Dual Phase Steels

For this project three ferrite/martensite dual-phase steels varying in the ferrite grain size (12.4, 2.4 and 1.2 um) but with the same martensite content (30 vol.%) were produced by large-strain warm deformation at different deformation temperatures, followed by intercritical annealing. [more]

For this project two plain carbon steels with varying manganese content (0.87 wt pct and 1.63 wt pct) were refined to approximately 1 um by large strain warm deformation and subsequently subjected to intercritical annealing to produce an ultrafine grained ferrite/martensite dual-phase steel. The influence of the Mn content on microstructure evolution is studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). [more]

In dual-phase (DP) steels, inherited microstructures and elemental distributions affect the kinetics and morphology of phase transformation phenomena and the mechanical properties of the final material. In order to study the inheritance process, we selected two model materials with the same average DP steel composition but with different initial microstructures, created by coiling at different temperatures after hot rolling. These samples were submitted to a DP-steel heat treatment consisting of a short isothermal annealing in the pure austenite region and a quenching process. [more]

Microstructures of multi-phase alloys undergo morphological and crystallographic changes upon deformation, corresponding to the associated microstructural strain fields. The multiple length and time scales involved therein create immense complexity, especially when microstructural damage mechanisms are also activated. An understanding of the relationship between microstructure and damage initiation can often not be achieved by post-mortem microstructural characterization alone. Here, we present a novel multi-probe analysis approach. [more]