In the present study, the tensile properties and dynamic strain aging of an Fe-24.5Mn-4Cr-0.45C alloy were investigated in terms of strain rate. During tensile testing at room temperature, all the stress-strain curves exhibited serrated plastic flows related to dynamic strain aging, regardless of the strain rate. Serration appeared right after yield stress at lower strain rates, while it was hardly observed at high strain rates. On the other hand, strain-rate sensitivity, indicating a general relationship between flow stress and strain rate at constant strain and temperature, changed from positive to negative as the strain increased. The negative strain-rate sensitivity can be explained by the Portevin Le Chatelier effect, which is associated with dynamic strain aging and is dependent on the strain rate because it is very likely that the dynamic strain aging phenomenon in high-manganese steels is involved in the interaction between moving dislocations and point-defect complexes.

Korean population has been rapidly aging. Most of people regard the aging population as future crisis due to the rate of change and agree to prepare for a soft-landing on aging society in South Korea. Particularly, the aging population growth in rural areas is much faster than urban areas. Also rural areas relatively have poorer social and economic conditions so the countermeasures for population aging considering related social and economic indices are required. Moreover, each rural region has the different preparedness level for rural aging based on regional socio-economic characteristics. In this study, we analyzed correlations of the rural aging rate and local characteristics and developed an evaluation index to show the regional preparedness status for rural aging. To test the applicability of developed indicators, we applied them to 161 rural regions and assessed regional preparedness level for rural aging. This study would provide basic data for establishing policies for rural aging.