Microstructure and mechanical properties of medium manganese steel in intercritical annealing

Abstract

A new type of cold-rolled medium manganese steel was investigated. The test steel was treated by Q&P process. With the increase in annealing temperature, the grain size gradually increases, the carbides dissolve progressively and the fine lath grains transform into massive or equiaxed grains. Both the volume fraction and the stability of the retained austenite are continuously decreasing, which together affect the change of mechanical properties. At the intercritical annealing temperature of 680°C, the specimens have higher retained austenite content and transformation rate. At the same time, due to the discontinuous TRIP effect caused by the retained austenite stability gradient inside the specimen, it exhibits excellent comprehensive mechanical properties, and the product of strength and elongation is 43.5GPa·%.

KEYWORDS:

• Q&P process
• intercritical annealing
• TRIP effect
• stability of retained austenite

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 51871136], Shandong Province Science and Technology SMEs Innovation Capacity Improvement Project [grant number 2021TSGC1456].