A subregular solution thermodynamic model was employed to calculate the stacking fault energy (SFE) in Fe–Mn–Al–C–Si steels with contents of carbon 0.2–1.6 wt.%, manganese 1–35 wt.%, aluminum 1–10 wt.%, and silicon 0.5–4 wt.%. Based on these calculations, temperature-dependent and composition-dependent diagrams were developed in the mentioned composition range. Also, the effect of the austenite grain size (from 1 to 300 μm) on SFEs was analyzed. Furthermore, some results of SFE obtained with this model were compared with the experimental results reported in the literature. In summary, the present model introduces new changes that shows a better correlation with the experimental results and also allows to expand the ranges of temperatures, compositions, grain sizes, and also the SFE maps available in the literature to support the design of Fe–Mn–Al–C–Si steels as a function of the SFE.

A critical assessment has been performed to determine the stacking fault energy (SFE) of the austenite phase in high manganese steels using X-ray diffraction (XRD). It was found that the SFE varies substantially with the chosen elastic constants. This strong dependence induces substantial errors in the estimated values of the SFE of the austenite and, thus, the mechanical behavior of Fe-Mn-Al-C steels. The SFE of three different Fe-Mn-Al-C alloys with varying aluminum (Al) content was determined in order to establish the main plastic deformation mechanism. The aim of this work is to establish a more straightforward and reliable methodology to calculate the SFE by XRD. In this effort, it was determined that uncertainty in the elastic constants can generate errors in up to 37% of the SFE. Moreover, in the studied case, for average of elastic constant values, the predominant deformation mechanism is defined, but when considering one set of constants, these can present uncertainty of 2.7 mJ/m² and 4.4 mJ/m² for alloys of 0% Al and 3% Al, respectively. This would lead them to be within the following plastic deformation mechanism, while for 8% Al the uncertainty is negligible.