Effect of carbon content and microalloying on martensitic hardenability of austenite of dual-phase steel

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Abstract
Microstructure maps were constructed for a C–Mn steel and microalloyed steels of the same base composition, after intercritical annealing to produce 23 and 50% of austenite. The critical cooling rates for the transformation to martensite of 90 and 50% of the austenite present were thus determined as functions of the carbon content of the austenite. At the 90% martensite level, the hardenability of the austenite was very similar to that of fully austenitized steel of the same composition, and varied identically with carbon content. At the 50% martensite level, the hardenability of the austenite was considerably greater than that of fully austenitized steel of the same composition. The presence of niobium and vanadium had no effect on the martensitic hardenability of the austenites: by forming carbides they simply altered the carbon content of the austenite at a fixed volume fraction of austenite. It is proposed that the martensitic hardenability of austenite of dual-phase steel depends on the size of the austenite volumes as well as on their carbon content. In the present study, the size of the austenite volumes was large enough to make them more hardenable than would be predicted on the basis of standard hardenability data for fully austenitized steels. MST/548