Bainite

About: Bainite is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 9520 publications have been published within this topic receiving 145305 citations.

Effect of tempering on the microstructure and mechanical properties of a medium carbon bainitic steel

Abstract: The effect of tempering on the microstructure and mechanical properties of a medium carbon bainitic steel has been investigated through optical microscopy, electron back-scattered diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analyses. A nano-level microstructure containing plate-like bainitic ferrite and film-like retained austenite is obtained by isothermal transformation at Ms+10 °C followed by tempering within 240–450 °C. Results show that the sample tempered at 340 °C occupies the optimal balance of strength and toughness by maintaining a certain level of plasticity; samples tempered at 320 °C and 360 °C with low and high yield ratio come second. The microstructure of the steel is not sensitive to tempering temperatures before 360 °C. When the temperature is increased to 450 °C, the significantly coarsened bainitic ferrite plate and the occurrence of a small quantity of carbide precipitation account for its low toughness. The amount of retained austenite increases with the tempering temperature before 400 °C, followed by decreasing with further increase in the temperature. This behavior is related to the competition between retained austenite further transforming into bainite and decomposing into carbide during tempering.

Effect of cooling rate on the as-quenched microstructure and mechanical properties of HSLA-100 steel plates

Abstract: The effect of cooling rate on the as-quenched microstructure and mechanical properties of a 14-mm-thick HSLA-100 steel using various cooling media such as brine, water, oil, air, and furnace has been studied. While quenching in brine, water, and oil resulted in lath martensite structures, the granular bainite and martensite-austenite (M-A) constituents were found in air- or furnace-cooled specimens. The average lath spacing increased slightly on decreasing the cooling rate (300 nm in brine-quenched specimen to 400 nm in oil-quenched specimen). The precipitates of Cu and Nb(C, N) were observed in all the quenching conditions except in the brine-quenched specimen. The as-quenched strength and toughness of the brine-, water-, and oil-quenched specimens were higher (yield strength: 894 to 997 MPa, ultimate tensile strength: 1119 to 1153 MPa, and Charpy V-notch energies: 65 to 70 J at −85 °C) than those of air- and furnace-cooled specimens (yield strength: 640 to 670 MPa, ultimate tensile strength: 944 to 1001 MPa, and Charpy V-notch energies: 10 to 20 J at −85 °C). For industrial production of HSLA-100 steel plates, oil or water quenching is recommended in lower thickness plates (<25 mm). For production of thicker plates, however, water quenching is more suitable.

Ultra-high strength steel sheet having excellent hydrogen embrittlement resistance, and method for manufacturing the same

Abstract: The present invention provides an ultra-high strength steel sheet having excellent hydrogen embrittlement resistance, which includes: 0.06 to 0.6% of C; 0.5 to 3% of Si+Al; 0.5 to 3% of Mn; 0.15% or lower of P; and 0.02% or lower of S in terms of mass percentage, and also includes 3% or higher of residual austenite structure, 30% or higher of bainitic ferrite structure, and preferably 50% or lower of polygonal ferrite in terms of an areal ratio to the entire structure, wherein a mean grain size of bainite blocks is smaller than 20 μm as determined by comparing observations of the same region of the bainitic ferrite structure by EBSP (electron back scatter diffraction pattern) and SEM.

Effect of initial microstructure on the work hardening behavior of plain eutectoid steel

Abstract: Work hardening capability and tensile properties of the plain eutectoid steel rods are the key factors in the wire drawing process to fabricate high strength wire rods with a minimum failure. In the present research, the work hardening behavior of eutectoid steel with different initial microstructures of bainite, duplex bainite+pearlite, pearlite, partially spheroidized and spheroidized pearlite was assessed in terms of instantaneous work hardening exponent ( n value) and work hardening rate ( θ ) using room temperature tensile test. The results show an inverse parabolic behavior for variation of instantaneous n value versus true strain, i.e., work hardening exponent initially increases up to a maximum value and then decreases. The bainitic microstructure exhibits the lowest n value, whereas the spheroidized pearlitic one shows the highest. It is shown that the fine pearlitic microstructure containing partially spheroidized regions exhibited the best combination of tensile properties, n value and work hardening rate.

The Investigation of Strain-Induced Martensite Reverse Transformation in AISI 304 Austenitic Stainless Steel

Abstract: This paper presents a comprehensive study on the strain-induced martensitic transformation and reversion transformation of the strain-induced martensite in AISI 304 stainless steel using a number of complementary techniques such as dilatometry, calorimetry, magnetometry, and in-situ X-ray diffraction, coupled with high-resolution microstructural transmission Kikuchi diffraction analysis. Tensile deformation was applied at temperatures between room temperature and 213 K (−60 °C) in order to obtain a different volume fraction of strain-induced martensite (up to ~70 pct). The volume fraction of the strain-induced martensite, measured by the magnetometric method, was correlated with the total elongation, hardness, and linear thermal expansion coefficient. The thermal expansion coefficient, as well as the hardness of the strain-induced martensitic phase was evaluated. The in-situ thermal treatment experiments showed unusual changes in the kinetics of the reverse transformation (α′ → γ). The X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the reverse transformation may be stress assisted—strains inherited from the martensitic transformation may increase its kinetics at the lower annealing temperature range. More importantly, the transmission Kikuchi diffraction measurements showed that the reverse transformation of the strain-induced martensite proceeds through a displacive, diffusionless mechanism, maintaining the Kurdjumov–Sachs crystallographic relationship between the martensite and the reverted austenite. This finding is in contradiction to the results reported by other researchers for a similar alloy composition.