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Nitrogen-Substituting Carbon Significantly Improves Softening Resistance of H13 Hot-Work Die Steel

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Abstract

In this study, the thermal stability of H13 hot-work tool steel was significantly improved through the use of nitrogen as a substitute for carbon. The results indicated that the 0.3C-0.2N and 0.2C-0.3N steels exhibited better hardness stability than H13 steel (0.4C-0N). In particular, the 0.2C-0.3N steel exhibited substantially improved hardness stability. The softening resistance mechanism was revealed from the perspectives of precipitates, dislocations, laths, and variants through first-principles calculations, thermodynamic and kinetic models, and variant reconstruction. First, for precipitate stability, the results of first-principles calculations and kinetic analysis showed that substituting N with C reduced the formation energy of carbides and facilitated the formation of carbonitrides. For 0.2C-0.3N steel, which had the highest activation energy, both the diffusion of alloying elements and the coarsening of carbonitrides were significantly inhibited. Second, in terms of dislocation evolution, the most stable lattice constant, highest interstitial atom content and lowest carbide precipitation content were the keys to inhibiting dislocation recovery. Finally, the dislocation and heat-induced boundary migration stimulated the selection of variants, resulting in the coarsening and coalescence of laths. The change from V17 to V1 variant pairs was dominant for the lath coalescence of 0.2C-0.3N steel.

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Acknowledgments

This research was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant Nos. 52374331, 52325406 and U1960203], Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of Liaoning Province [Grant No. 2023JH6/100500008], and Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities [Grant No. B21001]. Special thanks are due to the instrumental analysis from Analytical and Testing Centre, Northeastern University. The authors gratefully acknowledge HZWTECH for providing computation facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, P.R. China

    Hai-Jian Wang, Hao Feng, Hua-Bing Li, Hong-Chun Zhu, Shu-Cai Zhang & Zhou-Hua Jiang

  2. Key Laboratory for Ecological Metallurgy of Multimetallic Ores (Ministry of Education), Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, P.R. China

    Hao Feng, Hua-Bing Li & Zhou-Hua Jiang

  3. Shi-changxu Innovation Center for Advanced Materials, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, P.R. China

    Gang Zhou

  4. Institute for Frontier Technologies of Low-Carbon Steelmaking, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, P.R. China

    Hong-Chun Zhu

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Wang, HJ., Feng, H., Li, HB. et al. Nitrogen-Substituting Carbon Significantly Improves Softening Resistance of H13 Hot-Work Die Steel. Metall Mater Trans A (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-024-07367-y

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