Modulated structures of Fe–10Mn–2Cr–1.5C alloy

In Fe–10Mn–2Cr–1.5C alloy the superlattice diffraction spots and satellite reflections have been observed by transmission electron microscopy, these results show that the ordering structure and modulated structure have taken place in this alloy. X-ray diffraction proved that austenitic steel in this alloy is more stable than in traditional austenitic manganese steel. Based on this investigation, we consider that the C–Mn ordering clusters were existing in austenitic manganese steel and the chromium could strengthen this effect by linking the weaker C–Mn couples together. These structures may play an important role in the work hardening of austenitic manganese steel.     

Tensile deformation of a duplex Fe-20Mn-9Al-0.6C steel having the reduced specific weight

The room temperature deformation characteristics of a duplex Fe-20Mn-9Al-0.6C steel with the reduced specific weight of 6.84 g/cm³ in the fully solutionized state were described in conjunction with the deformation mechanisms of its constituent phases. The phase fraction was insensitive to annealing temperature in the range of 800-1100 °C. The ferrite grain size was also nearly unaltered but the austenite grain size slightly increased with increasing annealing temperature. This revealed that there is little window to control the microstructure of the steel by annealing. The steel exhibited a good combination of strength over 800 MPa and ductility over 45% in the present annealing conditions. Ferrite was harder than austenite in this steel. Strain hardening of both phases was monotonic during tensile deformation, but the strain hardening exponent of austenite was higher than that of ferrite, indicating the better strain hardenability of austenite. In addition, the strain hardening exponent of austenite increased but that of ferrite remained unchanged with increasing annealing temperature. The overall strain hardening of the steel followed that of austenite. Considering element partitioning by annealing, the stacking fault energy of austenite of the steel was estimated as ∼70 mJ/m². Even with the relatively high stacking fault energy, planar glide dominantly occurred in austenite. Neither strain induced martensite nor mechanical twins formed in austenite during tensile deformation. Ferrite exhibited the deformed microstructures typically observed in the wavy glide materials, i.e. dislocation cells. The mechanical properties of the present duplex steel were compared to those of advance high strength automotive steels recently developed.     

Structural refinement and strengthening of an Fe–Mn–Si–Cr–Ni shape memory alloy by high-speed rolling

The shape recovery under different opposing stress conditions and the various microstructures obtained have been examined following high-speed rolling. An iron-based shape memory alloy that can hardly be rolled at a high strain rate is shown to be capable of being rolled down to 50% of its original thickness by single pass. The shape recovery under the opposing stress applied during reverse transformation is found to increase notably as a result of structural refinement induced by high-speed rolling. In these tests, the specimens were twinned or transformed into hcp and bcc nanophases by the high-speed rolling performed at strain rates as high as 10⁴ s⁻¹. The current study emphasizes the contribution of the resultant structural refinement to the strengthening of the shape memory alloy.     

Fatigue, monotonic and fracture toughness properties of a Cr–Mn–N steel

The low-cycle fatigue, monotonic and fracture toughness behaviour of E3949, a Cr–Mn–N austenitic stainless steel, used for drillcollar connections was studied. Low-cycle fatigue tests were carried out at room temperature under total strain control in the range of 0.40 to 1.50% using Companion Specimens Test (CST) and Incremental Step Test (IST) methods. Cyclic softening without saturation was observed in all tests. Massing cyclic stress–strain behaviour was observed only with the IST method. The fatigue life behaviour obeyed Basquin and Coffin–Manson relationships and the high value obtained for ′_f imparts a significant improvement in fatigue resistance of this alloy compared to AISI 304LN. The J–R curves and J_IC values were obtained at room temperature and at 150°C by using single specimens and the elastic compliance technique for crack length measurement. The observed decrease in crack initiation fracture toughness at 150°C is proposed to be due to a dynamic strain ageing effect, which impairs ductility.     

