Materials Science Forum Vol. 941

Abstract: Typical applications of ferritic stainless steels require good formability of a steel that is highly dependent on the processing route. In this study, the effects of heating rate and peak temperature on the texture and formability of a 78% cold-rolled unstabilized 17%Cr (AISI 430) ferritic stainless steel were studied. The cold-rolled sheet pieces were heated in a Gleeble 3800 simulator at the heating rates of 25 °C/s and 500 °C/s up to various peak temperatures below 950 °C for 10 s holding before the final cooling at 35 °C/s to room temperature. Microstructures were characterized and the texture of the annealed samples determined by the electron backscatter diffraction method. The R-value in various directions was determined by tensile straining to 15%. It was established that the high heating rate of 500 °C/s tends to promote the nucleation of grains with the {111}<uvw> orientations during the early state of the recrystallization. The higher heating rate led to a slightly finer grain size and to a marginal improvement in the intensity of the gamma-fibre texture. A coarser grain size would be beneficial for the formability, but the grain growth was suppressed due to low peak temperatures and a short soaking time. Anyhow, the fast annealing resulted in an enhanced R-value in the transverse to rolling direction. The results indicate that even a short annealing cycle is plausible for producing ferritic stainless steels with the formability properties comparable to those of commercial counterparts.

Abstract: We investigated the effect of electrolytic hydrogen-charging on regularities of plastic flow, strength and fracture mechanisms of AISI 316L and 321 austenitic stainless steels. In the steels, an ultrafine-grained structure of various morphologies was formed using methods of warm abc-pressing and thermomechanical treatment (cold rolling and annealing). Hydrogen-charging of ultrafine-grained steels reduces their yield strength and elongation. The high dislocation density and low-angle boundaries inhibit the effects of hydrogen embrittlement in 316L and 321 steels.

Abstract: X-ray line profile analysis was performed to evaluate the microstructural characteristics of low-cycle fatigued austenitic stainless steel, AISI 316. Strains were frequently applied to the specimens with three levels of the total strain ranges, 0.01, 0.02, and 0.03. The dislocation densities at the number of cycles for each strain condition were obtained by X-ray line profile analysis. In the case that the strain range was small, that is Δε = 0.01, dislocation densities were slightly increased until 53% of life time with the cycles, and then decreased. In the case that the strain ranges were 0.02 and 0.03, the dislocation densities were steeply increased during the first stage of the life time until around 10%. However, the variations after n/N_f ≃ 10% were different each other. In the case of Δε = 0.02, dislocation density did not increase significantly until the end of the life. But in the case of Δε = 0.03, the dislocation density monotonously increased until the end of the life. These tendencies agreed with the variations of stress amplitude. The relationship between dislocation density and stress amplitude could be expressed as Δσ/2 = 1.14ρ^1/2 + 207 (Δσ [MPa], ρ^1/2 [m⁻²]).

Abstract: The recently developed CH-W^® 800 hot-rolled steel is specifically developed for automotive chassis applications that require both high strength and outstanding formability. A completely ferritic microstructure allows hole expansion ratios of 90% and more, which indicates the remarkable formability of the material. The tensile strength of at least 800 MPa is mainly due to its very fine-grained microstructure as well as titanium carbide nanoprecipitates.

Abstract: Nb is a classical microalloying element in the design of thermomechanical treatments in low carbon steels for flat products applications. However, its use in medium-high carbon grades, as occurs in hot rolling of bars, is less common. This is, in part, because of the diversity of characteristics required to those grades of steels and the less knowledge about the function of Nb in these cases. Consequently, less information is reported concerning thermo-mechanical processing of Nb microalloyed steels in long products applications. In this case, it is necessary to consider the singularities related to these processes, such as the short interpass times and the wide range of chemical compositions usually applied on these products. Short interpass times result in high strain rate values that can lead to metallurgical changes on the mechanisms occurring during the hot rolling must be considered. Moreover, the high Carbon contents applied in long products, usually between 0.20–0.40%, can influence the Nb solubility and precipitation in each stage of the process: prior to hot rolling on the reheating furnace, during the process and after hot rolling, depending on the cooling strategy adopted and on the post-rolling heat treatments that can be applied. This paper analyses different singularities associated with the use of Nb microalloying for long products. Several aspects, such as the partial or complete dissolution of the Nb prior to hot rolling, its role in the control of austenite microstructure and its incidence in the final microstructure and mechanical properties, will be considered.

