In comparison with the conventional AISI H11 tool steel, which contains approximately 1 wt.% silicon, the modified steel AISI H11 (∼0.35 wt.% silicon) exhibits improved tensile and fatigue properties at 550 • C -the estimated tool surface temperature during the highpressure injection of aluminium alloys. The effect of silicon on the stability of secondary carbides was studied using transmission electron microscopy and small-angle neutron scattering. Silicon has a considerable influence on the precipitation of secondary carbides. A higher volume fraction and density of small particles were observed in the low-silicon-grade steel, both after heat treatment and after fatigue testing. The final discussion focuses on the influence of silicon in the precipitation sequence. It is concluded that silicon has a detrimental effect as it shifts the secondary hardening peak towards lower tempering temperatures.

Carbide-forming elements (W, Mo, Nb, V), as well as elements that influence only the tempering kinetics (Co, Ni), were added to a 5% Cr tempered martensitic steel in order to modify its precipitation. The main goal was to shift the secondary hardening peak towards higher tempering temperatures. Small angle neutron scattering and X-ray diffraction experiments, as well as transmission electron microscopy, were performed to characterize the precipitation of nanometric carbides. A significant modification of the volume fraction and/or chemistry of the very fine secondary precipitation was observed only for Mo, V and Ni additions. Moreover, the mechanical properties showed that the volume fraction of small precipitates (VC, Fe 3 Mo 3 C) directly influences the mechanical resistance at high temperature but has a detrimental effect on Charpy impact energy.

Relevant microstructural characteristics ensuring a good mechanical strengthening up to 600 • C of a tempered martensitic steel containing 5% Cr (AISI H11) were investigated using transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, X-ray diffraction and extraction of carbides. Softening induced by tempering and cyclic loading is related to a strong reduction of the dislocation density estimated by X-ray peak profile analysis (modified Williamson Hall and modified Warren Averbach analysis). Moreover, the coalescence of chromium and vanadium carbides is involved in the yield strength decrease above 600 • C and during cyclic loading.

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International audienceA thermomechanical three-dimensional (3-D) finite element analysis of solidification is presented. The heat transfer model is based on a multidomain analysis accounting for noncoincident meshes for the cast part and the different mold components. In each subdomain, a preconditioned conjugate gradient solver is used. The mechanical analysis assumes the mold is rigid. A thermoelastic-viscoplastic rheological model is used to compute the constrained shrinkage of the part, resulting in an effective local air gap width computation. At each time increment, a weak coupling of the heat transfer and mechanical analyses is performed. Comparisons of experimental measurements and model predictions are given in the case of a hollow cylindrical aluminum alloy part, showing a good quantitative agreement. An application to an industrial aluminum casting is presented, illustrating the practical interest of thermomechanical computations in solidification analysis

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In a hot strip mill, the contact established between the hot strip and the work rolls in the first times of running has to be oxide on oxide to allow the strip to be pulled in the roll bite. The oxide scale formed on the roll is submitted to thermo-mechanical stresses and grows up. From a critical thickness, the scale spalls and causes some superficial damage to the rolls and to the strip.For the roll manufacturers as well as for the steel makers, it is essential to understand the influence of the creation and the growth of such a scale on friction in order to control the antagonist superficial damage and consequently to reduce the running cost of the mill.The present work aims to study the interaction between the oxides formed on a work roll grade and the coefficient of friction established with a strip steel usually rolled by this roll grade. A high temperature tribometer was set up in a pin-on-disc configuration. A previous part of study showed that friction was dependent on the nature of antagonist materials and the thermal transfer. We observed the establishment of a running-in period in the case of a metal-on-oxide initial contact between the pin and the disc which corresponds to the creation of an oxide layer on the pin.The mechanisms that allowed the formation of this scale were determined. SEM observations in conjunction with EDS analysis, both inside and outside the contact area on both antagonists, led to the development of a phenomenological model explaining the creation and the movement of oxide debris in the contact.

The tribology behaviour of the die radius, in the deep-drawing process, results from surface interactions between the metal sheet and the tool under contact pressure. Friction, degradation of the sheet, surface quality and tool wear are a result of this interaction. This article aims to study degradations of the radius portion of a die in the deep-drawing process. The study on an industrial press is complex, so we developed our own test facility, an experimental device, which represents a deep-drawing process-simulator. It allows friction between the metal sheet and a die radius. It can dissociate the diverse mechanical effects exerted on the die radius by enabling a study of the component conditions found in deep-drawing (effect of the blankholder, of the pulling forces, the sliding rate, etc.). An experimental study was conducted on a low-carbon steel sheet and a X160CrMoV12 steel die radius. It revealed that the die radius surface was degraded by ploughing and transfer mechanisms. The distribution of these degradations on the die radius was localised in two areas but varied in intensity depending on the exit angle between the sheet and the die radius. The die radius friction coefficient has been modelled with respect to the mechanical characteristics of the deep-drawing process-simulator. This model leads to a correlation between the friction coefficient and the degradation evolutions on the die radius.