Abstract
The austenitic Fe-Mn alloys have received considerable attention as a possible candidate for the automotive structural materials due to their high strength and high formability with high elongation. This research investigates the effect of alloying elements on the phase transformation, deformation behavior and mechanical properties in high Mn steels for the development of a high strength high ductility steel. The mechanical stability of austenitic phases is very important for high ductility and it depends largely on the composition of carbon, manganese and aluminum. The dominant deformation mode shifts from TRIP to TWIP mode as the amount of C, Mn and Al is increased. Especially, even a small amount of Al addition facilitates significantly TWIP deformation due to the increase of stacking fault energy in Fe-Mn alloys, this leads to increase the ductility and also decrease the crack sensitivity.