Effects of chromium on the corrosion and electrochemical behaviors of ultra high strength steels

The effects of chromium on the corrosion and the electrochemical behaviors of ultra high strength steels were studied by the salt spray test and electrochemical methods. The results show that ultra high strength steels remain martensite structures and have anodic dissolution characteristic with an increase of chromium content. There is no typical passive region on the polarization curves of an ultra high strength stainless steel, AerMet 100 steel, and 300M steel. However, chromium improves the corrosion resistance of the stainless steel remarkably. It has the slowest corrosion rate in the salt spray test, one order of magnitude less than that of AerMet 100 and 300M steels. With the increase of chromium content, the polarization resistance becomes larger, the corrosion potential shifts towards the positive direction with a value of 545 mV, and the corrosion current density decreases in electrochemical measures in 3.5wt% NaCl solutions. Because of the higher content of chromium, the ultra high strength stainless steel has a better corrosion resistance than AerMet 100 and 300M steels.

Strength evaluation of ultra-high strength steels and spot weld of automotive bodies

Cockcrofi-Latham fracture criterion was applied to predict the fracture of high strength steels. A Marciniak-type biaxial stretching test of the four classes of high strength steels was carried out to measure the material damage limit of Cockcrofi-Latham fracture criterion. Furthermore, in order to improve the simulation accuracy, the local anisotropic parameters depending on the plastic strain （strain dependent model of anisotropy ） were measured by digital image correlation method and incorporated into Hill＇ s anisotropic yield condition by authors. To confirm the validity of Cockcrofi-Latham fracture criterion, the uniaxial tensile tests based on JIS No. 5 tensile specimen were performed. The force-displacement history and fracture happening strokes were predicted with high accuracy. Then, Cockcrofi-Latham fracture criterion was applied to predict the failure of four types of spot welded joints. To simulate the local bending and warping deformations around the heataffected zone, the discrete Kirchhoff triangle element was adapted. FEM results for four classes of high strength steels and four types of spot welded joints had a good correlation with experimental ones.

Seismic performance of steel reinforced ultra high-strength concrete composite frame joints

To investigate the seismic performance of a composite frame comprised of steel reinforced ultra high-strength concrete （SRUHSC） columns and steel reinforced concrete （SRC） beams, six interior frame joint specimens were designed and tested under low cyclically lateral load. The effects of the axial load ratio and volumetric stirrup ratio were studied on the characteristics of the frame joint performance including crack pattern, failure mode, ductility, energy dissipation capacity, strength degradation and rigidity degradation. It was found that all joint specimens behaved in a ductile manner with flexural-shear failure in the joint core region while plastic hinges appeared at the beam ends. The ductility and energy absorption capacity of joints increased as the axial load ratio decreased and the volumetric stirIup ratio increased. The displacement ductility coefficient and equivalent damping coefficient of the joints fell between the corresponding coefficients of the steel reinforced concrete （SRC） frame joint and RC frame joint. The axial load ratio and volumetric stirrup ratio have less influence on the strength degradation and more influence on the stiffness degradation. The stiffness of the joint degrades more significantly for a low volumetric stirrup ratio and high axial load ratio. The characteristics obtained from the SRUHSC composite frame joint specimens with better seismic performance may be a useful reference in future engineering applications.

Research on the design of cold rolled ultra high strength sheet steel

This study researches cold rolled ultra high strength martensitic steel processed by water quenching. It is found that both the quenching and overageing temperatures greatly influence the mechanical properties of martensitic steel. A tensile strength of 1500 MPa can be obtained from 0.2% C-1.8% Mn steel by soaking at 840℃,quenching at 700℃ and overageing at 200℃ for several minutes. The continuous cooling transformation （CCT） diagram reveals that full martensite can be obtained at a cooling rate of 100℃/s or higher; and at a cooling rate of 3 - 10℃/s,austenite barely decomposes at 700℃. For steel with 0.2% carbon and less manganese, austenite decomposition occurs before it is cooled to 700℃ at a cooling rate of 3 - 10℃/s, which leads to lower tensile strength. It is possible to reduce the manganese content of the 1500 MPa martensitic steel by increasing the quenching temperature. To increase the quenching temperature,the control of flatness during water quenching becomes a major concern.

Seismic Behavior of Steel Reinforced Ultra High Strength Concrete Column and Reinforced Concrete Beam Connection

To investigate the seismic behavior of connections composed of steel reinforced ultra high strength concrete (SRUHSC) column and reinforced concrete (RC) beam, six interior strong-column-weak-beam connection specimens were tested subjected to reversal cyclic load. Effects of applied axial load ratio and volumetric stirrup ratio on ductility, energy dissipation capacity, strength degradation and rigidity degradation were discussed. It was found that all connection specimens failed in bending in a ductile manner with a beam plastic hinge. The ductility and energy dissipation capacity increased with the decrease of applied axial load ratio or increase of volumetric stirrup ratio. The displacement ductility coefficient and equivalent damping coefficient lay between those of steel reinforced ordinary concrete connection and those of reinforced concrete connection. The applied axial load ratio and volumetric stirrup ratio had less influence on the strength degradation and more influence on the stiffness degradation. The stiffness degraded sharply with the decrease of volumetric stirrup ratio or increase of applied axial load ratio. The experimental results indicate that SRUHSC column and RC beam connection exhibited better seismic performance and can provide reference for engineering application.

