scholarly journals Enhanced Strength and Ductility by Introducing Nanobainitic Ferrite in Bainitic Steel Used in Sports Equipment

Metals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2007
Author(s):  
Han Meng ◽  
Zhenjun Hong ◽  
Yu Li ◽  
Xiaoshuai Jia ◽  
Zhihua Yin
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Retained Austenite ◽  
Bainitic Ferrite ◽  
Total Elongation ◽  
Bainitic Steel ◽  
Bainitic Steels ◽  
Cottrell Atmosphere ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Strength And Ductility ◽  
Enhanced Stability

The mechanical properties of carbide-free bainitic steels used in sports equipment were investigated. The nanobainitic ferrite was introduced in bainitic steel to enhance the stability of blocky retained austenite (RA). The blocky RA formed in bainitic austempering process was coarse and led to poor mechanical properties. By introducing the nanobainitic ferrite into blocky RA, the yield strength was improved remarkably, which was increased from 706 to 1180 MPa. Furthermore, the total elongation was almost twice the value compared to the traditional bainitic treatment. The improved mechanical properties were attributed to the enhanced stability of blocky RA. Furthermore, the increased carbon content in RA derived from the carbon dissolved in bainitic ferrite and the carbon trapped in dislocation or Cottrell atmosphere.

Isothermal Transformation, Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Ausformed Low-Carbon Carbide-Free Bainitic Steel

2018 ◽  
Vol 941 ◽  
pp. 329-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiang Ying Meng ◽  
Lei Jie Zhao ◽  
Fan Huang ◽  
Fu Cheng Zhang ◽  
Li He Qian
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Retained Austenite ◽  
Volume Fraction ◽  
Bainitic Ferrite ◽  
Isothermal Transformation ◽  
Bainitic Transformation ◽  
Isothermal Treatment ◽  
Bainitic Steel ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Microstructure And Mechanical Properties

In the present study, the effects of ausforming on the bainitic transformation, microstructure and mechanical properties of a low-carbon rich-silicon carbide-free bainitic steel have been investigated. Results show that prior ausforming shortens both the incubation period and finishing time of bainitic transformation during isothermal treatment at a temperature slightly above the Mspoint. The thicknesses of bainitic ferrite laths are reduced appreciably by ausforming; however, ausforming increases the amount of large blocks of retained austenite/martenisite and decreases the volume fraction of retained austenite. And accordingly, ausforming gives rise to significant increases in both yield and tensile strengths, but causes noticeable decreases in ductility and impact toughness.

scholarly journals Novel Approach of Nanostructured Bainitic Steels’ Production with Improved Toughness and Strength

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1220
Author(s):  
Peter Kirbiš ◽  
Ivan Anžel ◽  
Rebeka Rudolf ◽  
Mihael Brunčko
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Fine Structure ◽  
Retained Austenite ◽  
Bainitic Ferrite ◽  
High Hardness ◽  
Tensile Tests ◽  
Isothermal Transformation ◽  
Impact Testing ◽  
Bainitic Steels

The tendencies of development within the field of engineering materials show a persistent trend towards the increase of strength and toughness. This pressure is particularly pronounced in the field of steels, since they compete with light alloys and composite materials in many applications. The improvement of steels’ mechanical properties is sought to be achieved with the formation of exceptionally fine microstructures ranging well into the nanoscale, which enable a substantial increase in strength without being detrimental to toughness. The preferred route by which such a structure can be produced is not by applying the external plastic deformation, but by controlling the phase transformation from austenite into ferrite at low temperatures. The formation of bainite in steels at temperatures lower than about 200 °C enables the obtainment of the bulk nanostructured materials purely by heat treatment. This offers the advantages of high productivity, as well as few constraints in regard to the shape and size of the workpiece when compared with other methods for the production of nanostructured metals. The development of novel bainitic steels was based on high Si or high Al alloys. These groups of steels distinguish a very fine microstructure, comprised predominantly of bainitic ferrite plates, and a small fraction of retained austenite, as well as carbides. The very fine structure, within which the thickness of individual bainitic ferrite plates can be as thin as 5 nm, is obtained purely by quenching and natural ageing, without the use of isothermal transformation, which is characteristic for most bainitic steels. By virtue of their fine structure and low retained austenite content, this group of steels can develop a very high hardness of up to 65 HRC, while retaining a considerable level of impact toughness. The mechanical properties were evaluated by hardness measurements, impact testing of notched and unnotched specimens, as well as compression and tensile tests. Additionally, the steels’ microstructures were characterised using light microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The obtained results confirmed that the strong refinement of the microstructural elements in the steels results in a combination of extremely high strength and very good toughness.

