Yielding and Deformation Behavior in Polycrystalline Ferritic Steel

Yielding and deformation behavior was overviewed for polycrystalline ferritic steels with various grain sizes and carbon contents. In the well-annealed ferritic steels, yielding is governed by the mechanism of grain refinement strengthening (GRS) and yield stress follows the Hall-Petch relation as to grain size. Conversely, yielding of cold rolled ferritic steels is governed by the mechanism of dislocation strengthening (DS) and yield stress follows the Bailey-Hirsch relation as to dislocation density. Under the same percentage of deformation, dislocation introduction is promoted with decreasing ferrite grain size and this results in higher yield stress (or flow stress) in specimens with smaller grain size. Yielding elongation appears due to the plastic instability that is realized during the change of strengthening mechanism from GRS to DS. Therefore, the extent of yielding elongation is determined in the relation between yield stress and work hardening behavior of matrix. Temper rolling plays a role to make the strengthening mechanism change from GRS to DS. When the extent of temper rolling is so small as about 1%, yield stress of temper rolled specimens is lowered below that of the as-annealed specimen. This is the reason why yield stress of the temper rolled specimen is lowered below that of as-annealed specimen. In the relation between GRS and DS, there is not additional but competitive relationship.