EUROSTEEL 2014, September 10-12, 2014, Naples, Italy

DAMAGE FORMATION IN DUAL PHASE STEELS

A Combined Approach of Digital Image Correlation and Microstructure
Modelling
Khaled Alharbi a, Hassan Ghadbeigi a, Mohammad Zanganeh a, Steven Celotto b and Christophe
Pinna a
a

The University of Sheffield, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mappin street, Sheffield S1 3JD, United
Kingdom
b
TATA RD&T, IJmuiden, The Netherlands
kfmalharbi1@sheffield.ac.uk, h.ghadbeigi@sheffield.ac.uk, m.zanganeh@sheffield.ac.uk,
steven.celotto@tatasteel.com, C.Pinna@sheffield.ac.uk

INTRODUCTION
Dual-phase (DP) steels are a common type of Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS). Considering
high ductility and tensile strength, DP steels attract the attention of automobile industries due to
their formability and crash resistance. They are widely used in cars body and chassis. DP steels
generally consist of hard martensite islands dispersed in soft ferrite matrix. The martensite enhances
the strength of dual phase steels while ferrite improves their ductility. The heterogeneous
distribution of martensite islands causes difficulties in predicting the properties and behaviour of
dual phase steels. New grade DP1000 steels are manufactured but poorly understood. Investigation
of the deformation and damage initiation and development of this grade is required.
Several researchers attempt to study local strain distribution using Digital Image Correlation (DIC)
technique to investigate damage evolution in DP steels [1-3]. Ghadbeigi et al. [3] run in-situ tensile
tests inside a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to capture actual deformation of DP1000
microstructure. SEM images were evaluated using DIC to calculate the local strain evolution in the
microstructure. Voids nucleated in the ferrite phase and fracture in martensite particles have been
observed as damage mechanisms in DP1000. A strain value of as high as 130% has been reported.
Furthermore, DIC results are limited to displacement and strain values which are calculated over an
area containing both ferrite and martensite. Reducing the size to the area of interest could result in
correlation issue or unreliable results. Additionally, DIC cannot calculate stress components of the
analysed area.
In order to overcome DIC limitations, microstructure simulation using Finite Element (FE) has been
utilised. The model can be created from SEM image of the microstructure. Elements are assigned to
either ferrite or martensite to represent the spatial distribution of the phases. Here, the strain and
stress states at each phase and along the interface can be studied easily. For example,
Kadkhodapour et al. [4] proposed two damage mechanisms in DP800 with the aid of microstructure
simulation results. Elongated voids were found to be initiated in large ferrite islands as a result of
incompatibility between strain values in ferrite and martensite phases whereas spherical voids can
be initiated at trapped ferrite islands surrounded by martensite particles. In these regions, high
hydrostatic pressure was observed in the model and was assumed to trigger void formation.
In this paper, critically damage areas have been studied by combining DIC results and
microstructure simulation technique. Displacement results are extracted from DIC and applied to
the model as boundary conditions. This procedure is essential to ensure that the model deforms in
the same manner as the actual microstructure. The modelling results are then investigated trying to
find similar stress or strain values to trigger damage in DP1000 steels.

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE

Cold rolled sheets with 1.5 mm thickness of DP1000 steels were provided by Tata Steel Europe, in
Ijmuiden, The Netherlands. This material was used in the research which consists of approximately
50% of martensite particles embedded in 50% ferrite matrix. The chemical composition is listed in
Table 1.
Table 1. Weight percentage (wt%) of chemical composition of the DP1000 steel
C

Mn

Si

Cr

Ni

Nb

0.152

1.53

0.474

0.028

0.011

0.033

0.014

Dog bone specimens were manufactured to fit in a Deben Microtest tensile stage with 5 kN
maximum load capacity. The dimensions are shown in Figure 1. The specimens have first been
mechanically polished and etched with 5 % Nital for 5 seconds so that the microstructure can be
revealed clearly in the SEM as shown in Figure 2. The stage was inserted inside a CamScan MK II
SEM chamber. The tests were interrupted at regular intervals in order to capture SEM images of
actual deformed microstructure.

Figure 1. Drawing of DP1000 specimen dimensions in mm [3].

