Effect of V and V-N Microalloying on Deformation-Induced Ferrite Transformation in Low Carbon Steels

Deformation-induced ferrite transformation （DIFT） has been proved to be an effective approach to refine ferrite grains. This paper shows that the ferrite grains can further be refined through combination of DIFT and V or V-N microalloying. Vanadium dissolved in γ matrix restrains DIFT. During deformation, vanadium carbonitrides rapidly precipitate due to strain-induced precipitation, which causes decrease in vanadium dissolved in matrix and indirectly accelerates DIFT. Under heavy deformation, deformation induced ferrite （DIF） grains in V microalloyed steel were finer than those in V free steel. The more V added to steel, the finer DIF grains obtained. Moreover, the addition of N to V microalloyed steels can remarkably accelerate precipitation of V, and then promote DIFT. However, DIF grains in V-N microalloyed steel easily coarsen.

High Temperature Ductility Loss of 16MnCr5 Pinion Steels

A wide ductility trough covering from 700 to 1100 is observed in the curve of Reduction of Area (RA) vs.tempetature for 16MnCr5 pinion steel. At 750℃, corresponding to the minimum of RA, it is grain boundary slidingthat controls its hot ductility rather than usual Deforming Induced Ferrite (DIF), which can only appear just below750℃ and slightly improve hot ductility. The volume fraction of ferrite is dependent on the strain and strain rate.Firstly a critical strain must be necessary for formation of DIF then with strain rate increasing, the volume fractionof DIF decreases but RA is elevated. In the γ phase region, hot ductility is seriously deteriorated because of grainboundary sliding promoted by oxidcs and sulfides at the grain boundary and recovered because of dynamic recrystal-lization at higher temperature; when strain rate increases, ductility is improved as there is insufficient time for cracksto propagate along the γ grain boundary as well as dynamically precipitating, and ductility trough becomes narrowerbecause the temperature for onset of dynamic recrystallization decreases. In addition, γ→α phase transformationintroduced by temperature drop before the tensile test encourages precipitation of AlN and impairs ductility.

Effect of Dissolved and Precipitated Niobium in Microalloyed Steel on Deformation Induced Ferrite Transformation(DIFT)

Hot deformation processing was designed to study the effects of niobium （Nb） on DIFT. A prestrain of 0.51 at 880 ℃ for different isothermal time was used for adjusting the deformed austenite constitution and Nb existing state, followed by a secondary heavy deformation at 780 ℃ for inducing the ferrite transformation. The volume fraction and grain size of deformation induced ferrite （DIF） obtained at different isothermal time between double hits were investigated. It was found that Nb dissolved in austenite is adverse to DIFT; however, the precipitation of Nb is beneficial to DIFT. As Nb plays the role in the conventional TMCP, Nb retards the recrystallization of deformed austenite and enhances the deformation stored energy in the multipass deformation, and in result, Nb promotes DIFT.

An ultrahigh strength steel produced through deformation-induced ferrite transformation and Q&P process

In this work,DIFT technology and Q&P process were combined in order to introduce ultrafine-grained ferrite into the matrix of martensite and retained austenite to develop a new kind of advanced high strength steel,and two kinds of steels were investigated by this novel combined process.The newly designed process resulted in a sophisticated microstructure of a large amount of ferrite(about 5 m in diameter),martensite and a considerable amount of retained austenite for TRIP 780 steel.The ultimate tensile strength can reach about 1200 MPa with elongation above 16% for TRIP 780,that is much higher than the one solely treated by Q&P process.Tensile tests showed that both steels with the novel combined process achieved a good combination of strength and ductility,indicating that the new process is promising for the new generation of advanced high strength steels.