Abstract: Low cycle fatigue tests under plastic strain control were carried out with a dual-phase steel containing 23 Vol.-% martensite. Specimens hardened rapidly at first few cycles followed by a slight softening to saturation stages when cycled at higher strain amplitudes, whereas at lower strain amplitudes the specimens presented continually hardening for a long time until saturation. TEM examination of the saturation dislocation structures show that clusters, parallel walls and cells were found at low, medium and high strain amplitude, respectively. It also has been found that the martensite/ferrite interfaces did not affect the dislocation structures signi- ficantly when a specimen was fatigued at lower strain amplitude. However, the dislocation struc- ture adjacent to the two-phase boundary is dif- ferent to some extent from that in the remote regions in the ferrite when a higher strain amplitude is applied.

Key words: cyclic deformation, dual-phase steel, dislocation structure