The effect of inter critical heat treatment on mechanical and wear properties of AISI 1015 steel

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ABSTRACT

Dual-phase (DP) steels mainly consist of ferrite and martensite phases. In this paper, DP steel was developed by inter-critical heat treatment followed by water quenching using AISI 1015 steel which is a type of plain low carbon steel. After developing DP steel, the mechanical and wear properties of AISI 1015 have been investigated. Inter-critical heat treatment was done at four different temperatures 740°C, 770°C, 800°C, 830°C in a muffle furnace. After SEM, it was found that the percentage of martensite increases with the heating temperature in the dual-phase region followed by water quenching. The results revealed that inter-critical heat treatment increased the tensile and hardness properties but decreased the ductility as the temperature increased. For wear properties, it was concluded that the specimen heat-treated at higher temperature showed a higher wear rate due to lower ductility. This was due to higher ductility at a lower temperature in comparison to lower ductility at a higher temperature. So, basically, the percentage of martensite affects the properties of dual-phase steel.

KEYWORDS:

• Dual-phase steel
• intercritical heat treatment
• tensile test
• hardness
• wear test

Future scope

Future studies may be conducted in this field as follows:

(i) At different cooling mediums study may be conducted.

(ii) Study may further expand for different heating temperatures, start with intercritical heating to full austenisation.

(iii) The comparative study may be conducted for low to high carbon steels.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.