scholarly journals Influence of Prior Martensite on Bainite Transformation, Microstructures, and Mechanical Properties in Ultra-Fine Bainitic Steel

Materials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Guo ◽  
Xianying Feng ◽  
Aimin Zhao ◽  
Qiang Li ◽  
Jun Ma
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Retained Austenite ◽  
Bainitic Ferrite ◽  
Growth Direction ◽  
Bainitic Transformation ◽  
Bainitic Steel ◽  
Bainite Transformation ◽  
Multiphase Microstructure ◽  
Microstructures And Mechanical Properties ◽  
The Impact

A multiphase microstructure comprising of different volume fractions of prior martensite and ultra-fine bainite (bainitic ferrite and retained austenite) was obtained by quenching to certain temperatures, followed by isothermal bainitic transformation. The effect of the prior martensite transformation on the bainitic transformation behavior, microstructures, and mechanical properties were discussed. The results showed that the prior martensite accelerated the subsequent low-temperature bainite transformation, and the incubation period and completion time of the bainite reaction were significantly shortened. This phenomenon was attributed to the enhanced nucleation ratio caused by the introduced strain in austenite, due to the formation of prior martensite and a carbon partitioning between the prior martensite and retained austenite. Moreover, the prior martensite could influence the crystal growth direction of bainite ferrite, refine bainitic ferrite plates, and reduce the dimension of blocky retained austenite, all of which were responsible for improving the mechanical properties of the ultra-fine bainitic steel. When the content of the prior martensite reached 15%, the investigated steels had the best performance, which were 1800 MPa and 21% for the tensile strength and elongation, respectively. Unfortunately, the increased content of the prior martensite could lead to a worsening of the impact toughness.

scholarly journals Effects of Cr and Mo on Mechanical Properties of Hot-Forged Medium Carbon TRIP-Aided Bainitic Ferrite Steels

Metals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1066 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koh-ichi Sugimoto ◽  
Sho-hei Sato ◽  
Junya Kobayashi ◽  
Ashok Kumar Srivastava
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Impact Toughness ◽  
Retained Austenite ◽  
Bainitic Ferrite ◽  
Ferrite Matrix ◽  
Total Elongation ◽  
Matrix Structure ◽  
Medium Carbon ◽  
Base Steel ◽  
Mo Additions

In this study, the effects of Cr and Mo additions on mechanical properties of hot-forged medium carbon TRIP-aided bainitic ferrite (TBF) steel were investigated. If 0.5%Cr was added to the base steel with a chemical composition of 0.4%C, 1.5%Si, 1.5%Mn, 0.5%Al, and 0.05%Nb in mass%, the developed steel achieved the best combination of strength and total elongation. The best combination of strength and impact toughness was attained by multiple additions of 0.5%Cr and 0.2%Mo to the base steel. The excellent combination of strength and impact toughness substantially exceeded those of quenched and tempered JIS-SCM420 and 440 steels, although it was as high as those of 0.2%C TBF steels with 1.0%Cr and 0.2%Mo. The good impact toughness was mainly caused by uniform fine bainitic ferrite matrix structure and a large amount of metastable retained austenite.

scholarly journals Effect of Pre-Quenching Process on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties in a Nb-Microalloyed Low Carbon Q-P Steel

