Effect of sample geometry on strain uniformity and double hit compression tests for softening kinetics determination

Static softening is an essential process during the hot rolling of steel to refine grain size and improve mechanical properties. The double hit test is used to measure the static softening volume fraction from the flow stress curves. Herein, the influence of different sample geometries on the determination of softening fraction from the double hit test for conditions where 0–99% softening is expected. The double hit tests are modeled in DEFORM for conventional sample geometries in both uniaxial compression and standard plane strain compression tests, and an additional simulation of a modified plane strain compression test sample geometry, designed to provide more uniform strain distributions, is also performed. A user routine is incorporated into the model to predict the localized softening volume fraction from localized strain based on known softening equations and set back the localized strain value to zero while the softening volume fraction reaches 85%. The standard plane strain compression test geometry shows a strong strain gradient resulting in inaccurate softening fraction volume predictions from flow stress, whereas the uniaxial compression test and modified plane strain compression test geometries show better predictions of softening volume fraction from the flow stress data