially
depends on the plastic deformation. KAM map is one of the widely used
misorientation maps [31,32]. Fig. 6b compares KAM value as a function
of engineering strain and area. Average KAM values increased with
strain and the surface area had higher KAM values than the center area,
which is consistent with the result of twin density (Fig. 6a). In addition,
both twin density and KAM calculations with area showed that the
surface area of D10 specimen had higher values in comparison with the
surface area of D2 specimen from the initial engineering strain.
4. Discussion
4.1. Tensile properties with specimen size
The most interesting point of the present study is the fact that YS
increased, and TE decreased with decreasing specimen diameter in D
group. Wang et al. [7] also reported that TS and TE were decreased with
decreasing specimen thickness in TWIP steel using plate type
J.-K. Hwang Materials Science & Engineering A 763 (2019) 138119

Fig. 5. Comparison of EBSD IPF maps, twin boundary maps, TEM images, and Schmid factor contour maps at the engineering strain of 20% of D2, D10 specimens
with area. Zone axis of TEM was < 110 > and DF means dark field image. Schmid factors contour map was drawn by calculating the leading partial dislocations of
(11–1)[112] systems, and black circles indicate twinned grains and white circles mean non-twinned grains in orientation triangle map.

specimens. They explained these phenomena with the higher sensitivity
of surface roughness in smaller specimen during tensile test. However,
the present result in TWIP steel was highly related to the deformation
twinning during specimen preparation based on the microstructural
evolution. That is, the initially occurred deformation twins at surface
area in tensile specimens (Figs. 3–6) increased the YS since pre-strain
before plastic deformation always increased the strength, which is well
known in the field of metallic materials, e.g., strain hardening effect.
Based on the EBSD results, the region of initially occurred twins was
about 80 μm from the outer surface in both D2 and D10 specimens. The

Fig. 6. Comparison of variations in (a) length per unit area of deformation twin and (b) KAM value at the center and surface areas of D2 and D10 specimens with
engineering strain.

6
J.-K. Hwang Materials Science & Engineering A 763 (2019) 138119

Table 2 deformation decreased during tensile test, leading to reduction of UE,

Calculated fraction of twinned area with specimen size (D group). finally resulting in decrease in TE (Fig. 7c). The slightly increased RA
Specimen Gage diameter Total area Twinned area Fraction of and PE with decreasing specimen diameter were also related to the
name (mm) (mm2) (mm2) Twinned area fraction of twinned area as shown in Fig. 7c and d. The formation of
(%) deformation twins in TWIP steel postpones the onset of necking during
tensile test. When the local necking initiates at any region of tensile
D2 2 3.14 0.60 15.36
D4 4 12.57 1.23 7.84
specimen, the deformation twins are preferentially formed at the local
D7 7 38.48 2.17 4.52 necking area, thereby local necking area becomes stronger in compar-
D10 10 78.54 3.11 3.17 ison with the other regions of the gage length, finally suppress the ex-
D13 13 132.73 4.05 2.45 cessive deformation of local necking area. These repeated processes in
local necking area lead to an extraordinary UE as well as high TS as
shown in Fig. 1. The more fraction of twinned area before tensile test
reduction of specimen diameter increases the fraction of twinned area.
resulted in the low dislocation storage capability and the reduction in
The fraction of twinned area with specimen diameter was calculated
amount of deformation twins during tensile test. In such a case, PE can
using simple mathematics and summarized in Table 2.
be increased, thereby RA was increased in TWIP steel [5,33], however
The fraction of twinned area of D2 specimen was 15.36%, whereas
the variations of PE and RA with specimen diameter were relatively
D13 specimen had 2.45%. The tensile properties with specimen dia-
small due to the low PE compared to the UE in TWIP steels in nature.
meter were redrawn as a function of fraction of initial twinned area as
Recently, it is reported that PE and RA are highly related to the oc-
shown in Fig. 7. The YS linearly increased with increasing fraction of
currence of dynamic strain aging (DSA) by solute atoms in TWIP steels
twinned area (Fig. 7a), which means initially occurred deformation
[34–37]. Overall, the approach of fraction of initially generated
twin increased the YS during tensile test. In addition, the reduction of
twinned area based on the EBSD results gave a reasonable explanation
TE with decreasing specimen diameter was well explained using the
on the behaviors of tensile properties in TWIP steel with different
fraction of twinned area. The TE is calculated by the sum of three
specimen diameters during tensile test.
