In this study, the dependence of the cyclic deformation behavior on the surface morphology of metastable austenitic HSD^® 600 TWinning Induced Plasticity (TWIP) steel was investigated. This steel—with the alloying concept Mn-Al-Si—shows a fully austenitic microstructure with deformation-induced twinning at ambient temperature. Four different surface morphologies were analyzed: as-received with a so-called rolling skin, after up milling, after down milling, and a reference morphology achieved by polishing. The morphologies were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Focused Ion Beam (FIB), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) as well as confocal microscopy methods and show significant differences in initial residual stresses, phase fractions, topographies and microstructures. For specimens with all variants of the morphologies, fatigue tests were performed in the Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF) and High Cycle Fatigue (HCF) regime to characterize the cyclic deformation behavior and fatigue life. Moreover, this study focused on the frequency-dependent self-heating of the specimens caused by cyclic plasticity in the HCF regime. The results show that both surface morphology and specimen temperature have a significant influence on the cyclic deformation behavior of HSD^® 600 TWIP steel in the HCF regime.

The presented research work investigates the fatigue properties in the low cycle fatigue (LCF) regime of the high manganese metastable austenitic High Strength and Ductility (HSD®) 600 TWIP steel dependent on its surface morphology. The steel features, according to its chemical composition following the alloying concept Mn-Al-Si-C and heat treatment, a fully austenitic microstructure that shows deformation induced twinning at ambient temperature. Due to this microstructural deformation mechanism, HSD® 600 steel has an outstanding combination of strength and formability. Besides monotonic deformation behavior, characterized by tensile tests, cyclic deformation behavior was investigated with varying the surface morphology of fatigue specimens. In order to create different surface morphologies, flat fatigue specimens were excised from larger sheets by waterjet-cutting. Depending on the surface morphology, further climb milling or up-climb milling in the gauge length was performed. The three investigated morphologies (asreceived with rolling skin, climb milled and up-climb milled) differed in roughness, initial residual stresses and initial phase compositions. For all variants, total strain controlled fatigue tests with stepwise increasing load amplitudes as well as total strain controlled single step tests were performed in the low cycle fatigue regime with a load ratio of R_ε = -1 and a frequency of f = 0.2 Hz. Beside stress-strain hystereses, the changes in temperature ΔT and the magnetic properties ξ were measured. The magnetic properties directly correlate with the transformation from paramagnetic γ-austenite to ferromagnetic α’-martensite. The cyclic deformation behavior of the HSD® 600 steel in the LCF regime was characterized by cyclic softening until fracture at low total strain amplitudes but changed with increasing total strain amplitudes into initial cyclic hardening followed by cyclic softening. This initial cyclic hardening became more pronounced when the total strain amplitude increased. Furthermore, single step tests at lower total strain amplitudes showed a saturation state before fracture. A comparison between the monotonic and cyclic deformation behavior showed a significant difference of the stress levels at the same amounts of plastic deformation respectively. Nevertheless, the different surface morphologies led to different lifetimes at high total strain amplitudes but to similar lifetimes at lower total strain amplitudes.