Effects of Strain Rate and Plastic Work on Martensitic Transformation Kinetics of Austenitic Stainless Steel 304

The martensitic transformation behavior and mechanical properties of austenitic stainless steel 304 were studied by both experiments and numerical simulation. Room temperature tensile tests were carried out at various strain rates to investigate the effect on volume fraction of martensite, temperature increase and flow stress. The results show that with increasing strain rate, the local temperature increases, which suppresses the transformation of martensite. To take into account the dependence on strain level, strain rate sensitivity and thermal effects, a kinetic model of martensitic transformation was proposed and constitutive modeling on stress-strain response was conducted. The validity of the proposed model has been proved by comparisons between simulation results and experimental ones.