PREDICTION OF HOT DEFORMATION BEHAVIOUR OF A PH STAINLESS STEEL AT HIGH STRAIN RATES

In this study the hot deformation behaviour of a precipitation hardened (PH) stainless steel at high strain rates has been predicted through hot compression testing. Stress–strain curves were obtained for a range of strain rates from 10-3 to 10+1 s-1 and temperatures from 850 to 1150°C. Results obtained by microstructure and stress-strain curves show that at low temperatures and high strain rates, where the Zener-Holman parameter (Z) is high, work hardening and dynamic recovery occure. By increasing temperature and decreasing strain rate, the Z parameter is decreased, so that dynamic recrystallization is the dominant softening mechanism. The results were fitted using a Log Z versus Log (sinh (? ?p) diagram allowing an assessment of the behavior of the stresses measured at strain rates closer to those related to the industrial hot rolling schedules. It is clearly shown that the data collected from low strain rate testing can be fairly reasonably extrapolated to higher orders of magnitude of strain rate.