On the Variants of Thermal Process in Developing Strong and Ductile Medium Mn Steel

• Main Authors: Shuai Pan, Binbin He
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-07-01
• Series: Frontiers in Materials
• Subjects: advanced high strength steels; martensitic transformation; deformation twins; quenching and partitioning; intercritical annealing; medium Mn steel
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmats.2020.00256/full

In this contribution, we investigate the influence of three heat treatments, including intercritical annealing (IA), quenching and partitioning (Q&P), and combination of IA and Q&P (IA-Q&P), on microstructure and mechanical properties of the medium Mn steel. The steel treated by the IA process has the largest volume fraction of austenite, which is responsible for the longest elongation and largest energy absorption with the operation of both transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) effect and twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) effects. The medium Mn steel produced by IA-Q&P treatment has a mixture microstructure with retained austenite, ferrite, and lath martensite. The existence of martensite in the IA-Q&P steel makes the higher yield strength than that of the IA steel. The better uniform elongation of the IA-Q&P steel than that of the Q&P steel is ascribed to the larger volume fraction of retained austenite and higher mechanical stability of austenite. The Q&P steel has the highest yield stress due to its martensite matrix. It is expected that the tensile properties of medium Mn steel can be tuned by different thermal processes (IA, Q&P, and IA-Q&P) to facilitate its broad automotive applications.