Flow characteristics and hot workability of a typical low-alloy high-strength steel during multi-pass deformation

Heavy components of low-alloy high-strength(LAHS) steels are generally formed by multi-pass forging. It is necessary to explore the flow characteristics and hot workability of LAHS steels during the multi-pass forging process, which is beneficial to the formulation of actual processing parameters. In the study, the multi-pass hot compression experiments of a typical LAHS steel are carried out at a wide range of deformation temperatures and strain rates. It is found that the work hardening rate of the experimental material depends on deformation parameters and deformation passes, which is ascribed to the impacts of static and dynamic softening behaviors. A new model is established to describe the flow characteristics at various deformation passes. Compared to the classical Arrhenius model and modified Zerilli and Armstrong model, the newly proposed model shows higher prediction accuracy with a confidence level of 0.98565. Furthermore, the connection between power dissipation efficiency(PDE) and deformation parameters is revealed by analyzing the microstructures. The PDE cannot be utilized to reflect the efficiency of energy dissipation for microstructure evolution during the entire deformation process, but only to assess the efficiency of energy dissipation for microstructure evolution in a specific deformation parameter state.As a result, an integrated processing map is proposed to better study the hot workability of the LAHS steel, which considers the effects of instability factor(IF), PDE, and distribution and size of grains. The optimized processing parameters for the multi-pass deformation process are the deformation parameters of 1223–1318 K and 0.01–0.08 s^(-1). Complete dynamic recrystallization occurs within the optimized processing parameters with an average grain size of 18.36–42.3 μm. This study will guide the optimization of the forging process of heavy components.

Martensitic twinning transformation mechanism in a metastable IVB element-based body-centered cubic high-entropy alloy with high strength and high work hardening rate

Realizing high work hardening and thus elevated strength–ductility synergy are prerequisites for the practical usage of body-centered-cubic high entropy alloys(BCC-HEAs).In this study,we report a novel dynamic strengthening mechanism,martensitic twinning transformation mechanism in a metastable refractory element-based BCC-HEA(TiZrHf)Ta(at.%)that can profoundly enhance the work hardening capability,leading to a large uniform ductility and high strength simultaneously.Different from conventional transformation induced plasticity(TRIP)and twinning induced plasticity(TWIP)strengthening mechanisms,the martensitic twinning transformation strengthening mechanism combines the best characteristics of both TRIP and TWIP strengthening mechanisms,which greatly alleviates the strengthductility trade-off that ubiquitously observed in BCC structural alloys.Microstructure characterization,carried out using X-ray diffraction(XRD)and electron back-scatter diffraction(EBSD)shows that,upon straining,α”(orthorhombic)martensite transformation,self-accommodation(SA)α”twinning and mechanicalα”twinning were activated sequentially.Transmission electron microscopy(TEM)analyses reveal that continuous twinning activation is inherited from nucleating mechanical{351}type I twins within SA“{351}”<■11>typeⅡtwinnedα”variants on{351}twinning plane by twinning transformation through simple shear,thereby accommodating the excessive plastic strain through the twinning shear while concurrently refining the grain structure.Consequently,consistent high work hardening rates of 2–12.5 GPa were achieved during the entire plastic deformation,leading to a high tensile strength of 1.3 GPa and uniform elongation of 24%.Alloy development guidelines for activating such martensitic twinning transformation strengthening mechanism were proposed,which could be important in developing new BCC-HEAs with optimal mechanical performance.

Comparison on Mathematical Models for Description of Flow Curves of Stable Austenitic Steels

The flow curves were measured for the stable austenitic steels 304L and 304LN by means of tensile test at room temperature,which are described by the models σ=K1εn1 + exp(K2 + n2ε), σ=Kεn1+n2lnε and σ=σ0+Kεn (where, K1, K2, n1 andn2; K, n1 and n2; σ0, K and n are constant). The comparison of the maximum deviations and the consideration of thevariation of the work hardening rate with true strain show that the flow curves for the austenitic steels 304L and 304LN canbe described by the model σ=Kεn1+n2 lnε at higher precision.The derivatives of the models σ=K1εn1 + exp(K2 + n2ε) and σ=Kεn1+n2lnε with respect to true strain, exhibit theextreme at low true strain. This inherent character indicates that both models are unsuitable to describe the part of the workhardening rate curve at low true strain.