Characterization of transient-liquid-phase-bonded joints in a duplex stainless steel with a Ni–Cr–B insert alloy

Transient liquid-phase bonding of a duplex stainless steel was performed with a Ni–Cr–B insert alloy. The microstructure of the joint region was investigated by cross-sectional and layer-by-layer characterization. According to the experimental studies, prior to completion of isothermal solidification, the bond microstructure can be expressed as γ-Fe + δ-Fe/γ-Fe + δ-Fe + BN/γ-Ni(Fe) + BN/γ-Ni + Cr-rich borides/γ-Ni + Ni₃B + Cr-rich borides (CrB, CrB₂, Cr₂B₃, Cr₃B₄, Cr₅B₃ and CrB₄), from the base metal side to the bonded-interlayer side. Complete isothermal solidification occurred at 1090 °C within 3600 s. Only the γ-Ni solid solution phase was present in the bonded interlayer, and BN precipitates were not removed after isothermal solidification. The formation of secondary-phase precipitates might be responsible for the presence of peak microindentation hardness in the bond region.     

Multi-scale study on the heterogeneous deformation behavior in duplex stainless steel

The heterogeneous deformation behavior of austenite and ferrite in the 2205 duplex stainless steel was subjected to multiscale analysis based on the in situ synchrotron-based high energy X-ray diffraction,microscopic digital image correlation,electron backscatter diffraction,and transmission electron microscopy.It is found that the heterogeneous deformation triggers from the yielding of austenite.During this deformation stage,austenite experiences greater strain in the area near the phase boundaries because of the impeded function of the phase boundaries to dislocations.Owing to the relatively small difference in hardness between the constituent phases,the strain in austenite grains extends into the adjacent ferrite grains when entering into the ferrite yielding stage.In addition,the strain distribution of the austenite grains is more homogeneous than that of the ferrite grains because of the lower stacking fault energy of austenite,which results in a planar slip,and higher stacking fault energy in case of ferrite,causing cross slip.The interaction between austenite and ferrite becomes considerably obvious when the strain further increases after both constituent phases yielding because of the back stress and forward stress in austenite and ferrite,respectively,which are generated by the pile-up of the geometrically necessary dislocations.     

Cryogenic deformation microstructures of 32Mn–7Cr–1Mo–0.3N austenitic steels

The cryogenic deformation microstructures of impact and tensile specimens of 32Mn–7Cr–1Mo–0.3N austenitic steel were investigated using light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The results show that the deformation microstructures of the impact specimens are mainly composed of stacking faults, network dislocation, slip bands, and a few mechanical twins and -martensite. These microstructures cross with each other in a crystal angle. The deformation microstructures of the tensile specimens consist only of massive slip bands, in which a few mechanical twins and -martenite are located. Because of the larger plastic deformation the slip band traces become bent. All the deformation microstructures are formed on the {111} planes and along the <110> orientation.     

Hot deformation characteristics of 2205 duplex stainless steel based on the behavior of constituent phases

High temperature behavior of 2205 duplex stainless steel was studied by considering behavior of each constituent phase. The specimens were subjected to hot compression tests at temperatures of 800–1100 °C and strain rates ranging from 0.001 to 1 s⁻¹ at intervals of an order of magnitude. The flow stress analysis showed that hot working empirical constants are different at low and high temperatures. The strain rate sensitivity m was determined and found to change from 0.12 to 0.21 for a temperature rise from 800 °C to 1100 °C. The apparent activation energy Q was calculated as 554 and 310 kJ/mol for low and high temperature, respectively. The validity of constitutive equation of hyperbolic sine function was studied and stress exponent, n, was assessed to be 4.2. Assuming the hyperbolic sine function for determination of strain rate and application of the rule of mixture, the interaction coefficients of δ-ferrite, P, and austenite, R, were estimated at different hot working regimes. It was found that the interaction coefficients are functions of Zener–Hollomon parameter Z and obey the formulas P = 1.4Z^−0.08 and R = 0.76Z^0.005. Therefore, it was concluded that at low Z values δ-ferrite almost accommodates strain and dynamic recovery is the prominent restoration process which may even inhibit dynamic recrystallization in austenite. Otherwise, at high Z, austenite controls the deformation mechanism of material and dynamic recrystallization leads in finer microstructure.     

