Hot working behaviour and processing maps of duplex cast steel

Abstract In this paper the hot working behaviour of medium carbon duplex cast steel is studied using uniaxial hot compression tests over a temperature range varying from 700 ˚C to 1 000 °C and at different strain rates ranging from 10– 4 to 10 –1 s –1 . A model based on a variant of a dynamic materials model was employed to construct processing maps. These maps delineate the safe and unsafe domains. The safe domains, associated with dynamic recrystallization and dynamic recovery, can be chosen to optimize the hot workability of the studied material. Whereas, the unsafe domain is to be avoided because it is associated with plastic deformation instabilities. The domain associated with dynamic recrystallization is centred at 1000 °C and 10 –4 s –1 with a peak energy dissipation efficiency of about 40%, while the domain associated with dynamic recovery is centred at 700 °C and 10 –4 s –1 with a peak energy dissipation efficiency of about 27%. The unsafe hot working domain, spread over the entire temperature range and moderate to high strain rates, predicts the appearance of flow instabilities, in the form of shear bands and intergranular cracks. To validate the obtained results, microstructural observations corresponding to different processing conditions are presented.