Intercritical Rolling Induced Ultrafine Lamellar Structure and Enhanced Mechanical Properties of Medium-Mn Steel

Abstract

The medium-Mn steel with ferrite and austenite structure was rolled in the intercritical region down to different rolling reduction. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the rolled steels were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and tensile tests. It was found that the ferrite and austenite structure gradually evolved into an ultrafine structure from the random directional lath structure to lamellar structure with lath longitudinal direction parallel to the rolling direction with increasing rolling strain. It was found that the thickness of the laths was gradually refined with increasing rolling strain. The lath thickness is about 0.15 μm stored with high density dislocations and the austenite volume fraction of the steel is about 24% after 80% rolling reduction. Furthermore, it was interesting to find that yield strength, tensile strength and total elongation of the 80% rolled medium-Mn steel are about 1000 MPa, 1250 MPa and 24%, respectively, demonstrating an excellent combination of the strength and ductility. Based on the microstructure examination, it was proposed that the grain refinement of the medium-Mn steels could be attributed to the duplex structure and the low rolling temperature. Analysis of the relationship between the microstructure and the mechanical properties indicated that the high yield strength mainly resulted from the ultrafine grain size and the high density dislocation, but the improved ductility may be attributed to the large fractions of austenite retained after intercritical rolling.