Gamma (γ) phase transformation in pulsed GTAW weld metal of duplex stainless steel

The cooling rate and large undercooling significantly affect the fusion zone microstructure in pulsed GTAW weldment under the same heat input condition. The weld pool solidified at fast cooling rate about 139 °C/s superimposed a relative amount of undercooling has a desired higher γ content of about 37 vol.% without tradition nitrogen addition or post-weld heat treatment. The final structure of the pulsed weld metal at 7 °C plate consists of a great amount of desirable intra-granular austenite γ^′₂ (IGA) inside the grain matrix, besides Widmannstätten austenite γ^′₂ (W) and grain boundary austenite γ₂ (GBA). It results in the weldment with an uniform microhardness distribution and a homogeneous mechanical property.     

Strain hardening behavior of a Fe–18Mn–0.6C–1.5Al TWIP steel

The strain hardening behavior of a Fe–18Mn–0.6C–1.5Al TWIP steel was investigated through the modified Crussard–Jaoul (C–J) analysis and microstructural observations. The strain hardening rate obtained by modified C–J analysis was high up to the critical strain of 37% and then greatly decreased with further strain. The electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) observation showed that the deformation twinning rate is greatly decreased beyond about 34% strain, indicating that the reduced strain hardening rate at the large strain region is attributed to the deceleration of deformation twinning rate. The volume fraction of twinned region was increased with tensile strain due to the increase in the number of deformation twins not to the lateral growth of each deformation twin.     

Phase diagram calculation and experimental research on Fe–12Cr–B–Al–alloys

The vertical sections of Fe–12%Cr–B–xAl–C system with different aluminum contents have been calculated by use of Thermo‐Calc software and the influence of aluminum content on the phase regions and the parameters of eutectic point have been analyzed. Fe–12.0%Cr–1.0%B–2.0%Al–0.3%C and Fe–12.0%Cr–1.0%B–4.0%Al–0.3%C alloy were chosen to be studied by experiment. The phase transition temperatures were measured by differential scanning calorimetry and the microstructure and the phase type was detected by scanning electrone microscope‐energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy and X‐ray diffraction. The results indicate that calculated phase diagrams agree well with the experimental results and further prove the thermodynamics database of Thermo‐Calc software is reliable and it can be used to help design the alloy composition and heat treatment process.     

Microcrack growth and fatigue behavior of a duplex stainless steel

The kinetics of microcrack growth during cycling has been studied in a S32205 duplex stainless steel in the as-received and aged (100 h at 475 °C) conditions. Cylindrical specimens with a shallow notch were subjected to a constant plastic strain range of 0.3% in both thermal conditions. The characteristic features of surface damage and crack growth showed striking differences in microcrack density, nucleation location and propagation rate between the two thermal conditions even though the fatigue lives are comparable. In the as-received material, microcrack density is low and they nucleate mainly at grain and phase boundaries or second-phase particles. In the aged condition, slip markings first appear in the ferritic phase and they are the preferred site for microcrack nucleation. Crack propagation takes place along slip markings in adjacent grains for crack lengths less than 100 μm. A comparison between fatigue life and the relevant parameters of a microcrack growth law was made.     

A mechanism of ferrite softening in a duplex stainless steel deformed in hot torsion

A mechanism of dynamic softening of ferrite was studied in a 21Cr-10Ni-3Mo austenite/ferrite duplex stainless steel subjected to torsion at a strain rate of 0.7 s⁻¹ at 1200°C. Transmission electron microscopy together with convergent beam electron diffraction were used with major emphasis on the study of misorientations across ferrite/ferrite boundaries. No evidence of discontinuous dynamic recrystallisation involving nucleation and growth of new grains was found within ferrite contrary to some suggestions made in the literature for similar experimental conditions. The softening mechanism has been classified as extended dynamic recovery characterised by a gradual increase in misorientations between neighbouring subgrains that were created by dynamic recovery processes at the earlier stages of deformation. The resulting dislocation substructure was a complex network of subgrain boundaries composed of a mix of higher- and lower-angle walls characterised by misorientation angles not exceeding 20° at a maximum obtained strain of 1.3.     

