Kinetics of static strain aging after temper rolling of low carbon steel

Abstract

In this study, static strain aging behaviour of cold rolled steel strips was considered with emphasis on the distribution of residual hydrostatic stress developed during temper rolling. In order to assess residual stress distribution produced by the temper rolling, a three-dimensional model was first employed. Then, samples were rolled at a reduction of 4% under single and double pass rolling programmes and the kinetics of static strain aging phenomenon as well as the required activation energies were then evaluated using hardness and tensile tests on the deformed samples. Considering the predicted residual hydrostatic stress distribution, it was found that tensile hydrostatic stresses promote the kinetics of the static strain aging process and alter the activation energy required for the phenomenon. In addition, it was revealed that different positions of the rolled steel show different aging behaviour owing to non-uniform distribution of residual stresses after temper rolling.