Activation of a hybrid twinning mechanism in a Cr-Ni-Si-V-N medium manganese austenitic steel containing precipitates

Twinning nucleation in a medium Mn austenitic steel containing precipitates is studied at low strain ~ 0.02, using transmission electron microscopy. In the near vicinity of precipitates, unfaulting dislocation reaction favored, while twinning activated farther from precipitates. Twin follows hybrid mechanism, involving creation stacking faults through classical dissociation, those subsequently overlapped following non-classical alternated fault pair mechanism to create three-layer twin nucleus. The observed behavior interpreted an energy barrier variation viewpoint within matrix.