The development of intergranular strains in a high-strength steel

Abstract

In situ neutron diffraction measurements have been made on a high-strength low-alloy steel to study the generation of intergranular strains under uniaxial load. Intergranular strains were found to be actively developed at small plastic deformation (< 4.5 per cent) and stay unchanged in subsequent loadings. Large tensile strains of an average 7 × 10⁻⁴ were observed for the (002) reflections transverse to the stress axis whereas intergranular effects are comparatively insignificant for other reflections. Experimental results were found to be in excellent agreement with the predictions based on the elastoplastic self-consistent model.