  A novel concept of varying the strain hardening rate of a medium Mn steel
with 8 wt\% Mn by varying the duration of the intercritical anneal after hot
rolling was explored. It was found that the stability of the austenite phase
showed an inverse square root relationship with intercritical annealing
duration and that the maximum strain hardening rate showed a linear
relationship with austenite stability. The change in austenite stability was
attributed to continuous Mn enrichment with increasing intercritical annealling
duration. Twinned martensite was also found to be the most likely product of
the martensitic transformation during deformation.
