Characterization of localized plastic deformation behaviors associated with dynamic strain aging in pipeline steels using digital image correlation
Localized deformation behavior in X52 and X70 pipeline steels during dynamic strain aging (or DSA, caused by interstitial atom-dislocation interactions during plastic deformation) were systematically assessed using digital image correlation with incremental strain analysis during elevated temperature tensile testing in the range of 25-350 °C. Similar to materials that use substitutional atoms for DSA, deformation band propagation and nucleation behaviors in the steels were directly related to the morphologies of flow curves from the tensile data. Comparisons between the steels and substitutional DSA systems were made. The type of localized deformation behavior was dependent on the temperature and strain rate conditions of the tensile test and the total amount of strain in the sample. Plastic flow was primarily dominated by deformation band propagation and nucleation at relatively low and high temperatures respectively within the DSA regime. It was theorized that the changing serration morphologies and deformation behaviors at different temperature-strain rate conditions were due to relative differences between the mobility of the solute atoms and the velocity of the mobile dislocations throughout the DSA regime. The dislocation density (which increases due to strain hardening during a tensile test) also influenced deformation behavior at relatively low and high strains.