Abstract
In the present study, the mechanical behavior of the spray-formed high speed steel was investigated employing the internal variable theory of inelastic deformation. Special attention was focused on the effect of the microstructure evolution during the hot working process, such as the distribution of carbides to provide a basic database for the production condition of high speed steels with excellent properties. The billets of high speed steel ASP30TM were fabricated by a spray forming, and the subsequently hot-rolled and heat-treated process to obtain uniformly distributed carbide structure. As noted the spray-formed high speed steel showed relatively coarser carbides than hot-rolled and heat-treated one with fine and uniformly distributed carbide structure. The step strain rate tests and high temperature tensile tests were carried out on both the spray-formed and the hot-rolled specimens, to elucidate their high temperature deformation behavior. The spray-formed high speed steel showed much higher flow stress and lower elongation than the hot-rolled and heat-treated steel. During the tensile test at $900^{\circ}C$, the interruption of the deformation for 100 seconds was conducted to reveal that the recovery was a main dynamic deformation mechanism of spray formed high speed steel. The internal variable theory of the inelastic deformation was used to analyze data from the step strain rate tests, revealing that the activation energies for hot deformation of as-spray-formed and hot-worked steels, which were 157.1 and 278.9 kJ/mol, and which were corresponding to the dislocation core and lattice diffusions of ${\gamma}-Fe$, respectively.