elongation components as follows:
Meanwhile, surface morphology such as roughness has to be con-
TE = EE + UE + PE (1) sidered since surface roughness decreases the ductility by inducing
premature failure. Such a surface morphology effect is known to be
Where EE, UE, and PE are elastic elongation, uniform plastic elonga- increased with decreasing specimen size [38]. The surface roughness
tion, and plastic elongation after necking, respectively. The contribu- always increased with increasing plastic deformation despite the careful
tion of EE for TE is usually negligible in metallic materials and the PE is preparation of specimens by surface polishing. The origin of these
also very small in annealed TWIP steels [14]. Consequently, the beha- phenomena will be explained by the difference in orientation between
vior of TE mainly depended on the UE in TWIP steel. As the fraction of neighboring grains: the soft grains with higher Schmid factor will de-
initially occurred twinned area increased, the ductility for plastic form more than the hard grains with lower Schmid factor, leading to the

Fig. 7. Variations in (a) yield strength, (b) tensile strength, (c) ductility, and (d) post necking elongation as a function of fraction of initial twinned area.

7
J.-K. Hwang
surface roughness [39,40]. In particular, TWIP steel had surface
wrinkling on the surface of tensile specimens due to the heterogeneous
twinning behavior during tensile test [41–43]. As shown in Fig. 1c, the
surface roughness was clearly observed, but the effect of surface
roughness on tensile properties was not dealt with in this study, which
is one of the research topics the author is still working on.
4.2. The origin of deformation twins in outer surface of tensile specimen
The next question is related to the microstructural evolution: why
the only outer surface had deformation twins in specimens of un-
deformed and the lower strain of 10%. It is well known that deforma-
tion twinning occurs when an applied stress is reached the critical
twinning stress. And this critical twinning stress is mainly controlled by
SFE which is determined by chemical composition and deformation
temperature [17,44,45]. To calculate the critical twinning stress (σtw) in
the present TWIP steel, the calculation of critical stress for onset of
stacking faults (τsf) is necessary since stacking faults are generally
considered as a precursor of deformation twin. τsf is defined as the
necessary separation stress from leading partial to its trailing partial,
and calculated as following equation:
Γ rθ
τsf =
b (2)
where b is the Burgers vector of perfect dislocation and Γ means SFE.
The critical shear twinning stress (τtw) is the necessary stress that make
an infinite separation distance between leading and trailing partials
[46], and calculated as follows:
2Γ
τtw =
bp (3)
where bp means the Burgers vector of partial dislocation (0.144 nm).
Based on the τtw values, σtw can be determined by Schmid factor since
Schmid factor is widely used to correlate τtw and σtw, especially uniaxial
loading tests of single crystalline metals. The maximum Schmid factor
of 0.5 was selected for deformation twinning based on the Schmid
factor analysis in this study, therefore σtw is calculated as a following
simple equation:
4Γ
σtw =
bp (4)
Based on the above derived equation, the activation true stress of
deformation twinning was 778 MPa in this steel, and the corresponding
engineering strain was about 18.2%. This result is inconsistent with the
EBSD and TEM results showing that deformation twins occurred in
surface area at the engineering strain of 10% as shown in Fig. 4. Sou-
lami et al. [26] reported that deformation twins start nucleating sig-
nificantly at strain level around 20% in Fe-17.5Mn-1.5Al-0.56C (wt.%)
TWIP steel. Jin and Lee [47] reported that no particular change was
observed in microstructure up to 0.1 strain in Fe–18Mn-1.5Al-0.6C (wt.
%) TWIP steel and then a few deformation twins were observed at the
strain of 0.1. Kim et al. [48] also suggested that dislocation slip is the
predominant deformation mode at a strain below 10% in Fe-17.9Mn-
1.31Al-0.6C-0.37Cr-0.22Si (wt.%) TWIP steel. These literature conclude
that deformation twins can be started significantly at the tensile strain
over 10% in the TWIP steels in the SFE range of 25–35 mJ/m2. Based on
the results of both calculation of twinning stress and literature reviews,
the occurrence of deformation twins at surface area in tensile specimens
of undeformed and the strain of 10% was not related to the tensile
stress, indicating that other stresses could be applied in these speci-
mens. The deformation twins were occurred when the tensile specimens
were machined from the hot-rolled plate. A qualitative explanation
above question was broadly categorized as just two groups.
Firstly, the deformation twins were generated by the compressive
stress with bite during lathe process since only the outer surface had
deformation twins as shown in Fig. 8. That is, the bite pressure was
8
Materials Science & Engineering A 763 (2019) 138119
exceeded the critical twinning stress of 778 MPa during lathe process.
