High Silicon Austempered steels (AHSS) are materials of great interest due to their excellent combination of high strength, ductility, toughness, and limited costs. These steel grades are characterized by a microstructure consisting of ferrite and bainite, accompanied by a high quantity retained austenite (RA). The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of an innovative heat treatment, consisting of intercritical annealing at 780 °C and austempering at 400 °C for 30 min, on the microstructure and mechanical properties of a novel high silicon steel (0.43C-3.26Si-2.72Mn wt.%). The microstructure was characterized by optical and electron microscopy and XRD analysis. Hardness and tensile tests were performed. A multiphase ferritic-martensitic microstructure was obtained. A hardness of 426 HV and a tensile strength of 1650 MPa were measured, with an elongation of 4.5%. The results were compared with those ones obtained with annealing and Q&T treatments.
A novel high silicon austempered (AHS) steel has been studied in this work. The effect of different austenitizing temperatures, in full austenitic and biphasic regime, on the final microstructure was investigated. Specimens were austenitized at 780 °C, 830 °C, 850 °C and 900 °C for 30 min and held isothermally at 350 °C for 30 min. A second heat treatment route was performed which consisted of austenitizing at 900 °C for 30 min and austempering at 300 °C, 350 °C and 400 °C for 30 min. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) have been used to evaluate the microstructural evolution. These techniques revealed that the microstructures were composed of carbide-free bainite, ferrite, martensite and retained austenite (RA) in different volume fractions (Vγ). An aqueous borate buffer solution with 0.3 M H3BO3 and 0.075 M Na2B4O7∂10H2O (pH = 8.4) was used for corrosion tests in order to evaluate the influence of the different volume fractions of retained austenite on the corrosion properties of the specimens. The results showed that when increasing the austenitization temperatures, the volume fractions of retained austenite reached a maximum value at 850 °C, and decrease at higher temperatures. The corrosion properties were investigated after 30 min and 24 h immersion by means of potentiodynamic polarization (after 30 min) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (after both 30 min and 24 h) tests. The corrosion resistance of the samples increased with increases in the volume fraction of retained austenite due to lower amounts of residual stresses.
The process of drawing thin carbon steel wires through conical dies is used as an experimental method for determining the effect of frictional conditions and die angle on the generation of fine grain layers in the vicinity of the friction surface. In this study, a quantitative criterion for determining the thickness of fine grain layers is proposed. The criterion is based on the coefficient of anisotropy that characterizes the shape of grains. It is shown that fine grain layers are generated under all frictional conditions investigated, but the thickness of the layer depends on these conditions and die angle.
Fine grain layers that generate near frictional interfaces in metal forming processes affect the quality of products. The present paper aims to contribute to the continuum-mechanics-based phenomenological approach for predicting such layers’ properties. In particular, it studies the generation of fine grain layers in the process of multipass drawing of thin high carbon steel wires experimentally. The wires are drawn in three passes under different friction conditions. All three dies in each multipass process have the same semiangle. In total, two die semiangles are used, 4° and 5°. The effects of such processing conditions as the die semiangle, the number of passes, and the friction conditions on the thickness of fine grain layers are observed and discussed. The criterion for determining this thickness is based on the coefficient of anisotropy. Under soft friction conditions, the fine grain layer’s thickness decrease occurs during the consequential passes independently of the die semiangle. On the other hand, in the case of hard friction conditions, the thickness may or may not be a monotonic function of the number of passes, and its general qualitative behavior depends on the die semiangle.
Drawing is characterized by non-uniform character of plastic deformation, which is transferred from the die to the processed wire. Such impact causes specific change of wire microstructure. In the surface area the thin layer with highly deformed grains is observed. It is important to measure the thickness of this thin layer. For this purpose it is proposed in this paper to use the value of coefficient of anisotropy, which is calculated as the ratio of mean quantity of phase particles, crossed by secant line perpendicular to deformation axis on the unit of secant line length to the mean quantity of phase particles, crossed by secant line parallel to deformation axis on the unit of secant line length. Distribution of coefficient of anisotropy, both for low and high carbon steel wire after drawing, was obtained by Thixomet PRO software. It made it possible to calculate the thickness of highly deformed area automatically taking into consideration the difference of steels microstructure.
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