Development of a hot-rolled 980 MPa advanced high-strength steel with excellent flangeability and bendability

A new 980 MPa advanced high-strength steel(AHSS) with excellent bendability and flangeability has been studied and industrially produced, typical of tensile strength, fractured elongation, and hole expansion ratio(HER) exceeding 980 MPa, 10%,and 30%,respectively.The 90° V-type bending perpendicular to the rolling direction can satisfy the R/t=1.0 requirement, indicating excellent bendability.Systematic evaluations of industrial trial-produced 980 MPa hot-rolled AHSS have been conducted, including microstructure, tensile properties in three directions, HER,bendability, fatigue limit strength, and forming limit.The microstructure of the newly developed 980 MPa AHSS primarily consists of fine bainite and a small amount of martensite-austenite constituent.The practical yield and tensile strength are higher than 800 and 980 MPa, respectively, with typical elongation of 13% and HER of around 40%.The good combination of the newly developed 980 MPa AHSS is primarily attributed to the fine bainitic microstructure, resulting in excellent flangeability and bendability.In addition, the newly developed 980 MPa AHSS has good fatigue and forming properties, making it suitable for the production of chassis and suspension components.

Improving flangeability of multiphase steel by increasing microstructural homogeneity

Multiphase microstructure significantly increases the strength,usually at the expense of flangeability because of lacking microstructure homogeneity.To further improve the strength-flangeability of multiphase steel,the microstructural homogeneity was advanced by adjusting the hard martensite/austenite(M/A)islands.The strength-flangeability was measured via uniaxial tensile tests and hole expansion tests.Their microstructures were characterized using a scanning electron microscope equipped with an electron backscatter diffraction detector and a transmission electron microscope.Nanoindentation tests were supplementally used to quantitatively reveal the microstructural homogeneity of the steels.Results show that the adjusted multiphase steel achieves an excellent ultimate tensile strength(~800 MPa)and flangeability(~135%hole expansion ratio).A promising homogeneous multiphase microstructure was obtained by controlling undercooled austenite transformed at about 600℃.This microstructure consists of soft polygonal ferrite,blocky bainitic ferrite,and hard M/A islands.The volume fraction of M/A islands is around 5%,and the average size is less than l pm.Detailed nanoindentation analysis indicated that the participation of M/A islands impressively influenced the microstructural homogeneity.Weakened strain partition and better mechanical compatibility were present in the adjusted multiphase steel since the plasticity initiation started late,which resulted in a positive flangeability.Moreover,avoiding M/A islands distributed in the chain along the rolling direction on the matrix hindered the possibility of voids coalescing into cracks and stabilized the flanging performance.