Damage analysis of tensile deformation of co-rolled SMATed 304SS

One of recent experimental progresses in strengthening and toughening metals simultaneously is to adopt techniques of surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT) and warm co-rolling to 304 stainless steel (SS). To capture deformation behavior and associated damage initiation/evolution process in the co-rolled SMATed 304SS, cohesive finite element method (CFEM) is employed in this paper and simulation results are in agreement with experimental results. Both strengthening effect due to high yield stress of the nanograin layer and toughening effect due to non-localized damage in the nanograin layer are captured. Effect of energy release rate of nanograin layer on failure strain of layered co-rolled SMATed 304SS is investigated. It is found that the more brittle the nanograin layer is, the more potential necking sites in the nanograin layer are, and the more ductile the layered co-rolled SMATed 304SS is. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.