The higher twin density and KAM value at surface area of undeformed
D10 specimen compared to the D2 specimen (Fig. 6) showed that
compressive stress with bite during lathe process was highly related to
the surface stress of specimens since bite pressure typically increased
with increasing specimen size during lathe process in order to increase
the productivity of process. However, it is difficult to correlate the
twinning behaviors on surface area with the compressive stress during
lathe processing. That is, all the grains in outer surface had deformation
twins, which is inconsistent with the twinning behavior under com-
pressive stress. Secondly, based on the EBSD results, the tensile speci-
mens experienced other stresses during lathe processing since the
measured twinning behaviors were not related to the tensile stress as
well as compressive stress. In case of tensile load, the grains
around < 111 > orientation tend to have deformation twin [28,49,50],
whereas the grains around < 100 > orientation tend to have de-
formation twin under the compressive load [29]. Also, the only outer
surface had deformation twins, which means outer surface had the
maximum strain. This is typical distribution of strain and micro-
structure during torsional test [43,51]. The effective strain, εeff, during
torsional test is calculated from the following equation:
εeff =
3L (5)
where r, θ, and L are distance from the center axis, twist angle, and the
length of specimen, respectively. The torsional strain was linearly in-
creased with r and θ, which means the strain increases along the radial
direction and therefore the maximum strain occurs at the outer surface
as shown in Fig. 8. The specimen needs to be rotated during lathe
process, which can make a torsional stress that was higher than critical
twinning stress of 778 MPa in the outer surface of specimen.
Meanwhile, close inspection of Fig. 6a showed that twin density of
outer surface area slightly increased at lower strain level. For instance,
the twin density in surface area at the strain of 10% was higher than
that of the undeformed specimen. Also, the outer surface area of DP10
specimen had deformation twins at the strain of 10% as shown in Fig. 9
even though the twinned area was small compared to the D group
specimens. IQ map and TEM observation clearly showed the occurrence
of deformation twins, and KAM map showed the higher plastic strain at
the outer surface in comparison with the inner surface. These de-
formation twins were occurred during tensile test since no deformation
twins were observed at the initial tensile specimen as shown in Fig. 3.
This means torsional type stress was applied during tensile test. In
contrast to tensile specimen with rectangular cross-section, round
shaped tensile specimen was easy to rotate or slip when the tensile test
was started due to the difficult in gripping. Grips for tensile specimen
form the mechanical link between test machine and specimen. The
main function of grips is to transfer the crosshead movement to spe-
cimen and to transmit the loading force generated in specimen to the
installed load cell on the frame. Depending on the test conditions and
materials, there are several types of grips such as screw grip, spring
loaded grip, hydraulic grip, wedge grip, and toggle grip. Among above
various types of grips, wedge type grip is widely used in both flat shape
and round shape specimens since tensile tests can be performed re-
gardless of the thickness and diameter of specimen. The present ex-
periment also used the wedge grip. The main gripping force was pro-
duced by the wedge action during tensile test; thereby the gripping
force is proportional to the tensile force, which is called self-clamping.
Open questions remain as to what is the crucial factor to generate other
stresses except for tensile stress during uniaxial tensile test. Based on
the author's experiences and microstructural characterizations, the
torsional stress can be generated at the early stage of self-clamping as
shown in Fig. 8. In addition, the misalignment of tensile axis between
upper and down grip could make a torsional stress at the surface of
specimens. It is known that tensile specimen has homogeneous de-
formation until the formation of neck during test, i.e., no strain gradient
J.-K. Hwang
Fig. 8. Schematics of compressive and torsional stresses generated during lathe process and tensile test, and related microstructures at center and surface areas.
with area in specimen before onset of necking. However, it is worth
noting that above inhomogeneous deformation phenomena can be
frequently happened during tensile tests, especially using round shaped
specimen. The problem is that it is notoriously difficult to detect. In this
study, the author induced the effect of specimen preparation and size
on tensile properties with the help of twinning behaviors in TWIP steel.
Finally, it is suggested that bigger specimens should be used as much as
possible to reduce the surface effect of specimens and experimental
errors since smaller specimen was more sensitive to both experimental
imperfections due to the torsional stress and misalignment of grip
during tensile test and geometrical imperfections due to the specimen
preparation and surface roughness generated during tensile test. For
instance, the gage diameter of 5 mm was enough to ignore the effect of
specimen preparation and size, which means we can use the round
shaped tensile specimen right after machining by lathe process. In-
versely, the surface residual stress or strain of specimen needed to be
removed before tensile test when small tensile specimen machined by
lathe process was used.
5. Conclusions
Based on the experimental study on specimen preparation and
diameter effects during tensile test in TWIP steel, the following major
conclusions can be drawn.
