Effect of cyclic heat treatment on microstructure and mechanical properties of 0.6 wt% carbon steel

In this work an annealed 0.6 wt% carbon steel was subjected to cyclic heat treatment process that consisted of repeated short-duration (6 min) holding at 810 °C (above Ac3 temperature) followed by forced air cooling. After 8 cycles (about a total 1 h and 20 min duration of heating and cooling cycles), the microstructure mostly contained fine ferrite grains (grain size of 7 μm) and spheroidized cementite. This microstructure possessed an excellent combination of strength and ductility. The disintegration of lamellae through dissolution of cementite at preferred sites of lamellar faults during short-duration holding above Ac3 temperature, and the generation of defects (lamellar faults) during non-equilibrium forced air cooling were the main reasons of accelerated spheroidization. The strength property initially increased mainly due to the presence of finer microconstituents (ferrite and pearlite) and thereafter marginally decreased with the elimination of lamellar pearlite and appearance of cementite spheroids in the microstructure. Accordingly, the fractured surface initially exhibited the regions of wavy lamellar fracture (pearlite regions) along with dimples (ferrite regions). With increasing number of heat treatment cycles the regions of dimples gradually consumed the entire fractured surface.