Constitutive Analysis on High-Temperature Flow Behavior of 3Cr-1Si-1Ni Ultra-High Strength Steel for Modeling of Flow Stress

High-temperature plastic flow is the underlying process that governs the product quality in many advanced metal manufacturing technologies, such as extrusion, rolling, and welding. Data and models on the high-temperature flow behavior are generally desired in the design of these manufacturing processes. In this paper, quantitative constitutive analysis is carried out on 3Cr-1Si-1Ni ultra-high strength steel, which sheds light on the mathematic relation between the flow stress and the thermal-mechanical state variables, such as temperature, plastic strain, and strain rate. Particularly, the hyperbolic-sine equation in combination with the Zener-Hollomon parameter is shown to be successful in representing the effect of temperature and strain rate on the flow stress of the 3Cr-1Si-1Ni steel. It is found that the flow stress of the 3Cr-1Si-1Ni steel is significantly influenced by strain. The strain-dependence on flow stress is not identical at different temperatures and strain rates. In the constitutive model, the influence of strain in the constitutive analysis is successfully implemented by introducing strain-dependent constants for the constitutive equations. Fifth-order polynomial equations are employed to fit the strain-dependence of the constitutive constant. The proposed constitutive equations which considers the compensation of strain is found to accurately predict flow stress of the 3Cr-1Si-1Ni steel at the temperatures ranging from 800 degrees C to 1250 degrees C, strain rate ranging from 0.01/s to 10/s, and strain ranging from 0.05 to 0.6.