THERMOMECHANICAL PROCESSING OF ADVANCED HIGH STRENGTH STEELS IN PRODUCTION HOT STRIP ROLLING

Hot strip rolling of low carbon Advanced High Strength Sheet Steels (AHSS) is challenging due to non-traditionalchemical compositions required to attain the unique mechanical properties in AHSS products. In hotstrip rolling, TMP implies various types of controlled rolling where temperature, strain rate and rollingreductions are carefully selected to produce the target austenite microstructure, which is either fullyrecrystallized or fully pancaked austenite before starting cooling. Microalloying of HSLA in combinationwith suitable TMP provides an efficient tool to control austenite recrystallization prior to the beginningof cooling. However, the existing TMP routes cannot be easily applied to AHSS that have much more sophisticatedalloying and lower level of microalloying. TMP of AHSS in the finishing train of hot strip mill shouldbe designed so as to ensure controlled type and extent of transformation on run-out table by precise control ofstrip temperature and rolling speed with account for mill configuration and capabilities, product dimensions,gauge and shape tolerances. Further complications can be brought about by high sensitivity ofAHSS to various aspects of hot strip rolling and cooling parameters. These aspects are discussed in the paperalong with various practical implications

The effect of multiple deformations on the formation of ultrafine grained steels

A C-Mn-Nb-Ti steel was deformed by hot torsion to study ultrafine ferrite formation through dynamic strain-induced transformation (DSIT) in conjunction with air cooling. A systematic study was carried out first to evaluate the effect of deformation temperature and prior austenite grain size on the critical strain for ultrafine ferrite formation (&epsilon; C,UFF) through single-pass deformation. Then, multiple deformations in the nonrecrystallization region were used to study the effect of thermomechanical parameters (i.e., strain, deformation temperature, etc.) on &epsilon; C,UFF. The multiple deformations in the nonrecrystallization region significantly reduced &epsilon; C,UFF, although the total equivalent strain for a given thermomechanical condition was higher than that required in single-pass deformation. The current study on a Ni-30Fe austenitic model alloy revealed that laminar microband structures were the key intragranular defects in the austenite for nucleation of ferrite during the hot torsion test. The microbands were refined and overall misorientation angle distribution increased with a decrease in the deformation temperature for a given thermomechanical processing condition. For nonisothermal multipass deformation, there was some contribution to the formation of high-angle microband boundaries from strains at higher temperature, although the strains were not completely additive.<br /

Hot deformation behavior and processing maps of diamond/Cu composites

The hot deformation behaviors of 50 vol pct uncoated and Cr-coated diamond/Cu composites were investigated using hot isothermal compression tests under the temperature and strain rate ranging from 1073 K to 1273 K (800 C to 1000 C) and from 0.001 to 5 s1, respectively. Dynamic recrystallization was determined to be the primary restoration mechanism during deformation. The Cr3C2 coating enhanced the interfacial bonding and resulted in a larger flow stress for the Cr-coated diamond/Cu composites. Moreover, the enhanced interfacial affinity led to a higher activation energy for the Cr-coated diamond/Cu composites (238 kJ/mol) than for their uncoated counterparts (205 kJ/mol). The strain-rate-dependent constitutive equations of the diamond/Cu composites were derived based on the Arrhenius model, and a high correlation (R = 0.99) was observed between the calculated flow stresses and experimental data. With the help of processing maps, hot extrusions were realized at 1123 K/0.01 s1 and 1153 K/0.01 s1 (850 C/0.01 s1 and 880 C/0.01 s1) for the uncoated and coated diamond/Cu composites, respectively. The combination of interface optimization and hot extrusion led to increases of the density and thermal conductivity, thereby providing a promising route for the fabrication of diamond/Cu composites

Effect of Austenite Deformation on the Microstructure Evolution and Grain Refinement Under Accelerated Cooling Conditions

Although there has been much research regarding the effect of austenite deformation on accelerated cooled microstructures in microalloyed steels, there is still a lack of accurate data on boundary densities and effective grain sizes. Previous results observed from optical micrographs are not accurate enough, because, for displacive transformation products, a substantial part of the boundaries have disorientation angles below 15 deg. Therefore, in this research, a niobium microalloyed steel was used and electron backscattering diffraction mappings were performed on all of the transformed microstructures to obtain accurate results on boundary densities and grain refinement. It was found that with strain rising from 0 to 0.5, a transition from bainitic ferrite to acicular ferrite occurs and the effective grain size reduces from 5.7 to 3.1 μm. When further increasing strain from 0.5 to 0.7, dynamic recrystallization was triggered and postdynamic softening occurred during the accelerated cooling, leading to an inhomogeneous and coarse transformed microstructure. In the entire strain range, the density changes of boundaries with different disorientation angles are distinct, due to different boundary formation mechanisms. Finally, the controversial influence of austenite deformation on effective grain size of low-temperature transformation products was argued to be related to the differences in transformation conditions and final microstructures

Deformation and Recrystallization Behavior of the Cast Structure in Large Size, High Strength Steel Ingots: Experimentation and Modeling

Constitutive modeling of the ingot breakdown process of large size ingots of high strength steel was carried out through comprehensive thermomechanical processing using Gleeble 3800® thermomechanical simulator, finite element modeling (FEM), optical and electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD). For this purpose, hot compression tests in the range of 1473 K to 1323 K (1200 °C to 1050 °C) and strain rates of 0.25 to 2 s−1 were carried out. The stress-strain curves describing the deformation behavior of the dendritic microstructure of the cast ingot were analyzed in terms of the Arrhenius and Hansel-Spittel models which were implemented in Forge NxT 1.0® FEM software. The results indicated that the Arrhenius model was more reliable in predicting microstructure evolution of the as-cast structure during ingot breakdown, particularly the occurrence of dynamic recrystallization (DRX) process which was a vital parameter in estimating the optimum loads for forming of large size components. The accuracy and reliability of both models were compared in terms of correlation coefficient (R) and the average absolute relative error (ARRE)