Samples of nanostructured and ultrafine grained steels with carbon content ranging from
0.05 to 0.55%wt. have been obtained by a warm consolidation process from mechanically milled
powders and subsequent heat treatments. In general, homogeneous grain size distributions were
obtained except for the low-carbon steel in which a bimodal grain size distribution was observed
when it was heat treated at high temperatures. The stress-strain response has been studied by means
of compression tests. Nanostructured materials showed high strength but poor results in terms of
ductility. In the low-ultrafine range (mean grain size between 100-500 nm) the three materials
showed an increase in the ductility with strain softening. Finally, when the average grain size was
close to 1 µm samples showed larger ductility and strain hardening.
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