Materials Science & Engineering A 731 (2018) 149–155

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Materials Science & Engineering A

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/msea

Effect of hot rolling temperature on the microstructure and mechanical T

properties of ultra-low carbon medium manganese steel
⁎
S. Yua, L.X. Dua, , J. Hua, R.D.K. Misrab
a
The State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
b
Laboratory for Excellence in Advanced Steel Research, Department of Metallurgical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at El Paso, TX 79968-
0521, USA

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The effect of hot rolling temperature on microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of 0.05C-5Mn (wt
Medium manganese steel %) steel was investigated. With the decrease of hot rolling temperature from 1150 °C to 900 °C, the average size
Reversed austenite of prior austenite grain was decreased from ~ 40 µm to ~20 µm, and average width of martensite lath was
Hot rolling temperature refined from ~ 400 nm to ~ 250 nm. The morphology of reversed austenite was changed from film-like shape to
Mechanical properties
block-like shape, and the volume fraction of reversed austenite was increased from 14.75% to 16.28% because of
TRIP effect
the stimulated nucleation in refined prior austenite grains by rolling at lower temperature. The yield strength,
tensile strength and the total elongation were simultaneously increased from 673 MPa, 805 MPa, and 27.5% to
704 MPa, 846 MPa, and 31%, respectively. The low temperature impact toughness was significantly enhanced
from 133 J to 222 J at − 40 °C. The significant improvement in mechanical properties by lower hot rolling
temperature were attributed to both the refined tempered martensite lath with higher density of high mis-
orientation grain boundaries and the active TRIP effect of reversed austenite with suitable mechanical stability.

1. Introduction austenite microstructure [12]. Zou et al. [13] suggested that the me-
tastable reversed austenite significantly improved the low-temperature
Light weight and safety is an important requirement of the industry toughness by relieving the local stress concentration and consuming the
[1–3]. Enhanced strength and toughness is usually obtained by addition tip energy of the propagating crack. However, the mechanism of re-
of expensive alloying elements and adjustment of thermomechanical tained austenite in improving toughness and ductility is still unclear.
controlled processing, which unfortunately increases the cost and limits Although there have been extensive studies on medium manganese
the development [4–7]. In comparison with conventional high strength steel which focused on chemical composition and heat treatments, there
steels, the medium manganese (5–8 wt%) steels have attracted sig- are limited studies on hot rolling temperature. Therefore, the objective
nificant attention because of excellent combination of high strength, of this paper is to study the effect of hot rolling temperature on the
excellent ductility and impact toughness, especially at low temperature. microstructure and mechanical properties of ultra-low carbon medium
It has potential applications in automobiles, offshore platform, bridges manganese steel. Excellent properties and desired microstructure were
and other structural component. obtained via low temperature rolling and annealing treatment.
The superior mechanical properties of medium manganese steel are
mainly attributed to the TRIP effect and the cooperative deformation of 2. Experimental procedure
ferrite. For example, the Fe-0.2C-11Mn as-cold-rolled steel with a high
volume fraction of austenite after intercritical annealing exhibited an The chemical composition of the steel was Fe-0.05C-0.2Si-5Mn-
excellent combination of TE of 43–70% and UTS of 900–1087 MPa [8]. 0.38Cr 0.28Cu-0.28Ni-0.22Mo (wt%). The experimental steel was
It is recognized that stable retained austenite is beneficial to toughness melted in a high-frequency vacuum induction furnace and cast into
by restricting brittle fracture without undergoing transformation ingot of thickness ~ 0 mm. The ingot was homogenized at 1200 °C for
[9–11]. For example, an excellent combination of ductility (total 2 h, and hot rolled to 12 mm thickness at 1150 °C and 900 °C (desig-
elongation of ~37.3%) and toughness (Charpy v-notch impact energy nated as HR1150 and LR900) via seven passes and cooled to room
of ~ 158 J at −80 °C) was obtained by the design of fine ferrite- temperature in water. The two plates were intercritically annealed at

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: dulx@ral.neu.edu.cn (L.X. Du).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2018.06.020
Received 6 March 2018; Received in revised form 4 June 2018; Accepted 5 June 2018
Available online 06 June 2018
0921-5093/ © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
S. Yu et al. Materials Science & Engineering A 731 (2018) 149–155

Fig. 1. Optical micrographs of prior austenite: (a) HR1150; (b) LR900.