Abstract: A robust model for calculating the necessary process variables such as strain, strain rate and temperature in hot rolling of a steel plate or strip is presented in this paper. The applied approach includes a well-constructed velocity function in the deformation model that is validated using a commercial finite element solver. The developed microstructure model is then integrated into the process model and includes the most essential descriptions of restoration and austenite grain structure evolution phenomena during hot rolling. Furthermore, the concept of hierarchical grain structure evolution is described as a method track the evolution of un-recrystallized and recrystallized features of the microstructure throughout a given pass schedule. The most important outcome of this approach is that each grain size component is modelled separately based on its prior thermomechanical history. A computer implementation of these models called MICDEL is used together with a simulation example to demonstrate its capability of predicting process variables and austenite grain structure evolution in hot strip rolling of steel.

Abstract: The major challenge in a heat-resistant steel is to generate thermally stable microstructures that allow increasing the operating temperature, which will improve the thermal efficiency of the power plant without diminishing strength or time to rupture. The strengthening mechanism in tempered martensitic 9Cr steels comes mainly from the combination of solid solution effect and of precipitation hardening by fine MX carbo-nitrides, which enhance the sub-boundary hardening. This work is focused on the effect of ausforming processing on MX nanoprecipitation, on both their distribution and number density, during the subsequent tempering heat treatment. The creep strength at 700 oC was evaluated by small punch creep tests. The creep results after ausforming were compared to those obtained after conventional heat treatment concluding, in general, that ausforming boosts the creep strength of the steel at 700 oC. Therefore, conventional ausforming thermomechanical treatment is a promising processing route to raise the operating temperature of 9Cr heat-resistant steels.

Abstract: Samples extracted from flow formed tubes made of 18% nickel maraging steel grade C18Ni1750 were subjected to tensile testing at room temperature in laboratory environment at two different strain rates. Testing was carried out in as flow formed as well as flow formed and aged conditions. Aging was carried out adopting four different cycles. Distinct loss of ductility was observed at the lower strain rate in all tested conditions. The embrittlement occurring during low strain rate testing is explained in terms of hydrogen induced damage, hydrogen coming from the moisture in the environment. It is also concluded that the heavy cold work imparted to the material during flow-forming is importantly responsible for the ductility loss observed at low strain rate.

Abstract: In this work a DP 600 Dual Phase steel, conventionally treated in order to obtain 40 to 60% austenite at the intercritical temperatures, called reference sample, was compared to samples from the same steel, initially fully austenitized and quenched to 100% martensitic structure and subsequently intercritically tempered once (one step) or twice, (two steps) at intercritical temperatures so as to obtain the same volume fractions of austenite as the conventional DP steel. The single step heat treatment is QL, quench and lamellarization; the two step heat treatment is called QLT, quench and lamellarization and tempering. Heat treatments were conducted on a quenching dilatometer. Samples were characterized by optical, SEM-FEG, EBSD imagining and X Ray Diffraction. Mechanical properties were evaluated by microhardness and tensile tests on sub-size specimens. The results show that QL samples present a complex microstructure composed of ferrite (carbide free high temperature tempered martensite) and fresh martensite composed of crystallites of the order of 1 to 5 μm, with volume fractions of ferrite and martensite similar to the reference samples. X-ray diffraction showed the presence of retained austenite in all treatment conditions, larger for the reference samples when compared with the QL; EBSD images show the retained austenite finely dispersed between the martensite laths and within the limits of martensite blocks. The tensile strength of the QL has higher values than reference DP 600 steel for the similar martensite volume, with smaller uniform and total elongations.

Abstract: Creep damage processes for smooth and notched specimen of austenitic stainless steel through interrupted creep tests using multiple specimens. The material used was 18-8 stainless steel for boiler tube use. The mid-sections of interrupted creep test specimens were observed through SEM(Scanning Electron Microscope) instrumented with EBSD(Electron BackScatter Diffraction patter) equipment. IPF(Inverse Pole Figure) maps, Phase maps and GOS(Grain Orientation Spread) maps were used for investigating creep damage process. For smooth specimen, the relationship between macroscopic creep time fraction and GOS averaged for all pixels showed linearity, while the relationship between creep strain and the averaged GOS showed non-linearity regressed by Green function successfully. For notched specimen, the EBSD maps became noisy possibly due to extensive phase transformation under highly concentrated notch stress. Obtained GOS data for gamma phase only showed non-monotonic change with time and nominal strain. The evaluated local strains in the vicinity of the notch showed relatively small amount, which might cause the very long creep life compared with smooth specimen under the same nominal stress condition.