1. The mechanically and chemically polished tensile specimens had
similar YS, TS, TE, and RA values regardless of specimen diameter.
Whereas, lathe processed tensile specimens had a variation in tensile
properties with specimen size: YS deceased and TE increased as
Fig. 9. EBSD (a) IQ map, (b) twin boundary map, (c) KAM map, and (d) TEM image at the engineering strain of 10% of DP10 specimen at surface area. TEM zone
axis: < 110 > , DF means dark field image.
9
Materials Science & Engineering A 763 (2019) 138119
specimen size increased. Meanwhile, RA and PE were relatively
independent of the specimen preparation and diameter.
2. The deformation twins occurred in the surface layer of lathe pro-
cessed specimens of undeformed and at the engineering strain of
10%, which is not related to the tensile stress during tensile test but
to the torsional stress or compressive stress during specimen pre-
paration by lathe process and torsional stress during tensile test.
3. The behaviors of tensile properties such as YS, TS, TE, RA, and PE
with specimen diameter were well explained using the concept of
fraction of initially generated deformation twins during specimen
preparation based on the twinning behavior.
4. The effects of specimen preparation and size on tensile properties
were explained with the help of twinning behaviors in TWIP steel.
Based on the results, it is recommended that bigger specimens
should be used as much as possible to reduce the surface effect of
specimens and experimental errors. For instance, the gage diameter
of 5 mm was enough to ignore the effect of specimen preparation
and size. Inversely, the surface residual stress or strain in specimen
needed to be removed before tensile test when small tensile spe-
cimen machined by lathe process was used.
Acknowledgements
This Research was supported by National Research Foundation of
Korea (NRF-2018R1D1A1B07050103) and the Tongmyong University
Research Grants 2019 (2019F005).
J.-K. Hwang
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2019.138119.
References
[1] http://www.astm.org.
[2] J. An, Y.F. Wang, Q.Y. Wang, W.Q. Cao, C.X. Huang, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 651
(2016) 1–7.
[3] W.J. Yuan, Z.L. Zhang, Y.J. Su, L.J. Qiao, W.Y. Chu, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 532 (2012)
601–605.
[4] Y.H. Zhao, Y.Z. Guo, Q. Wei, T.D. Topping, A.M. Dangelewicz, Y.T. Zhu,
T.G. Langdon, E.J. Lavernia, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 525 (2009) 68–77.
[5] Y.H. Zhao, Y.Z. Guo, Q. Wei, A.M. Dangelewicz, C. Xu, Y.T. Zhu, T.G. Langdon,
Y.Z. Zhou, E.J. Lavernia, Scripta Mater. 59 (2008) 627–630.
[6] L. Yang, L. Lu, Scripta Mater. 69 (2013) 242–245.
[7] K. Wang, D. Wang, F. Han, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 642 (2015) 249–252.
[8] T.A. Kals, R. Eckstein, J. Mater. Process. Technol. 103 (2000) 95–101.
[9] U. Engel, R. Eckstein, J. Mater. Process. Technol. 125–126 (2002) 35–44.
[10] N.K. Gupta, B.P. Ambasht, Mech. Mater. 1 (1982) 219–228.
[11] P. Matic, G.C. Kirby III, M.I. Jolles, Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A 417 (1988) 309–333.
[12] W.J. Yuan, F. Zhou, Z.L. Zhang, Y.J. Su, L.J. Qiao, W.Y. Chu, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 561
(2013) 183–190.
[13] D. Barbier, N. Gey, S. Allain, N. Bozzolo, M. Humbert, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 500 (2009)
196–206.
[14] O. Bouaziz, S. Allain, C.P. Scott, P. Cugy, D. Barbier, Curr. Opin. Solid State Mater.
Sci. 15 (2011) 141–168.
[15] A. Saeed-Akbari, J. Imlau, U. Prahl, W. Bleck, Metall. Mater. Trans. A 40 (2009)
3076–3090.
[16] A. Dumay, J.P. Chateau, S. Allain, S. Migot, O. Bouaziz, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 483–484
(2008) 184–187.
[17] S. Allain, J.P. Chateau, O. Bouaziz, S. Migot, N. Guelton, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 387–389
(2004) 158–162.
[18] M. Ghasri-Khouzani, J.R. McDermid, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 621 (2015) 118–127.
[19] J.E. Jin, Y.K. Lee, Acta Mater. 60 (2012) 1680–1688.
[20] H. Idrissi, K. Renard, D. Schryvers, P.J. Jacques, Scripta Mater. 63 (2010) 961–964.
[21] I. Gutierrez-Urrutia, S. Zaefferer, D. Raabe, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 527 (2010)
3552–3560.
