Static strain ageing behaviour of dual phase steels

In this work an investigation was conducted into the cold deformation ageing susceptibility of a carbon steel and a microalloyed steel, both with dual phase micro-structure. Ageing experiments after different prestrains were carried out at temperatures ranging from 25 to 250 °C. It was found that yield strength (YS) and tensile strength (UTS) of the steels with different dual phase micro-structures exhibit maximum values at ageing temperature of 100 °C after different prestrains. It is assumed that the first rise is based on the formation of solute atom atmospheres around dislocations and the further strengthening in the second step is caused by the low-temperature carbide precipitation in ferrite. When the ageing temperature increased to 150, 200 or 250 °C, YS decreased due to tempering effect in martensite. It was also found that the ageing of the microalloyed steel occurred more slowly than that of the carbon steel. The slow occurrence of ageing was clearly observed at temperatures of 100, 150, 200 and 250 °C and was attributed to the chemical composition of the steels.