scholarly journals The Effect of Lath Martensite Microstructures on the Strength of Medium-Carbon Low-Alloy Steel

Crystals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Sun ◽  
Paixian Fu ◽  
Hongwei Liu ◽  
Hanghang Liu ◽  
Ningyu Du ◽  
...  

Different austenitizing temperatures were used to obtain medium-carbon low-alloy (MCLA) martensitic steels with different lath martensite microstructures. The hierarchical microstructures of lath martensite were investigated by optical microscopy (OM), electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results show that with increasing the austenitizing temperature, the prior austenite grain size and block size increased, while the lath width decreased. Further, the yield strength and tensile strength increased due to the enhancement of the grain boundary strengthening. The fitting results reveal that only the relationship between lath width and strength followed the Hall–Petch formula of. Hence, we propose that lath width acts as the effective grain size (EGS) of strength in MCLA steel. In addition, the carbon content had a significant effect on the EGS of martensitic strength. In steels with lower carbon content, block size acted as the EGS, while, in steels with higher carbon content, the EGS changed to lath width. The effect of the Cottrell atmosphere around boundaries may be responsible for this change.

2007 ◽  
Vol 558-559 ◽  
pp. 557-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Behrang Poorganji ◽  
Takuto Yamaguchi ◽  
Tadashi Maki ◽  
G. Miyamoto ◽  
Tadashi Furuhara

Microstructure change during warm deformation of tempered lath martensite in Fe-2mass%Mn-C alloys with different carbon contents in the range between 0.1 and 0.8mass%C was investigated. Specimens of the alloys after being quenched and tempered at 923K for 0.3ks were compressed by 50% with a strain rate varying from 10-3 to 10-4s-1 at 923K. EBSD analysis of the deformed microstructures has revealed that fine equiaxed ferrite (α) grains surrounded by high-angle boundaries are formed by dynamic recrystallization (DRX). As carbon content increases, the DRX α grain size decreases. This could be attributed to the change in volume fraction of the cementite (θ) phase as boundary dragging particles. The sub-micron θ particles can suppress the coarsening of the DRX α grains by exerting a pinning effect on grain boundary migration. Furthermore, the fraction of recrystallized region increases by increasing carbon content, presumably due to a decrease in the martensite block width as an initial α grain size and a larger volume fraction of hard second phase (θ) particles. Both of these should increase inhomogeneous plastic deformation which promotes the recrystallization. It seems that continuous DRX is responsible for the formation of ultrafine α grains in the tempered lath martensite.


2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (S5) ◽  
pp. 66-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiling Dong ◽  
Yinsheng He ◽  
Chan-Gyu Lee ◽  
Byungho Lee ◽  
Jeongbong Yoon ◽  
...  

AbstractIn this study, every effort was exerted to determine and accumulate data to correlate microstructural and compositional elements in ultra-low-carbon (ULC) steels to variation of carbon content (12–44 ppm), manganese (0.18–0.36%), and sulfur (0.0066–0.001%). Quantitative analysis of the ULC steel using optical microscope, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, and three-dimensional atom probe revealed the decrease of grain size and dislocation density with the increase of carbon contents and/or increase of the final delivery temperature. For a given carbon content, the grain interior carbon concentration increases as the grain size increases.


2014 ◽  
Vol 922 ◽  
pp. 316-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antti J. Kaijalainen ◽  
Sakari Pallaspuro ◽  
David A. Porter

The direct quenching of low-carbon steel has been shown to be an effective way of producing ultra-high-strength, tough structural steels in the as-quenched state without tempering. However, in the present study, the influence of tempering at 500 °C has been studied in order to evaluate the possibilities of widening the range of strengths that can be produced from a single base composition. The chosen composition was 0.1C-0.2Si-1.1Mn-0.15Mo-0.03Ti-0.002B. In order to compare direct quenching with conventional quenching, two pre-quench austenite states were studied: a thermomechanically rolled, non-recrystallized, pancaked austenite grain structure and a recrystallized, equiaxed grain structure. Quenched and quenched-and-tempered microstructures were studied using FESEM and FESEM-EBSD. The as-quenched microstructures of the reheated and quenched and direct quenched specimens were fully martensitic and martensitic-bainitic, respectively. In both cases, tempering made the needle-shaped auto-tempered carbides of the as-quenched materials more spherical. In the case of the direct quenched (DQ) material, tempering led to a notable increase in the size of the grain boundary carbides. Prior austenite grain size and effective grain size after quenching were larger in the case of reheated and quenched material (RQ). Tempering had no effect on effective grain size. The crystallographic texture of the DQ material showed strong {112}<131> and {554}<225> components. The RQ material also contained the same components, but it also contained an intense {110}<110> and {011}<100> components. The effects of these microstructural changes on tensile, impact toughness and fracture toughness are described in part II.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1063 ◽  
pp. 28-31
Author(s):  
Kuan Hui Hu ◽  
Xiang Dong Liu ◽  
Guan Wen Feng ◽  
Rong Dong Han

Strength, microstructure and austenitic grain size of a hot formed steel WHT1300HF after simulative hot stamping were studied by using universal testing machine for materials and optical microscopy. The results show that the yield strength of the hot stamping parts presented the tendency of earlier decrease and later increase with the extension of holding time, tensile strength was first reduced and then hold above 1400 MPa. In addition, the microstructure of the hot stamping parts was lath martensite, and martensite lath length and packet width increases with the heating temperature increased from 850 °C to 1050 °C. Especially, the effect of heat temperature on the original austenite grain size was more obvious, such as the austenite grains grew up quickly with the increase of heating temperature, and the original austenite grain diameter was 37.8 μm when the temperature reached 1050 °C.


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