[22] J.K. Kim, B.C. De Cooman, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 676 (2016) 216–231.
[23] A. Molotnikov, R. Lapovok, C.H.J. Davies, W. Cao, Y. Estrin, Scripta Mater. 59
(2008) 1182–1185.
10
Materials Science & Engineering A 763 (2019) 138119
[24] J.K. Hwang, I.C. Yi, I.H. Son, J.Y. Yoo, B. Kim, A. Zargaran, N.J. Kim, Mater. Sci.
Eng. A 644 (2015) 41–52.
[25] K. Jeong, J.E. Jin, Y.S. Jung, S. Kang, Y.K. Lee, Acta Mater. 61 (2013) 3399–3410.
[26] A. Soulami, K.S. Choi, Y.F. Shen, W.N. Liu, X. Sun, M.A. Khaleel, Mater. Sci. Eng. A
528 (2011) 1402–1408.
[27] I. Karaman, H. Sehitoglu, K. Gall, Y.I. Chumlyakov, H.J. Maier, Acta Mater. 48
(2000) 1345–1359.
[28] P. Yang, Q. Xie, L. Meng, H. Ding, Z. Tang, Scripta Mater. 55 (2006) 629–631.
[29] L. Meng, P. Yang, Q. Xie, H. Ding, Z. Tang, Scripta Mater. 56 (2007) 931–934.
[30] S. Sato, E.P. Kwon, M. Imafuku, K. Wagatsuma, S. Suzuki, Mater. Char. 62 (2011)
781–788.
[31] R. Badji, T. Chauveau, B. Bacroix, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 575 (2013) 94–103.
[32] J. Park, M. Kang, S.S. Sohn, S.H. Kim, K.S. Kim, NackJ. Kim, S. Lee, Mater. Sci. Eng.
A 684 (2017) 54–63.
[33] P. Kusakin, A. Belyakov, C. Haase, R. Kaibyshev, D.A. Molodov, Mater. Sci. Eng. A
617 (2014) 52–60.
[34] H.K. Yang, Y.Z. Tian, Z.J. Zhang, C.L. Yang, P. Zhang, Z.F. Zhang, Metall. Mater.
Trans. A 48 (2017) 4458–4462.
[35] C.L. Yang, Z.J. Zhang, P. Zhang, Z.F. Zhang, Acta Mater. 136 (2017) 1–10.
[36] H.Y. Yu, S.M. Lee, J.H. Nam, S.J. Lee, D. Fabregue, M.H. Park, N. Tsuji, Y.K. Lee,
Acta Mater. 131 (2017) 435–444.
[37] M. Koyama, Y. Shimomura, A. Chiba, E. Akiyama, K. Tsuzaki, Scripta Mater. 141
(2017) 20–23.
[38] G. Simons, Ch Weippert, J. Dual, J. Villain, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 416 (2006) 290–299.
[39] O. Wouters, W.P. Vellinga, R. Van Tijum, J.ThM. de Hosson, Acta Mater. 53 (2005)
4043–4050.
[40] O. Wouters, W.P. Vellinga, R. Van Tijum, J.ThM. de Hosson, Acta Mater. 54 (2006)
2813–2821.
[41] D. Rittel, I. Roman, Metall. Mater. Trans. A 19 (1988) 2269–2277.
[42] D. Rittel, I. Roman, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 110 (1989) 77–87.
[43] S. Khoddam, H. Beladi, P.D. Hodgson, A. Zarei-Hanzaki, Mater. Des. 60 (2014)
146–152.
[44] S. Curtze, V.T. Kuokkala, A. Oikari, J. Talonen, H. Hannien, Acta Mater. 59 (2011)
1068–1076.
[45] S. Curtze, V.T. Kuokkala, Acta Mater. 58 (2010) 5129–5141.
[46] T.S. Byun, Acta Mater. 51 (2003) 3063–3071.
[47] J.E. Jin, Y.K. Lee, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 527 (2009) 157–161.
[48] J.K. Kim, Y. Estrin, H. Beladi, L. Timokhina, K.G. Chin, S.K. Kim, B.C. De Cooman,
Metall. Mater. Trans. A 43A (2012) 479–490.
[49] R. Ueji, N. Tsuchida, D. Terada, N. Tsuji, Y. Tanaka, A. Takemura, K. Kunishige,
Scripta Mater. 59 (2008) 963–966.
[50] J.K. Hwang, J. Mater. Sci. 54 (2019) 8743–8759.
[51] D.J. Lee, H.S. Kim, J. Mater. Sci. 49 (2014) 6620–6628.