2015 ◽  
Vol 816 ◽  
pp. 729-735 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Zhang ◽  
Hua Ding ◽  
Jing Wei Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Retained Austenite ◽  
Room Temperature ◽  
Volume Fraction ◽  
Total Elongation ◽  
Trip Effect ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Quenching And Partitioning ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Critical Annealing

A refined microstructure consisting of martensite and retained austenite at room temperature has been produced in a Nb-microalloyed low carbon Si-Mn steel by a novel heat-treatment, pre-quenching prior to quenching and partitioning processes (Q&Q-P). The results showed that compared with the conventional quenching and partitioning steel the mechanical properties of steel obtained by the novel treatment have been significantly improved, with a good combination of ultimate tensile strength (1000MPa) and total elongation (above 30%). Meanwhile, the volume fraction of retained austenite has been increased. It was found that the improvement of mechanical properties was mainly attributed to the enhanced TRIP effect due to the relatively high fraction of metastable retained austenite at room temperature. The increased stability of austenite results from the C and Mn partitioning during inter-critical annealing, which increased the chemical stability of austenite. The formation of refined austenite at inter-critical annealing also had a positive effect on the stability of the austenite. As a consequence, the volume fraction of retained austenite at room temperature was significantly increased. Compared with the Q-P steel, the Q&Q-P steel exhibited higher work hardening exponents during the stage of TRIP effect and had the higher ductility.

Designing, Processing and Isothermal Transformation of Al-Si Medium Carbon Ultrafine High Strength Bainitic Steel

2017 ◽  
Vol 380 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Sherif Ali Abd El Rahman ◽  
Ahmed Shash ◽  
Mohamed K. El-Fawkhry ◽  
Ahmed Zaki Farahat ◽  
Taha Mattar
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Carbon Steel ◽  
Retained Austenite ◽  
High Carbon Steel ◽  
Bainitic Ferrite ◽  
High Strength ◽  
Isothermal Transformation ◽  
High Carbon ◽  
Medium Carbon ◽  
The Stability

Medium-carbon, silicon-rich steels are commonly suggested to obtain a very fine bainitic microstructure at a low temperature slightly above Ms. Thereby, the resulted microstructure consists of slender bainitic-ferritic plates interwoven with retained austenite. The advanced strength and ductility package of this steel is much dependent on the fineness of bainitic ferrite, as well as the retained austenite phase. In this article, the aluminum to silicon ratio, and the isothermal transformation temperature have been adopted to obtain ultra-high strength high carbon steel. Optical and SEM investigation of the produced steels have been performed. XRD has been used to track the retained austenite development as a result of the change in the chemical composition of developed steels and heat treatment process. Mechanical properties in terms of hardness and microhardness of obtained phases and structure were investigated. Results show that the increment of aluminum to silicon ratio has a great effect in promoting the bainitic transformation, in tandem with improving the stability and the fineness of retained austenite. Such an advanced structure leads to enhancement in the whole mechanical properties of the high carbon steel.

scholarly journals The Impact of Retained Austenite on the Mechanical Properties of Bainitic and Dual Phase Steels

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bogusława Adamczyk-Cieślak ◽  
Milena Koralnik ◽  
Roman Kuziak ◽  
Kamil Majchrowicz ◽  
Tomasz Zygmunt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Heat Treatment ◽  
Transformation Temperature ◽  
Retained Austenite ◽  
Tensile Tests ◽  
Total Elongation ◽  
Isothermal Transformation ◽  
Bainitic Transformation ◽  
Bainitic Steel ◽  
Continuous Cooling

