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Role of retained austenite in advanced high-strength steel: ductility and toughness

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Abstract

Enhancing the ductility and toughness of advanced high-strength steels is essential for the wide range of promising applications. The retained austenite (RA) is a key phase due to the austenite-to-martensite transformation and its transformation-induced plasticity effect. It is commonly accepted that slow RA-to-martensite transformation is beneficial to ductility; therefore, the RA fraction and stability should be carefully controlled. The RA stability is related to its morphology, size, carbon content, neighboring phase and orientation. Importantly, these factors are cross-influenced. It is noteworthy that the influence of RA on ductility and fracture toughness is not consistent because of their difference in stress state. There is no clear relationship between fracture toughness and tensile properties. Thus, it is important to understand the role of RA in toughness. The toughness is enhanced during the RA-to-martensite transformation, while the fracture toughness is decreased due to the formation of fresh and brittle martensite. As a result, the findings regarding to the effect of RA on fracture toughness are conflicting. Further investigations should be conducted in order to fully understand the effects of RA on ductility and fracture toughness, which can optimize the combination of ductility and toughness in AHSSs.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52271004 and 51901021).

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  1. National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Materials under Shock and Impact, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China

    Vung Lam Nuam, Hao Zhang, Ying-chun Wang & Zhi-ping Xiong

  2. Tangshan Key Laboratory of High-Performance Metals and Ceramics, Tangshan Research Institute BIT, Tangshan, 063000, Hebei, China

    Ying-chun Wang & Zhi-ping Xiong

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Zhi-ping Xiong is a youth editorial board member for Journal of Iron and Steel Research International and was not involved in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article. The authors declare that they have no known competing finical interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Nuam, V.L., Zhang, H., Wang, Yc. et al. Role of retained austenite in advanced high-strength steel: ductility and toughness. J. Iron Steel Res. Int. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42243-023-01165-3

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