Fig. 2. Martensite lath microstructure: (a) HR1150; (b) LR900.

650 °C for 50 min, and air cooled to room temperature. The specimens (200)γ, (220)γ, (311)γ, (200)α, and (211)α peaks were used to quantify
were mechanically polished and etched by a mixed solution composed the amount of reversed austenite using Eq. (1) [14]:
of 0.5% xylene, 3% dodecyl-benzene sulfonic acid, and 96.5% saturated
Vγ = 1.4Iγ /(Iα + 1.4 Iγ) (1)
picric acid at 65 °C to reveal the boundaries of prior austenite grains.
The mean grain sizes of the specimens were determined by a linear where Vγ is the volume fraction of reversed austenite, Iγ is the in-
intercept method. The specimens with dimensions of 6 mm diameter tegrated intensity of the austenite peaks, and Iα is the integrated in-
and 30 mm length were cut from the annealed plate along the rolling tensity of the ferrite peaks.
direction. The tensile tests were conducted on a Shimadzu AG-X uni-
versal testing machine at a speed of 3 mm/min. The impact test were
performed in the temperature range of 20 to − 80 °C with standard 3. Results and discussion
Charpy impact specimens (dimensions: 10 × 10 × 55 mm3) machined
along the rolling direction using Instron Dynatup 9200 series in- 3.1. Microstructure
strumented drop weight impact tester, consistent with ASTME23 spe-
cification. Fig. 1 provides prior austenite microstructure for the HR1150 and
The specimens used for EBSD were electrolytically polished with a LR900 steels, showing the equiaxed prior austenite grains. Hence, it can
solution composed of 8% perchloric acid and 92% alcohol at room be deduced that the recrystallization has occurred at both 1150 °C and
temperature, and EBSD analysis was carried out using a Zesis Ultra55 900 °C. The average prior austenite grain size is refined from ~ 40 µm
scanning electron microscope (SEM). For substructure observation, the to ~ 20 µm as the hot rolling temperature decreases from 1150 °C to
3 mm diameter disks were ground to thickness of 40 µm and then twin- 900 °C.
jet electropolished using a solution consisting of 8% perchloric acid and Fig. 2 exhibits the morphology of as-hot-rolled steel plate subjected
92% ethanol at − 30 °C, and their microstructures were examined by to different rolling temperature. Both steels show fully martensite
FEI Tecnai G2 F20 transition electron microscope (TEM). The volume lathes, and the average values of lath width are ~ 400 nm and ~
fraction of reversed austenite was determined by a D/max 2400 XRD 250 nm for the HR1150 and LR900 steels, respectively. Moreover, the
using a Cu-Kα at room temperature and the integrated intensities of dislocation density in the LR900 steel is pronouncedly higher than that
in the HR1150 steel.

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Fig. 3. TEM microstructure of experimental steels: (a) bright-field image of specimen from annealed HR1150; (b) dark-field image of specimen from annealed
HR1150; (c) bright-field image of specimen from annealed LR900; (d) dark-field image of austenite in specimen from annealed LR900.

