Effect of tempering temperature on strain hardening exponent and flow stress curve of 1000MPa grade steel for construction machinery

To study the effect of tempering temperature on strain hardening exponent and flow stress curve,one kind of 1000 MPa grade low carbon bainitic steel for construction machinery was designed,and the standard uniaxial tensile tests were conducted at room temperature.A new flow stress model,which could predict the flow behavior of the tested steels at different tempering temperatures more efficiently,was established.The relationship between mobile dislocation density and strain hardening exponent was discussed based on the dislocation-stress relation.Arrhenius equation and an inverse proportional function were adopted to describe the mobile dislocation,and two mathematical models were established to describe the relationship between tempering temperature and strain hardening exponent.Nonlinear regression analysis was applied to the Arrhenius type model,hence,the activation energy was determined to be 37.6kJ/mol.Moreover,the square of correlation coefficient was 0.985,which indicated a high reliability between the fitted curve and experimental data.By comparison with the Arrhenius type curve,the general trend of the inverse proportional fitting curve was coincided with the experimental data points except of some fitting errors.Thus,the Arrhenius type model can be adopted to predict the strain hardening exponent at different tempering temperatures.

Phase Transformation of a Cold Work Tool Steel during Tempering

The hardness and microstructure evolution of a 8% Cr cold work tool steel during tempering for 40 h were investigated. Transmission electron microscope examinations showed that M_3C carbides precipitated from supersaturated martensite after tempering at 350 ℃. When the tempering temperature was higher than 520 ℃,the M_（23）C_6 carbides precipitated to substitute for M_3C carbides. After ageing at the temperature of 520 ℃ for 40 h,it was observed that very fine and dense secondary Mo_2C precipitates were precipitated. Thus,it can be concluded that the early stage of Mo_2C-carbide precipitation is like to be Gunier-Preston（ G-P） zone formed by [Mo-C] segregation group which is responsible for the secondary hardening peak at 520 ℃. Overageing at 700 ℃ resulted in recovery of martensitic microstructure and precipitation of M_（23）C_6 carbides.When ageing at 700 ℃ for more than 20 h,recrystallization occurred,which resulted in a change of the matrix morphology from martensitic plates to equiaxed ferrite. It was noticed that the size of recrystallized grain / subgrain was very fine,which was attributed to the pinning effect of M_（23）C_6 precipitates.