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The Significant Impact of the Characteristics of Granular Structure and Granular Bainite on the Mechanisms Contributing to Strength–Ductility Combination

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Abstract

A comprehensive analysis and characterization of granular structure (GS) and granular bainite (GB) were conducted in a low-carbon alloy steel with the objective to elucidate the mechanisms that contributed to strength–ductility combination. Ferrite + martensite–austenite (M-A) islands were observed in both GS and GB, but a transformation mechanism produced a variation in the matrix and in the M-A size, distribution and morphology. The differences in the matrix and M-A islands were carefully studied by electron backscatter diffraction. Furthermore, tensile tests were interrupted at different strains to study the microstructure evolution during tensile straining and mechanical properties determined from samples tensile strained to fracture. It was observed that the specimen with GB exhibited higher tensile strength, ductility and strain hardening compared to GS. Dislocation strengthening of GB was more apparent than GS. The higher volume fraction and uniform distribution of M-A islands also contributed to the higher strength of GB. The improvement in ductility may partly be attributed to the sub-structural refinement. An increased presence of geometrically necessary dislocations array in GB also simultaneously enhanced strength and ductility. During deformation, GB exhibited a more uniform local strain distribution compared to GS because of superior plastic ability of M-A islands. Based on the experimental results and analysis, we propose models describing the different failure mechanism in GS and GB.

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Acknowledgments

The authors at NEU acknowledge support from the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFB0300701) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51674081). The authors at NEU are grateful to Professor R.D.K. Misra for his willingness to collaborate in this study and for meaningful discussion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110004, China

    X. N. Xu, Y. Tian, Q. B. Ye & Z. D. Wang

  2. Laboratory for Excellence in Advanced Steel Research, Department of Metallurgical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University Avenue, El Paso, TX, 79968, USA

    R. D. K. Misra

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  1. X. N. Xu
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  2. Y. Tian
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  4. R. D. K. Misra
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Correspondence to Y. Tian or Q. B. Ye.

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No conflict of interest exits in the submission of this manuscript, and manuscript is approved by all authors for publication. I would like to declare on behalf of my co-authors that the work described is original research and has not been published previously, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part. All the authors listed have approved the manuscript.

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Xu, X.N., Tian, Y., Ye, Q.B. et al. The Significant Impact of the Characteristics of Granular Structure and Granular Bainite on the Mechanisms Contributing to Strength–Ductility Combination. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 30, 7479–7487 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-021-05887-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-021-05887-x

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