Stress-strain behavior of multi-phase high performance structural steel

A series of ferrite/bainite(F/B) multi-phase steels containing different volume fractions of ferrite were obtained.The effect of soft phase(ferrite) content on the work-hardening behavior of the steel was studied by the finite element simulation with V-BCC model and the modified Crussard-Jaoul(C-J) analysis.It is shown that the multi-phase steels have an excellent anti-deformation ability,such as higher stress ratio(R t1.5 /R t0.5),higher uniform elongation and lower yield to tensile strength ratio.For the F/B multi-phase steels,increasing the proportion of ferrite would help to increase the uniform elongation.However,introducing much more fraction of ferrite would not be helpful to improve the stress ratio of multi-phase steel.The ferrite plastic strain constrained by bainite would be beneficial to increasing the work hardening rate.The optimum proportion of ferrite will result both higher stress ratio and uniform elongation in multi-phase steel.

Dependence of tensile properties on microstructural features of bimodal-sized ferrite/cementite steels

A medium-carbon steel was processed through different warm rolling techniques,and the microstructural features with bimodal grain size distribution were found to be different.The combination of strength and ductility was ameliorated in the steel processed through warm rolling characterized by biaxial reduction.The enhanced strength is attributed to the densely distributed fine intragranular cementite particles and the small grain size in the coarse grain regions.The enhanced uniform elongation is due to the improved work hardening behavior at the large-strain stage.This work hardening behavior is predominantly ascribed to the finely dispersed intragranular particles.The relatively small grain size with nearly equiaxed shape in the coarse grain regions helps stabilize the uniform deformation to a large strain.

Texture and Microstructure Evolution During Tensile Testing of TWIP Steels with Diverse Stacking Fault Energy

Texture and microstructure evolution in two kinds of the twinning induced plasticity （TWIP） steels （Fe-Mn- Si-AI and Fe-Mn-C） with diverse stacking fault energies during tensile testing were investigated by interrupted testing. The strain-hardening rate curves of the two steels were quite similar, but the texture characterization curves （maximum of pole density measured by X-ray diffraction） were varied. According to the curvature of max pole density curves, the evolution of the texture and the microstructure can be divided into three stages： low strain stage, medium stage and high stage. In low strain stage the difference of the microstructure came from the intensity of dislocation, which was much smaller in Fe-Mn-Si-AI. The main difference of the microstructure in medium and high strain stages originated from the numbers of activated twin systems. There were more than one twin systems activated in Fe-Mn-C, while only a single twin system activated in Fe-Mn-Si-AI. Texture showed various differences in the whole tensile process because it was affected by their micromechanism, such as concentration of the dislocation and the activation of twin systems. Texture in low strain stage was connected with annealing twin; the evolution ofthe texture was mainly induced by deformation twin generation. More than one activated twin systems in medium and high stages may counteract each other in the view of concentration of the grain orientations.

Microstructural Characterization and Mechanical Properties of Powder Metallurgy Dual Phase Steel Preforms

In order to improve the mechanical properties of powder metallurgy （P/M） ferrite-pearlite steel, a dual phase （DP） ferrite-martensite steel was produced through intercritical annealing of sintered P/M preforms. Mi-crostructures of the sintered and DP steels were examined with optical, scanning and transmission electron microscopes. Mechanical properties were evaluated through hardness measurements and compression tests. Microstructural studies revealed that sintered steel contained polygonal ferrite-pearlite while the DP steel contained polygonal, lath and acicular ferrite along with lath-type martensite as microstructural constituents. In DP steels, with increasing mean preform density, the microstructure contained fine and continuous network of martensite colonies with minimum porosity. The work hardening rate vs plastic strain plots （Jaoul-Crussard analysis） of both the steels revealed typical three stage deformation behaviour for low and high mean preform densities. Compression tests revealed that, DP P/M steel displayed higher strength-plasticity combination than the sintered steel.