A Micromechanical Study of the Deformation Behavior of TRIP-Assisted Multiphase Steels as a Function of the Microstructural Parameters of the Retained Austenite

A study was conducted to investigate the mechanical behavior of a discrete aggregate of ferritic and austenitic grains representing a microstructure of transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP)-assisted steels. The main objective of the study was to investigate the specific effect of each microstructural parameter on the effective mechanical behavior. The constitutive model was presented to investigate the influence of potential plastic deformation in austenite before transformation was considered. The type of multiphase steels considered in the analysis consisted of isolated grains of retained austenite embedded in a ferritic matrix. The behavior of the bainitic phase was combined with the effective behavior of the matrix, while the constitutive model was applied to simulate the elastic, plastic, and transformation mechanisms in the austentitic grains and the elasto-plasto response of the matrix.