DIC technique was used to quantify the deformation of the acquired SEM images. Principles of
DIC can be found in [5, 6]. SEM images were imported to LaVision 7.1 [7] software to evaluate the
microstructure deformation. LaVision calculates the displacement of every image subsets for every
loading step. In-plane strain can be computed from the displacement results. The morphology of the
microstructure was used for the correlation in DIC analysis. A reduced pass algorithm was used
starting from 13x13 m2 subset windows for the first passes and reduced to 7x7 m2 for the second
passes with 50% overlap.

MICROSTRUCTURE SIMULATION

A realistic model has been generated from actual SEM image of DP1000 microstructure. A
MATLAB [8] code was created by Chalon [9] which assigns elements to either ferrite or martensite
according to the grey level intensity in the actual SEM image. Figure 2 shows the microstructure
and the generated model.

Figure 2. Microstructure generated model (left) and the SEM image of DP1000 microstructure (right).

Prior to run the model, phases properties have to be defined. Two annealed strips of fully ferritic
structure and fully martensitic structure with similar carbon content as in DP1000 were produced.
Figure 3 shows the flow curves of martensite and ferrite phases. Values of 484 MPa yield strength,
198 GPa Youngs modulus and 0.3 Poissons ratio were used for the ferrite phase. For martensite
phase the values were 1350 MPa, 200 GPa and 0.3 for yield strength, Youngs modulus and
Poissons ratio, respectively.

True plastic stress [MPa]

2500
Martensite
Ferrite

2000
1500
1000
500
0
0

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

0.12

0.14

True plastic strain

Figure 3. Flow curves of martensite phase (blue) and ferrite phase (red) of DP1000 Steels.

Boundary conditions in the form of displacement are extracted from DIC results and applied to the
model for every node. This will ensure that the model deforms similarly to the actual
microstructure.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Analysing the damage observed on the surface, Figure 4 shows the development of damage in the
martensite phase as the applied strain increases. As can be seen, at an applied strain of 16%, damage
initiates at the ferrite-martensite interface. As the applied strain increased to 18%, damage
propagates through martensite particles until complete separation when the applied strain reaches
37%. This damage mechanism shown in Figure 4 is representative of damage in the martensite
phase as it has been observed throughout the test in several areas of the microstructure. Martensite
fracturing has also been reported in Steinbrunner et al. [10] and Kadkhodapoure et al. [4] for DP
steels. In order to investigate damage location with respect to stress and strain states, the area in
Figure 4 was analysed using finite element modelling. Figure 5 (b) shows the generated model
together with stress and strain distributions. Strain and stress levels shown in Figure 5 (c) and (d)
have been set to only show distributions in the martensite phase.

Figure 4. Initiation and propagation of damage in martensite in DP1000 steel as the applied strain (%) increases.

The Von Mises stress results of the model in Figure 2 were averaged and compared to the true
stress of the specimen for three different states of applied strain within the hardening stage. This is
carried out to validate phases properties used in Figure 3. Table 2 shows the comparison with a
maximum error of 3% which can be a result of 3D effect that is not included in the current model.
Table 2. Stress comparison between model and experiment for three applied strain states.
Applied Strain (%)
Experimental True Stress (MPa)
Model Averaged Stress (MPa)
Error (%)

4
1076
1045
2.9

7
1135
1104
2.7

9
1168
1132
3.1

Comparing all strain and stress results of the analysed area at the location of damage highlighted
with the red line in Figure 5 (a), it can be noticed that the maximum principal strain shown in
Figure 5 (c) is not at the location of damage. However, Figure 5 (d) shows that the maximum
principal stress can be found at the location of damage in the martensite island with a value of 1778

MPa. Consequently, it is presumed that damage initiation in martensite of DP1000 steels is stress
controlled. A suggested maximum principal stress of approximately 1700 MPa can therefore be
assumed as the critical value to initiate damage in martensite near the interface with ferrite.

Figure 5. (a) The analysed area of damaged martensite, (b) the generated model, (c) the maximum principal strain
distribution, and (d) the maximum principal stress distribution (MPa).

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

TATA Steel Europe, Ijmuiden, The Netherlands, for providing the material and Saudi Arabian
Cultural Bureau, UK, for sponsoring the main author.
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