Effect of Dissolved and Precipitated Niobium in Microalloyed Steel on Deformation Induced Ferrite Transformation (DIFT) Original Research Article

Hot deformation processing was designed to study the effects of niobium (Nb) on DIFT. A prestrain of 0.51 at 880 °C for different isothermal time was used for adjusting the deformed austenite constitution and Nb existing state, followed by a secondary heavy deformation at 780 °C for inducing the ferrite transformation. The volume fraction and grain size of deformation induced ferrite (DIF) obtained at different isothermal time between double hits were investigated. It was found that Nb dissolved in austenite is adverse to DIFT; however, the precipitation of Nb is beneficial to DIFT. As Nb plays the role in the conventional TMCP, Nb retards the recrystallization of deformed austenite and enhances the deformation stored energy in the multipass deformation, and in result, Nb promotes DIFT.