Abstract: The effect of C,Mn and heat-treatment on work-hardening of austenitic Mn steel and the work-hardening mechanism have been investigated under non-severe impact loading condition.The results show that the ability of work-hardening in- creases with the increase of C and aging tempera- ture but decreases with Mn.The work-hardening with high austenitic stability results mainly from dislocations,and that with low austenitic stability results mainly from combined effects of strain-in- duced martensite and high density of dislocations under non-severe impact loading conditions.The wear resistance of medium manganese steel (Mn7) is 1.64-2.46 times that of Hadfield steel (Mnl3).

Key words: austenitic manganese steel, mechanism of work-hardening