Unravelling the structural and chemical features influencing deformation-induced martensitic transformations in steels

A combination of electron backscattered diffraction and high-sensitivity electron probe microanalysis was used to correlate the changes in microstructural features upon deformation with local chemical composition in transformation-induced plasticity steels. A novel cleaning procedure was developed that allows complete monitoring of transformation and deformation processes in relation to the local crystal structure, microstructure and chemical composition. Here we show direct evidence that local variations in manganese content enable a gradual transformation of the retained austenite grains.