The mechanical stability of dispersed retained austenite, i.e., the resistance of this austenite to mechanically induced martensitic transformation, was characterized at room temperature on two steels which differed by their silicon content. The steels had been heat treated in such a way that each specimen presented the same initial volume fraction of austenite and the same austenite grain size. Nevertheless, depending on the specimen, the retained austenite contained different amounts of carbon and was surrounded by different phases. Measurements of the variation of the volume fraction of untransformed austenite as a function of uniaxial plastic strain revealed that, besides the carbon content of retained austenite, the strength of the other phases surrounding austenite grains also influences the austenite resistance to martensitic transformation. The presence of thermal martensite together with the silicon solid-solution strengthening of the intercritical ferrite matrix can "shield" austenite from the externally applied load. As a consequence, the increase of the mechanical stability of retained austenite is not solely related to the decrease of the M s temperature induced by carbon enrichment.

International audienceAs expected from the alloy design procedure, combined Twinning Induced Plasticity (TWIP) and Transformation Induced Plasticity (TRIP) effects are activated in a metastable β Ti-12(wt.%)Mo alloy. In-situ Synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations were carried out to investigate the deformation mechanisms and microstructure evolution sequence. In the early deformation stage, primary strain/stress induced phase transformations (β->ω and β->α'') and primary mechanical twinning ({332}<113> and {112}<111>) are simultaneously activated. Secondary martensitic phase transformation and secondary mechanical twinning are then triggered in the twinned β zones. The {332}<113> twinning and the subsequence secondary mechanisms dominate the early stage deformation process. The evolution of the deformation microstructure results in a high strain hardening rate (~2GPa) bringing about high tensile strength (~1GPa) and large uniform elongation (> 0.38)

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