Microstructural Transformation and Precipitation of an Ultra-high Strength Steel under Continuous Cooling

We investigated phase transition and precipitation of ultra-high strength steel（UHSS）in a new ＂short process＂ with controlled rolling and controlled cooling.Thermalexpansion test combined with metallographic observation was used to research the continuous cooling transformation（CCT）curve.Moreover,the microstructuraltransformation and precipitation law was revealed by morphologicalobservation and alloying elements by electron probe micro-analyzer（EPMA）.Transmission electron microscopy（TEM）was utilized to analyze the composition and grain orientation of microstructure.The study showed that the measured criticaltransformation temperatures of Ac1 and Ac3 were 746 and 868 ℃,respectively.The CCT curve indicated that the undercooled austenite was transformed into proeutectoid ferrite and bainite with HV 520 in a broad range of cooling rate 0.1^（-1） ℃·s^（-1）.When subjected to a cooling rate of 1 ℃·s^（-1）,the undercooled austenite was divided into small-sized blocks by formed martensite.With further increase of cooling rate,micro-hardness increased dramatically,the microstructure of specimen was mainly lathe bainite（LB）,granular bainite（GB）,lath martensite（LM）and residualaustenite.By diffraction test analysis,it was identified that there was K-S orientation relationship between martensite and austenite for {110}_α//{111}_γ,{111}_α//{101}_γ.EPMA clearly showed that carbon diffused adequately due to staying for a long time at high temperature with a lower cooling rate of 2 ℃·s-1.Phase transition drive force was lower and the residualaustenite existed in the block form of Martensite austenite island（M-A）.With the increase of cooling rate to 10 ℃·s^（-1）,the block residualaustenite reduced,the carbon content of residualaustenite increased and α phase around the residualaustenite formed into a low carbon bainite form.

Electrochemical corrosion behavior of 300M ultra high strength steel in chloride containing environment

The electrochemical corrosion behavior of 300M ultra high strength steel in chloride containing environment was investigated by potentiodynamic polarization technique, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy （EIS） and scanning electron microscopy （SEM）. The results show that uniform corrosion occurs on 300M steel during the elec- trochemical measurements because no anodic passivation phenomenon is observed on polarization curves within the measurement range. The tests also show that 300M steel is highly susceptible to chloride containing solution, which is characterized by corrosion current density increasing with the addition of chlorides, and corrosion potential shifting towards positive direction and corrosion resistance decreasing, pos- itively suggesting that chloride ions speed up the corrosion rate of 300M steel. Mean- while corrosion products on the 300M steel surface formed during the salt spray test are too loose and porous to effectively slow down the corrosion rate. Additionally, a schematic structure of uniform corrosion mechanism can explain that 300M steel has better property of stress corrosion cracking （SCC） resistance than stainless steels.

Experimental Procedure and Hardening Model to Consider Forming and Baking Effects in Simulation

This paper investigated an experimental method for bake hardening properties, a technique for deriving the true stress-strain curves after reaching the maximum load, and a constitutive equation considering both work hardening and bake hardening in order to apply the work hardening occurring in the forming process of parts and the bake hardening induced in the baking process to an automotive crash simulation. A general bake hardening test is that a pre-tensioned specimen is baked and then the same specimen is tensioned again without any further treatment. For a bake hardening test of automotive steel with a tensile strength of 1.2 GPa or more, fractures often occur in curvature section outside, an extensometer due to the difference in the material strength caused by non-uniform bake hardening. This causes a problem in that the bake hardening properties cannot be obtained. In this paper, to prevent curvature fracture, tensile specimens were re-machined in the uniformly deformed region of large specimens subjected to pre-strain, and the re-machined specimens with uniform strength in all regions were re-tensioned. In the bake hardening test of ultra-high strength steels with a tensile strength of 1 GPa or more, shear band fractures occur when the pre-strain is large. This makes it impossible to obtain a true stress-strain curve because there is no uniformly deformed region under a tensile test. To overcome this problem, a new method to calculate the true stress-strain curve by comparing experimental results and the load calculated by the local strain obtained from digital images was developed. This method can be applied not only where shear band deformation occurs, but also in necking deformation, and true stress-strain curves for strains up to 2 - 3 times the uniform elongation can be obtained. A new constitutive equation was developed since an appropriate hardening model is required to simultaneously apply the work hardening and the bake hardening to the simulation. For the newly developed model, the user material subroutine of LS-Dyna was configured, and the simulation was performed on the single hat specimens with pre-strain. When both work hardening and bake hardening were considered, there was a significant increase in absorbed energy compared to when only work hardening was considered. This means that both work hardening and bake hardening should be considered in the car crash simulations to enhance the accuracy of the simulation.

Effect of Heat Treatment on the Mechanical Properties and the Carbide Characteristics of a High Strength Low Alloy Steel

Effect of heat treatment on the mechanical properties and the corresponding morphology changes of carbides such as (NbTi)C and Mo,Cr rich carbides in a high strength steel was studied in the paper.It was found that the strength depend more on tempering temperature than quenching temperature.While the toughness seemed to be sensitive to both quenching temperature and tempering temperature.Under the as water quenched condition,the toughness gave a peak value at the quenching temperature of 860℃.Under the as tempered condition,the toughness showed a temper brittleness at the temperature range of 230℃ to 450℃.The morphology changes of the carbides in the experimental steel were explained from the view of the thermal dynamic behavior.

Dynamic analysis of double racks gear 3D roll forming machine

3 D roll-forming for high strength steel sheets is a new technology at present.Double racks gear 3D roll forming machine developed by our research group can be used to perform variable cross section roll forming for high strength steel.In the paper,a dynamic model of 8-DOF double rack gear 3D roll-forming machine is established by the method of Lagrange equation.The expression of the angle acceleration of the system response is obtained by solving the dynamic equations.Through an actual engineering example,the dynamical characters of the 3D roll forming machine are revealed.The results can support the design of 3D roll forming machine.Meanwhile,the research will play an active role in the development of control system.