Addressing retained austenite stability in advanced high strength steels

Advances in the development of new high strength steels have resulted in microstructures containing significant volume fractions of retained austenite. The transformation of retained austenite to martensite upon straining contributes towards improving the ductility. However, in order to gain from the above beneficial effect, the volume fraction, size, morphology and distribution of the retained austenite need to be controlled. In this regard, it is well known that carbon concentration in the retained austenite is responsible for its chemical stability, whereas its size and morphology determines its mechanical stability. Thus, to achieve the required mechanical properties, control of the processing parameters affecting the microstructure development is essential

Asymmetric rolling of interstitial-free steel using differential roll diameters. Part II : microstructure and annealing effects

The effects of annealing on the microstructure, texture, tensile properties, and R value evolution of an IF steel sheet after room-temperature symmetric and asymmetric rolling were examined. Simulations were carried out to obtain R values from the experimental textures using the viscoplastic self-consistent polycrystal plasticity model. The investigation revealed the variations in the textures due to annealing and symmetric/asymmetric rolling and showed that the R values correlate strongly with the evolution of the texture. An optimum heat treatment for the balance of strength, ductility, and deep drawability was found to be at 873 K (600 _C) for 30 minutes

Bake hardening of automotive steels

Bake hardening (BH) is widely used in the automotive industry for enhancement of components\u27 yield strength (YS), leading to the improvements in dent and crash resistance. The mechanisms involve interaction of carbon atoms with dislocations, planar defects and later on formation of clusters and fine carbides. The understanding of the effects of alloying additions, previous processing parameters as well as those of BH treatment on YS increment is essential for design of new steel grades and their processing. These underlying mechanisms with respect to different phases and factors affecting them are addressed in this chapter

Observations of decomposition of martensite during heat treatment of steels using atom probe tomography

The decomposition of martensite during tempering or ageing is an important phenomenon as it leads to changes in the mechanical properties. These changes could take place during both steel manufacturing or in-service. Thus, their understanding is required to predict the material performance. Recent advances in the development of local electrode atom probes has led to a significant increase in the analysed volume of material (up to 100 millions of atoms) and at the same time reduced the acquisition times. This allows improvement in data statistics when investigating fine nanoscale features, such as solute segregation, clustering and ultrafine precipitation. Selected results of atom probe studies on the decomposition of martensite from bake hardening of a pre-strained Transformation Induced Plasticity (TRIP) steel and ageing of FeNiTiMnAl maraging steel are presented

Characterization of nano-structured bainitic steel

A 0.79C-1.5Si-1.98Mn-0.98Cr-0.24Mo-1.06Al-1.58Co (wt%) steel was isothermally heat treated at 200&deg;C for 10 days to produce a nano-structured bainitic steel. The microstructure consisted of nanobainitic ferrite laths with a high dislocation density and retained austenite films having extensive twins. The crystallographic analysis using TEM and EBSD revealed that the bainitic ferrite laths are close to the Nishiyama-Wassermann orientation relationship with their parent austenite. There was only one type of packet identified in a given transformed austenite grain. Each packet consisted of two different blocks having variants with the same habit plane, but different crystallographic orientations. Atom Probe Tomography (APT) revealed that the carbon content of nanobainitic ferrite laths was much higher than expected from the para-equilibrium level. This was explained due to the long heat treatment time, which led to the formation of fine Fe-C clusters on areas with high dislocation densities in bainitic ferrite laths.<br /

Constitutive Relations Analyses of Plastic Flow in Dual-Phase Steels to Elucidate Structure-Strength-Ductility Correlations

The structure-strength characterization is typically performed by correlating the structure with x-ray, electron, or atomic imaging devices to the bulk mechanical tensile parameters of yield stress and the plastic yielding response. The problem is that structure parameters embedded in the stress-strain data cannot be revealed without an analyzable constitutive relation. New functional slip-based constitutive formulation with precise digital fitting parameters can replicate the measured data with at least two loci. Thus, this study examines the possibility of identifying the mechanical response as a result of the various microstructure components. The key parameter, the mean slip distance, can be calibrated from the initial work-hardening slope at 0.2% strain from which all the fit parameters can be determined. In this process, a newly derived friction stress is defined to separate the yield phenomenon from the plastic strains beyond yield-point elongation. This methodology has been applied to dual-phase steel specimens that resulted in excellent predictive correlations with prior structure-strength characterization. Hence, the structure-strength-ductility changes resulting from processing conditions can be more precisely surmised from mechanical testing. Thus, a method to delineate the nanostructure evolution with deformation using mesoscopic mechanical parameters has been introduced

Addressing retained austenite stability in advanced high strength steels

Advances in the development of new high strength steels have resulted in microstructures containing significant volume fractions of retained austenite. The transformation of retained austenite to martensite upon straining contributes towards improving the ductility. However, in order to gain from the above beneficial effect, the volume fraction, size, morphology and distribution of the retained austenite need to be controlled. In this regard, it is well known that carbon concentration in the retained austenite is responsible for its chemical stability, whereas its size and morphology determines its mechanical stability. Thus, to achieve the required mechanical properties, control of the processing parameters affecting the microstructure development is essential

Effect of pre-straining and bake hardening on the microstructure of thermomechanically processed CMnSi TRIP steels with and without Nb and Mo additions

Transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography revealed a significant increase in the number density of NbMoFeC clusters and fine particles after 4% pre-straining and bake hardening of transformation-induced plasticity steel alloyed with Nb and Mo. Cottrell atmospheres were detected in the non-alloyed CMnSi steel both before and after pre-straining and bake hardening