• Transactions of Materials Processing
• /
• v.30 no.5
• /
• pp.226-235
• /
• 2021

The strain aging behavior of a low carbon dual phase steel was examined in two conditions: representing room temperature strain aging (100 ℃ × 1 hr after 7.5 % prestrain) and bake hardening process (170 ℃ × 20 min after 2 % prestrain), basing on carbon effective diffusion and dislocation distribution. The first principle calculations revealed that (Mn or Cr)-vacancy-C complexes exhibit the strongest attractive interaction compared to other complexes, therefore, act as strong trapping sites for carbon. For room temperature strain aging condition, the carbon effective diffusion distance is smaller than the dislocation distance in the high dislocation density region near ferrite/martensite interfaces as well as ferrite interior considering the carbon trapping effect of the (Mn or Cr)-vacancy-C complexes, implying ineffective Cottrell atmosphere formation. Under bake hardening condition, the carbon effective diffusion distance is larger compared to the dislocation distance in both regions. Therefore, formation of the Cottrell atmosphere is relatively easy resulting in to a relatively large increase in yield strength under bake hardening condition.

• Advances in materials Research
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.1-12
• /
• 2015

Low carbon steel of composition 0.05C - 0.18 Mn - 0.012 Si is intercritically annealed at temperatures $750^{\circ}C$, $775^{\circ}C$ and $800^{\circ}C$. The equilibrated alloys of different amounts of austenite with varying carbon contents are quenched in iced water. The same alloys are subcritically annealed at $675^{\circ}C$ and $700^{\circ}C$ for varying periods of times; the subcritically annealed alloy samples are quenched in iced water. Optical, scanning electron and transmission electron microscopy are carried out for all the samples. The dislocation structure, its distribution and density present in the above prepared duplex ferrite martensite steels are studied. The martensites are found to be highly dislocated due to lattice invariant deformation. At the same time ferrite adjoining the martensite areas also exhibits quite a high dislocation density. The high dislocation density is favorable for strain ageing and hence bakes hardenability. EDS analyses were carried out for both martensite and ferrite phases; it is found that the degree of supersaturation in ferrite together with carbon content in martensite varies with the process parameters. The microhardness test results show that the hardness values of different phases differ appreciably with process parameters. The microstructures and the corresponding microanalyses reveal that differently processed steels contain phases of varying compositions and different distribution.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.27 no.10
• /
• pp.524-529
• /
• 2017

The effect of strain aging on the tensile properties of API X70 linepipe steel was investigated in this study. The API X70 linepipe steel was fabricated by controlled rolling and accelerated cooling processes, and the microstructure was analyzed using optical and scanning electron microscopes and electron backscatter diffraction. Strain aging tests consisting of 1 % pre-strain and thermal aging at $200^{\circ}C$ and $250^{\circ}C$ were conducted to simulate U-forming, O-forming, Expansion(UOE) pipe forming and anti-corrosion coating processes. The API X70 linepipe steel was composed of polygonal ferrite, acicular ferrite, granular bainite, and bainitic ferrite whose volume fraction was dependent on the chemical composition and process conditions. As the thermal aging temperature increased, the steel specimens showed more clearly discontinuous type yielding behavior in the tensile stress-strain curve due to the formation of a Cottrell atmosphere. After pre-strain and thermal aging, the yield and tensile strengths increased and the yield-to-tensile strength ratio decreased because yielding and aging behaviors significantly affected work hardening. On the other hand, uniform and total elongations decreased after pre-strain and thermal aging since dislocation gliding was restricted by increased dislocation density after a 1 % pre-strain.