Achievement

Dean Pierce spent February 2011 working at Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Metalúrgicas (CENIM) in Madrid Spain with Dr. Jose Jimenez and March-May 2011 at the Max-Planck-Institut fuer Eisenforschung (MPIE) in Dusseldorf Germany with Professor Dierk Raabe. He studied deformation mechanisms in newly developed Iron Manganese Aluminum Silicon Twinning Induced Plasticity (TWIP) steels. The effect of stacking fault energy, deformation temperature and grain size were evaluated for their influence on the deformation mechanisms and the mechanical properties of the steel. During Dean's time at CENIM and the MPIE he gained significant experience in transmission electron microscopy, electron back scatter diffraction, atom probe tomography and mechanical testing that will form an excellent foundation for future work on his dissertation concerning the influence of stacking fault energy, grain size and temperature on the deformation mechanisms of these TWIP steels.