A new resource-saving, high manganese and nitrogen super duplex stainless steel 25Cr–2Ni–3Mo–xMn–N

A new family of resource-saving, high manganese and nitrogen super duplex stainless steels (DSSs), with a composition of 25 wt.%Cr, 2 wt.%Ni, 3 wt.%Mo, 8–12 wt.%Mn, and 0.45–0.55 wt.%N, have been developed by examining the effect of Mn and N on the microstructure, mechanical properties and corrosion properties. The results show that these alloys have a balanced ferrite–austenite relation. The ferrite content increases with the solution treatment temperature, but it decreases with an increase in Mn and N. The element Mn accelerates σ phase precipitations. The increases in manganese and nitrogen, especially nitrogen, enhance the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and ductility of the material. The pitting corrosion potential increases first and then decreases with an increase in the amount of Mn, which is due primarily to the presence of a small amount of σ phase when the amount of Mn is 12 wt.%. Among the designed DSS alloys, 25Cr–2Ni–3Mo–10Mn–0.5N is found to be an optimum alloy with proper phase proportion, a better combination of UTS and elongation, and higher pitting corrosion resistance compared with those of the other alloys. The mechanical strength and corrosion resistance and lower production cost of the materials are better than those of SAF2507.     

Hot deformation behavior and processing map of a Fe‐25Ni‐16Cr‐3Al alumina‐forming austenitic steel

The hot deformation behavior of a Fe‐25Ni‐16Cr‐3Al alumina‐forming austenitic steel was studied by hot compression using a Gleeble‐3500 thermal simulator. The compression tests were carried out in the temperatures range from 925 °C to 1175 °C and strain rates range from 0.01 s^‐1 to 10 s^‐1. It was concluded that the flow stress increased with decreasing deformation temperature and increasing strain rate. The constitutive equation was obtained and the activation energy was 420.98 kJ?mol^‐1 according to the testing data. According to the achieved processing map, the optimal processing domain is determined in the temperatures range of 1050 °C – 1075 °C and strain rates range of 0.03 s^‐1 ‐ 0.3 s^‐1. The evolution of microstructure characterization is consistent with the rules predicted by the processing map. During compression at the same temperature, the higher the strain rate is, the higher the hardness will be. The ultimate tensile strength of the steel is 779 MPa with a total elongation of 27.1 % at room temperature.     

Formation of nano-grained structure in a 301 stainless steel using a repetitive thermo-mechanical treatment

In this work effects of the thermo-mechanical parameters were investigated in order to achieve nanocrystalline structure in the as-cast AISI 301 stainless steel. In order to get nanocrystalline structure the repetitive cold rolling and subsequent annealing were used. The cold rolling was carried out at temperatures of 0, - 10 and - 196 °C with strain rate of 0.5 s^− 1 and reduction of 95%, while the annealing treatment was conducted at temperature 600 to 850 °C for 0.5 to 50 min. The results showed that the nanocrystalline austenitic structure with grain size of about 30-40 nm was obtained by annealing at 850 °C for 0.5 min after totally 95% cold rolling reduction at - 10 °C.     

Cyclic deformation behaviour,microstructural evolution and fatigue life of duplex steel AISI 329 LN

This paper summarises fatigue results obtained on the duplex steel AISI 329 LN (German designation 1.4462). For the characterisation of the fatigue behaviour, the mechanical stress–strain hysteresis loops, the temperature change and the evolution of the electrical resistance were monitored. Transmission electron microscopy was performed to investigate the microstructural changes caused by the fatigue loading. The data were used to apply the fatigue life calculation method “PHYBAL_LIT”. This procedure requires only one load increase test and two constant amplitude tests for a timesaving and material-efficient assessment of S–N (Woehler) curves. The method has already been successfully applied to different carbon and austenitic steels as well as lightweight materials. The results show an excellent agreement between the conventionally determined and the calculated fatigue lifetimes. This agreement is rationalized on a microstructural basis.     

