The effect of heat treatment on the properties and structure of molybdenum and vanadium dual-phase steels

Abstract

A systematic study was made of the effect of the heat treating parameters,(i.e., temperature, time, and cooling rate) on the properties and structure of molybdenum and vanadium bearing dual-phase steels. The volume percent martensite was found to be the major structural factor that controls the strength and ductility of these steels. The relationship between strength and ductility was independent of alloy addition for the alloys studied. Annealing temperature was shown to be very important in these alloys, especially at high quench rates. The molybdenum alloy exhibited better hardenability than the vanadium alloy for equivalent heat treating conditions. Therefore, for a given set of annealing conditions the molybdenum alloy generally had the highest tensile strength and lowest total elongation. A minimum in the 0.2 pct yield strength was found at a specific volume fraction martensite. The increase in yield strength at the lowest volume fraction studied can be related to a jog or discontinuity in the stress-strain curve during tensile testing. This jog was found to be the result of the lack of a sufficient amount of free dislocations. The causes of this deficiency of the dislocations may be: 1) an insufficient amount of transformed martensite, 2) a large martensite interparticle spacing, 3) dynamic recovery of dislocations during cooling, and 4) pinning of dislocations by precipitates during cooling.