Modeling of temperature dependent yield strength for stainless steel considering nonlinear behavior and the effect of phase transition

In this paper, a physics-based temperature dependent yield strength model for stainless steel is developed based on a kind of equivalence between the deformation energy and the heat energy. A critical yield energy which comprises the deformation energy and the corresponding heat energy is then introduced. Meanwhile, the nonlinear behavior of stainless steel before the yielding of materials and the effect of phase transition are considered in the theoretical model without any fitting parameters. These stainless steels studied in this paper are from European brands, Japanese brands and interior brands. Excellent agreement between the theoretical model predictions and the experimental results of austenitic stainless steel and ferritic stainless steel fully validates the reasonability of this model. The theoretical model is convenient and practical to predict the temperature dependent yield strength of stainless steel, which is expected to be applied for the appropriate assessment of fire resistance of stainless steel.