Strain induced martensitic transformation of Fe-20Cr-5Mn-0.2Ni duplex stainless steel during cold rolling: Effects of nitrogen addition

The effects of nitrogen addition on the strain induced martensitic transformation (SIMT) behavior of duplex stainless steel (D-STS) with the low nickel content were examined in a wide range of strain by means of cold rolling. Nitrogen of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 wt.% was added into Fe-20Cr-5Mn-0.2Ni D-STS (in wt.%) and cold rolling was conducted up to the effective strain of ∼1.45 after annealing at 1000 °C for 30 min. In the as-annealed state, the austenite fraction increased with increasing the N content. Regardless of the N content, the ferrite grain size was coarser than that of austenite. The stacking fault energy of austenite of the present D-STSs inferred by the element partitioning analysis was low enough so that SIM transformation is available. Accordingly, during cold rolling, SIMT occurred in austenite with a sequential manner of austenite → ? martensite → α′ martensite with increasing strain. By contrast, the deformed microstructure of ferrite was dominated by dislocation cells. The SIM fraction, which was normalized with reference to the initial austenite fraction in order to eliminate its effect, increased with increasing the N content. Along with the present results, the factors influencing the SIMT kinetics in the present D-STSs with the different N content were discussed.     

Structural evolution during mechanical milling and subsequent annealing of Cu–Ni–Al–Co–Cr–Fe–Ti alloys

This study reports the structural evolution of high-entropy alloys from elemental materials to amorphous phases during mechanical alloying, and further, to equilibrium phases during subsequent thermal annealing. Four alloys from quaternary Cu_0.5NiAlCo to septenary Cu_0.5NiAlCoCrFeTi were analyzed. Microstructure examinations reveal that during mechanical alloying, Cu and Ni first formed a solid solution, and then other elements gradually dissolved into the solid solution which was finally transformed into amorphous structures after prolonged milling. During thermal annealing, recovery of the amorphous powders begins at 100 °C, crystallization occurs at 250–280 °C, and precipitation and grain growth of equilibrium phases occur at higher temperatures. The glass transition temperature usually observed in bulk amorphous alloys was not observed in the present amorphous phases. These structural evolution reveal three physical significances for high-entropy alloys: (1) the annealed state of amorphous powders produces simple equilibrium solid solution phases instead of complex phases, confirming the high-entropy effect; (2) amorphization caused by mechanical milling still meets the minimum criterion for amorphization based on topological instability proposed by Egami; and (3) the nonexistence of a glass transition temperature suggests that Inoue's rules for bulk amorphous alloys are still crucial for the existence of glass transition for a high-entropy amorphous alloy.     

The microstructure and mechanical properties of prolonged and lower temperature aged Fe–Ni–Mn–Mo–Ti–Cr maraging steel

In this study, the microstructure and mechanical properties of Fe–Ni–Mn–Mo–Ti–Cr maraging steel at low temperature and prolonged aging condition were investigated. Optical and scanning electron microscopy examinations, tensile and hardness tests were conducted to study the microstructure, aging behavior and mechanical properties of the cold‐rolled steel. The results showed that aging of cold rolled Fe–Ni–Mn–Mo–Ti–Cr maraging steel resulted in the formation of Mo rich and Ti rich Lave phase precipitates. Existence of many dislocation cores due to cold rolling and subsequently, low temperature aging caused to formation of uniform distribution of very fine precipitates. The presence of these precipitates increased the yield and ultimate tensile strengths but couldn't improve the uniform tensile ductility. This alloy showed ultra‐high fracture stress of about 1950 MPa with a negligible tensile elongation (about 2 %) at the peak aged condition. The fractographic studies indicated this alloy shows semi‐brittle fracture in the subsequent aging treatment.