Compressive Deformation Behavior of Thick Micro-Alloyed HSLA Steel Plates at Elevated Temperatures

The hot deformation behavior of a heavy micro-alloyed high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steel plate was studied by performing compression tests at elevated temperatures. The hot compression tests were carried out at temperatures from 923 K to 1,223 K with strain rates of 0.002 s-1 and 1.0 s-1. A long plateau region appeared for the 0.002 s-1 strain rate, and this was found to be an effect of the balancing between softening and hardening during deformation. For the 1.0 s-1 strain rate, the flow stress gradually increased after the yield point. The temperature and the strain rate-dependent parameters, such as the strain hardening coefficient (n), strength constant (K), and activation energy (Q), obtained from the flow stress curves were applied to the power law of plastic deformation. The constitutive model for flow stress can be expressed as σ = (39.8 ln (Z) – 716.6) · ε(−0.00955ln(Z) + 0.4930) for the 1.0 s-1 strain rate and σ = (19.9ln (Z) – 592.3) · ε(−0.00212ln(Z) + 0.1540) for the 0.002 s-1 strain rate