Analysis of deformation induced martensitic transformation in stainless steels

Many studies monitoring the formation of martensite during the tensile deformation of austenite report data which are, in principle, affected by both the applied stress and the resulting plastic strain. It is not clear in these circumstances whether the transformation is stress induced (i.e. the stress provides a mechanical driving force) or whether the generation of defects during deformation helps nucleate martensite in a scenario better described as strain induced transformation. The authors demonstrate in the present work that a large amount of published data relating the fraction of martensite to plastic strain can in fact be described in terms of the pure thermodynamic effect of applied stress.