Modeling the High Temperature Flow Behavior and Dynamic Recrystallization Kinetics of a Medium Carbon Microalloyed Steel

In this study, the hot deformation behavior of a medium carbon microalloyed steel was investigated. The hot compression test was conducted in the temperature range of 1000-1200 °C under strain rates of 0.01, 0.1 and 1 s⁻¹. It has been observed that the flow stress increases with a decrease in temperature and/or an increase in strain rate. Furthermore, dynamic recrystallization (DRX) is found to be the main flow softening mechanism in almost all deformation conditions. Material parameters of the constitutive equations are found to be strain dependent. Their relationship with strain is identified by a fourth order polynomial fit. Then, a constitutive model is developed to predict the flow stress of the material incorporating the strain softening effect. The accuracy of the proposed model for the flow stress is evaluated by applying the absolute average error method. The result of 6.08% indicates a good agreement between predicted and experimental data. Moreover, the critical characteristics of DRX are extracted from the stress-strain curves at different deformation conditions. It is found that by increasing the strain rate at a constant temperature or decreasing deformation temperature under a constant strain rate, the recrystallization curve shifts to the higher strains. The kinetics of DRX increases with increasing deformation temperature or strain rate.