Microstructures and Mechanical Properties of Annealed Fe-8Mn-6Al-0.4C Duplex Low-Density Steels

Abstract

The cold-rolled Fe-8Mn-6Al-0.4C duplex low-density steel was annealed at different conditions to obtain ferrite + austenite duplex microstructure. The excellent mechanical properties (i.e., elongation of 52%, tensile strength of 785 MPa, and a product of tensile strength and elongation of 40.9 GPa·%) have been obtained by adjusting the volume fraction and the stability of austenite. The microstructure of the experimental steels was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron back-scatter diffraction (EBSD), and the volume fraction of austenite was estimated by the X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results show that the distribution of austenite grain size is inhomogeneous, and that the mechanical stability of austenite is mainly affected by the alloying partitioning and the variation of grain size during the annealing process. The increase of elongation is attributed to the degradation in mechanical stability of austenite, which can efficiently promote an occurrence of transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) effect.