The HR1150 and LR900 steels were further annealed at 650 °C for
50 min, and their annealed microstructures are shown in Fig. 3. The
annealed HR1150 and annealed LR900 steels consist of sub-micrometer
reversed austenite and tempered martensite. However, the morphology
of reversed austenite in the annealed HR1150 and annealed LR900
steels is different. The film-like reversed austenite with average width
of ~ 100 nm and small amount of block-like reversed austenite can be
observed in the annealed HR1150 steel. Whereas the irregular block-
like reversed austenite with average width of ~ 160 nm and small
amount of film-like reversed austenite can be observed in the annealed
LR900 steel. When the hot-rolled steel was intercritically annealed, the
reverse transformation from tempered martensite to austenite was
mainly along the tempered martensite boundaries, resulting in lath-
shaped grain morphology [15,16]. However, the recrystallization of
martensite matrix and reverse transformation from martensite to aus-
tenite may occur simultaneously due to the high dislocation density
introduced by low temperature rolling, resulting in bock-like reversed
Fig. 4. XRD spectra of annealed HR1150 and annealed LR900. austenite [16,17]. During intercritical annealing process, the disloca-
tion density significantly decreased due to climb and annihilation.
The XRD spectra of annealed HR1150 and annealed LR900 steels
are presented in Fig. 4. The volume fraction of reversed austenite was

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Fig. 5. Characteristics of annealed experimental steels analyzed by EBSD: (a) reversed austenite distribution of annealed HR1150; (b) grain boundary misorientation
distribution of annealed HR1150; (c) reversed austenite distribution of annealed LR900 (d) grain boundary misorientation distribution of annealed LR900.

misorientation larger than 15°. The annealed steels consist of small

packets with fine lath and reversed austenite. The reversed austenite is
mainly distributed at the packets boundaries and prior austenite
boundaries because of their high interfacial energy. The packet
boundaries and prior austenite boundaries are primarily characterized
by high misorientation grain boundaries (Fig. 5a and c). On the other
hand, the deformation band or substructure is partly remained at re-
latively lower finishing rolling temperature, and these defects can dis-
appear by recrystallization during annealing, resulting in the increase
of high misorientation grain boundaries (Fig. 5b and d). The high
misorientation grain/packet boundaries are effective barrier which ar-
rest the propagation of cleavage microcracks [20,21], whereas the low
misorientation grain boundaries have less ability to deviate the clea-
vage crack [22].

3.2. Tensile properties

Fig. 6. Engineering stress-strain curves of annealed experimental steels.

Fig. 6 shows the engineering stress-strain curves of annealed ex-

estimated to be 14.75% and 16.28% for annealed HR1150 and an- perimental steels. The curve of annealed HR1150 presents continuous
nealed LR900 steels, respectively. The reversed austenite volume frac- yielding. The yield strength (YS), ultimate tensile strength (UTS), and
tion of annealed LR900 is higher than annealed HR1150. The reversed total elongation (EL) is 673 MPa, 805 MPa, and 27%, respectively.
austenite preferentially nucleated at prior austenite boundaries and However, the curve of annealed LR900 exhibits a yield platform. The YS
then at martensite lath boundaries [18,19]. On the one hand, the nu- and UTS increase from 673 MPa and 805–704 MPa and 847 MPa, re-
cleation sites for reverse transformation can be strongly increased by spectively. The total elongation increases from 27.5% to 31%.
lowering rolling temperature because of the refinement of prior auste- As seen in the Fig. 7, the volume fraction of reversed austenite be-
nite grains and martensite laths. On the other hand, relatively high fore and after tensile deformation is 14.75%, 10.08% and 16.28%,
dislocation density can promote the diffusion of C and Mn, which en- 10.70% for annealed HR1150 and annealed LR900, respectively. The
hances the kinetics of reversed austenite transformation and increases reversed austenite transformation ratio of annealed LR900 is higher
the austenite volume fraction. than that of annealed HR1150 during tensile deformation. This is be-
EBSD micrographs of annealed experimental steels are presented in cause that the block-like reversed austenite is easily experienced TRIP
Fig. 5. The blue lines represent high angle grain boundaries with the effect at identical strain due to its poor stability. However, the relatively

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Fig. 7. XRD spectra of (a) annealed HR1150 and (b) annealed LR900 before and after tensile deformation.