AbstractThis paper presents the microstructural changes and mechanical properties of carbide-free bainitic steel subjected to various heat treatment processes and compares these results with similarly treated ferritic–pearlitic steel. A key feature of the investigated steel, which is common among others described in the literature, is that the Si content in the developed steel was >1 wt.% to avoid carbide precipitation in the retained austenite during the bainitic transformation. The phase identification before and after various heat treatment conditions was carried out based on microstructural observations and x-ray diffraction. Hardness measurements and tensile tests were conducted to determine the mechanical properties of the investigated materials. In addition, following the tensile tests, the fracture surfaces of both types of steels were analyzed. Changing the bainitic transformation temperature generated distinct volume fractions of retained austenite and different values of mechanical strength properties. The mechanical properties of the examined steels were strongly influenced by the volume fractions and morphological features of the microstructural constituents. It is worth noting that the bainitic steel was characterized by a high ultimate tensile strength (1250 MPa) combined with a total elongation of 18% after austenitizing and continuous cooling. The chemical composition of the bainitic steel was designed to obtain the optimal microstructure and mechanical properties after hot deformation followed by natural cooling in still air. Extensive tests using isothermal transformation to bainite were conducted to understand the relationships between transformation temperature and the resulting microstructures, mechanical properties, and fracture characteristics. The isothermal transformation tests indicated that the optimal relationship between the sample strength and total elongation was obtained after bainitic treatment at 400 °C. However, it should be noted that the mechanical properties and total elongation of the bainitic steel after continuous cooling differed little from the condition after isothermal transformation at 400 °C.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of a high-carbon bainitic steel containing Si/Al by different heat treatment processes

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1932-1940
Author(s):  
Sufyan Naseem ◽  
Enzuo Liu ◽  
Xuefei Huang ◽  
Weigang Huang
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Heat Treatment ◽  
Electron Microscope ◽  
Retained Austenite ◽  
Bainitic Ferrite ◽  
Bainitic Steel ◽  
Boundary Misorientation ◽  
Treatment Processes ◽  
Microstructure And Mechanical Properties ◽  
The Impact

The present study aims to investigate the microstructure and mechanical properties of 0.79 C wt% bainitic steel containing Si and Al by three heat treatment processes: austempering and tempering (B-T), two-step austempering (2S-A) and the austempering-quenching-partitioning (AQP). The optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) were employed to analyze the microstructure of samples. The results demonstrate that the sample subjected to the AQP process exhibited a multiphase microstructure with martensite, filmy retained austenite (RA) and fine bainitic laths. The AQP sample evidenced a high tensile strength of 1705 MPa, yield strength of 1254 MPa, a better total elongation of 16.6%, product of strength and elongation (PSE) of 28 GPa% and the impact toughness of 33 J among all heat treatment processes. The higher strength and toughness could be ascribed to the fine bainitic ferrite as well as an appropriate amount of filmy retained austenite. A fraction of martensite that was formed during the quenching step at 110 °C possibly divided the untransformed austenite into small areas, which could refine the microstructure. EBSD analysis showed that the AQP sample exhibited a higher proportion (64%) of boundary misorientation angle greater than 15° than that of the 2S-A. These high angle boundaries can improve the toughness of steel.

Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of a Low-Carbon Steel Treated by One-Step Quenching and Partitioning Process

2014 ◽  
Vol 1082 ◽  
pp. 202-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Yan ◽  
Xiang Hua Liu
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Carbon Steel ◽  
Microstructural Evolution ◽  
Retained Austenite ◽  
Uniform Elongation ◽  
Low Carbon Steel ◽  
Total Elongation ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Quenching And Partitioning ◽  
Partitioning Time

A low carbon steel was treated by quenching and partitioning (Q&P) process, and a detailed characterization of the microstructural evolution and testing of mechanical properties were carried out. The resulted mechanical properties indicate that with the partitioning time increasing, the tensile strength decreases rapidly first and then remains stable, and the total elongation increases first then decreases. The investigated steel subjected to Q&P process exhibits excellent products of strength and elongation (17.8-20.6 GPa•%). The microstructural evolution of martensite matrix during the partitioning step was observed, and the morphology and content of retained austenite were characterized. The working hardening behavior of the samples was analyzed, and the retained austenite with higher carbon content contributes to the uniform elongation more effectively.

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