Evolution of dislocations and twins in a strong and ductile nanotwinned steel

A twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steel was subjected to a simple processing route (i.e. cold rolling followed by a recovery heat treatment) suitable for large-scale industrial production, resulting in the production of a strong and ductile nanotwinned steel. This nanotwinned steel combines high yield strength (1450 MPa), high ultimate tensile strength (1600 MPa) and good ductility (25% total elongation). Detailed transmission electron microscopy observation reveals that the twin volume fraction of the nanotwinned steel remains constant during tensile deformation. This is different to the deformation behaviour of recrystallized TWIP steels whose twin volume fraction increase continuously with strain during tensile deformation. The constant twin volume fraction indicates that a maximum twin volume fraction has been reached during the cold rolling process. In contrast, the dislocation density of the nanotwinned steel increases with strain as measured by the synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments. In other words, the plastic deformation of the nanotwinned steel is mainly accommodated by glide and multiplication of dislocations. Based on the experimental results, an analytical model was developed to capture the respective effects of dislocations and twins on the strength and ductility of the present nanotwinned steel. The modelling results indicate that the strength is contributed by both twins and dislocations while the ductility is mainly attributed to dislocation multiplication.