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Enhanced Mechanical Properties of a Gradient Nanostructured Medium Manganese Steel and Its Grain Refinement Mechanism

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Abstract

As the third generation of advanced high strength steel (AHSS), medium manganese steel (MMS) has been widely emphasized by scholars around the world. Presently, we applied sliding friction treatment (SFT) of severe plastic deformation (SPD) on the surface of MMS to form surface gradient nanostructures, the formation mechanism of microstructure and the corresponding mechanical behavior was studied. The results show that the deformation layer can be divided into nano-grain (NG), submicron grain (SMG) and coarse grain (CG) in terms of grain size. It has been demonstrated that in the CG layer and a part of SMG layer, new fine grains can be formed through discontinuous dynamic recrystallization (DDR) mechanism, while continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDR) is a favorable nucleation mechanism for the new formed small grains in the SMG layer and the NG layer. The SFT process increases microhardness sharply in the surface region. Compared with conventional MMS, it is apparent that the yield strength (YS) and the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of gradient medium manganese steel specimens have been greatly improved, while the elongation does not decrease significantly. Fracture surface analysis demonstrates that the fracture morphology of different layers can be generally characterized by different fracture mechanisms, i.e., cleavage, quasi-cleavage and dimple.

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Acknowledgments

The present work has been financially supported by Scientific Research Program Funded by Shaanxi Provincial Education Department (Program No. 18JK0604) and China Petroleum Science and Technology Innovation Fund (2018D-5007-0216).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xian Shiyou University, Xi′an, 710065, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Lei Wang, Hao Tan, Yueming Feng & Yuntao Xi

  2. Oil and Gas Technology Research Institute, Changqing Oilfield Company, Xi′an, 710018, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Meiyu Li

  3. National Engineering Lab for Exploration and Development of Low Permeability Oil and Gas, Xi′an, 710018, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Meiyu Li

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  1. Lei Wang
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Wang, L., Li, M., Tan, H. et al. Enhanced Mechanical Properties of a Gradient Nanostructured Medium Manganese Steel and Its Grain Refinement Mechanism. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 29, 3812–3823 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-020-04903-w

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