In-situ EBSD study of deformation behaviour of 600 MPa grade dual phase steel during uniaxial tensile tests

This paper studied the plastic deformation behaviour of DP600 steel subjected to uniaxial tension, by means of in-situ EBSD technique. It provides experimental evidences and detailed insight into the microstructural aspects of plastic deformation. A phase identification method based on the band slope map of EBSD was adopted to differentiate martensite from ferrite. The results show that the plastic strain localization lies mainly in the ferrite grains, fracture could usually start in ferrite grains close to hard martensite grains. With the increase of strain, average misorientation angle decreased while the fraction of LAGBs increased. Average Taylor factor for the whole microstructure became higher at high strains due to work hardening process, and plastic deformation results in soft regions with zonal distribution parallel to the loading direction. In the undeformed state, the texture orientation (111)[0 (1) over bar1] and (111)[1 (1) over bar0] are the major components of the gamma-fibre while (223)[1 (1) over bar0] and (221)[1 (1) over bar0] are the main components of alpha-fibre. The intensity of the alpha-fibre slightly decreased, while the intensity of the gamma-fibre increased with increasing strain. Plastic deformation occurred in some grains which were subdivided into different regions due to the activation of different slip systems. The tensile axis orientation of the grain rotated gradually to the line link < 100 > - < 101 >, and lattice rotation within one single grain differs from regions to regions.