Experimental investigation of strain rate dependent damage mechanisms in DP1000 automotive steel

Present study aims to investigate the effect of stress state and loading rates on the damage mechanisms in a DP1000 steel using a welldesigned series of experiments. A specimen family comprising of central hole, in-plane shear and plane strain samples is applied to characterise damage under well-controlled stress states. The optimization of the specimen geometries is achieved using finite element simulations. To assess the influence of strain rate, quasi-static, intermediate and dynamic tests are performed on the designed samples. Local strain fields are obtained by digital image correlation. After testing, scanning electron microscopy is employed to systematically analyse the micromechanisms driving the damage in the investigated material. The underlying damage mechanisms are ferrite-martensite interphase debonding, martensite cracking and debonding at ferrite-ferrite grain boundaries. Stress state and strain rate are found to have distinct influences on triggering the underlying damage mechanisms