Effect of Strain History of Steel Sheets on the Mechanical Characteristics of Individual Microstructural Components by Depth Sensing Indentation

Abstract

The macroscopic mechanical properties of steel are highly dependent upon microstructure, crystallographic orientation of grains and distribution of each phase present, etc. Nanomechanical testing using depth sensing indentation (DSI) provides a straightforward solution for quantitatively characterizing each of phases in microstructure because it is very powerful technique for characterization of materials in small volumes. Measuring the local properties of each microstructure component separately in multiphase materials gives information that is valuable for the development of new materials and for modelling. The work experimentally analyses the effect of strain history on the mechanical properties of individual components in steel sheets by depth sensing indentation. The measurements were carried out on broken tensile specimens.