3.3. Impact property

The typical curve of load versus deflection consists of five stages:

elastic deformation stage, plastic deformation stage, ductile deforma-
tion stage, brittle propagation stage and ductile fracture stage, as shown
in Fig. 8. The fracture process consists of crack initiation and crack
propagation. The crack initiation occurred when the load reached the
Pm (as shown in Fig. 8). Thus, the crack initiation stage consists of
elastic deformation stage and plastic deformation stage. The crack in-
itiation point Pm represents the difficulty of crack formation and the
sum of corresponding absorbed energy is regarded as the crack initia-
tion energy. Similarly, the sum of relevant absorbed energy in sub-
sequent three deformation stages is considered as the crack propagation
energy.
The total impact energy and crack initiation energy of annealed
steels as a function of test temperature is presented in Fig. 9. The total
energy of annealed LR900 and annealed HR1150 is 259 J and 233 J at
Fig. 8. Schematic diagram of typical deflection-load curve. room temperature, respectively. The impact absorbed energy of an-
nealed LR900 decreases gradually as the testing temperature decreases
from 20 °C to − 40 °C, and it reaches 222 J even at − 40 °C. However,
there is steep decrease in impact absorbed energy for the annealed
HR1150, and it is only 133 J at − 40 °C. With further lowing testing
temperature, the impact absorbed energy decreases for the both steels,
but the impact absorbed energy of annealed LR900 is greater than that
of annealed HR1150.
Fig. 10 shows the load-deflection and absorbed energy-deflection
plots for annealed HR1150 and annealed LR900 at − 40 °C. The peak
load and crack initiation energy is 22.6 kN, 51 J and 22.5 kN, 52 J,
respectively. It indicates that the variation in the elastic deformation
and plastic deformation is unchanged. However, there is obvious dif-
ference in the subsequent crack propagation process. The crack pro-
pagation energy of annealed HR1150 and annealed LR900 is 81 J and
181 J, respectively. It indicates that the crack propagation is sig-
nificantly inhibited during the ductile propagation stage for annealed
LR900.
The curve of ductile propagation sharply decreases in the range
Fig. 9. The relationship between total energy, crack initiation energy and test 2.5–6 mm for annealed HR1150 (Fig. 10a). The ductile propagation
temperature during Charpy impact test. stage is reduced, and the brittle propagation is extended, resulting in
the deterioration of toughness. Compared with the curve of annealed
higher reversed austenite transformation ratio is not the only reason for HR1150, the ductile propagation stage is extended in the curve of an-
the enhanced strength, the refinement of tempered martensite matrix is nealed LR900 (Fig. 10b). The deflection of ductile propagation stage is
also a crucial factor. Hence, the outstanding tensile property is mainly mainly in the range of 6–12.5 mm and 12.6–23 mm. When the deflec-
achieved by the combination of finer tempered martensite matrix and tion reaches ~ 5 mm, the curve of ductile deformation drastically de-
TRIP effect of reversed austenite which can further relax stress con- creases to ~ 12.5 kN. In the range of 6–12.5 mm, the decreasing rate of
centration and hence delay the onset of necking. the curve slows down until the deflection reaches ~12.5 mm, where the
curve drastically drops again, and after that, in the range of
12.6–23 mm, the decreasing rate of the curve further slows down, until

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Fig. 10. The relationship of between load, impact energy and deflection at − 40 °C: (a) annealed HR1150; (b) annealed LR900.

Fig. 11. XRD spectra of (a) annealed HR1150 and (b) annealed LR900 before and after impact deformation.

Fig. 12. SEM fractures of experimental steel impact tested at − 40 °C: (a) annealed HR1150; (b) annealed LR900.

the deflection reaches ~ 23 mm. The brittle stage decreases due to the fraction of reversed austenite before and after impact test in Fig. 11, the
ductility enhancement occurs in the ductility stage. It indicates that the metastable block-like reversed austenite in annealed LR900 remarkably
crack propagation is effectively inhibited by high misorientation grain induced TRIP effect. TRIP effect can relax the residual stress (RS) within
boundaries in annealed LR900. The metastable reversed austenite also marteniste transformation, which can moderate RS distribution [23].
plays a crucial role in enhancing the toughness. Comparing the volume Moreover, the TRIP effect can also consume energy during crack

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