Deformation twinning behavior of twinning-induced plasticity steels with different carbon concentrations - Part 1: Analyses by atomic force microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction measurements-

Deformation twinning behavior in Fe-17Mn-0.6C, Fe-17Mn-0.8C, and Fe-18Mn-1.2C (wt.%) twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steels was investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and electron backscatter diffraction pattern (EBSD) analyses. The AFM-based surface relief analysis combined with the EBSD measurements was employed to determine active twinning direction as well as deformation twin fraction in specific crystallographic orientations. A carbon addition is known to increase the stacking fault energy; however the deformation twin fraction in the 〈144〉 tensile orientation did not change against carbon concentration. On one hand, the 〈111〉 tensile orientation grains showed suppression of deformation twinning with increasing carbon concentration. These results imply that another factor in addition to the stacking fault energy-based criteria is required to interpret the deformation twinning behavior of carbon-added TWIP steels.