Study on microstructural evolution and constitutive modeling for hot deformation behavior of a low-carbon RAFM steel

The constitutive equation was established based on the consideration of strain compensation to describe the hot deformation behavior of low carbon reduced activation ferritic/martensitic (RAFM) steels at the temperatures of 850-1050 degrees C and the strain rates of 0.01-10 s(-1). The result indicates that the flow stress is increased with the increase of strain rate but decreased with increase of deformation temperature. During the hot deformation process, the increase of temperature is beneficial to attain the complete dynamic recrystallization (DRX). However, excessively high temperature leads to grow up of dynamic recrystallized grain. Higher strain rate leads to finer recrystallized grains. The material constants (alpha, n, A) and deformation activation energy (Q) are calculated by the regression analysis. The increase of strain caused the decrease of Q, indicating the DRX occurred more easily. In addition, the developed constitutive equation could accurately predict the hot deformation behavior of the low carbon RAFM steel.