Y.H. Rong

Study of a Novel Ultra-High Strength Steel with Adequate Ductility and Toughness by Quenching-Partitioning-Tempering Process

According to the design principle of microstructures for high strength steel and a new quenching-partitioning-tempering (Q-P-T) process recently proposed by Hsu, a microalloying Fe-Mn-Si base steel by the Q-P-T process has been designed. The results indicate that the Q-P-T steel exhibits ultra-high tensile strength combining with good ductility and toughness, and it is a new family of advanced high-strength steels. The microstructures of samples by different Q-P-T processes were characterized by means of optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy, and the relation between microstructures and mechanical properties was analyzed

A chemical-structural model for coherent martensite/parent interface in Mn-based antiferromagnetic shape memory alloys

The martensite/parent coherent interface of Mn-based shape memory alloys (SMAs) is a significant part in the research of their martensitic transformation, reversible shape memory effect and magnetic shape memory effect. In the present work, a chemical-structural model was proposed to calculate the martensite/parent coherent interfacial energy of Mn-X (X = Cu, Fe) alloys. In this model, the coherent heterophase interfacial energy consists of chemical and structural parts. Resulting from the formation process of the heterophase interface, the chemical interfacial energy is expressed as the incremental value of bond energy, while the structural part is obtained by calculating the interfacial strain energy. The results show that the structural interfacial energy plays the chief role in the total interfacial energy, and the total interfacial energy decreases as the temperature rises when the alloy composition is fixed. In addition, the preferred orientation has noteworthy influence on the total interfacial energy. Using the proposed model, interfacial energy, interfacial entropy, interfacial enthalpy and interfacial heat capacity are found to be correlated with temperature and interface preferred orientation. Furthermore, the influences of alloy composition, modulus softening, and the index of the habit plane on the results were discussed.

Tunable elastic modulus in Mn-based antiferromagnetic shape memory alloys

Compared with the normal relation between temperature (T) and elastic modulus (E) in most materials, martensitic transformation (MT) and magnetic transition could result in the softening of elastic modulus (dE/dT > 0) within a narrow range of T ( 0. The present results may enrich approaches to designing new functional materials, e.g. the elastic and Elinvar alloys.

Application of Quenching-Partitioning-Tempering Process in Hot Rolled Plate Fabrication

The quenching-partitioning-tempering (Q-P-T) process, based on the quenching and partitioning (Q&P) treatment, has been proposed for producing high strength steels containing significant fraction of film-like retained austenite and controlled amount of fine martensite laths. In this study, a set of Q-P-T processes for C-Mn-Si-Ni-Nb hot rolled plates are designed and realized. The steels with Q-P-T processes present a combination of high strength and relatively good ductility. The origin of such mechanical properties is revealed by microstructure characterization.

The Kinetics of Reorientation of Multi-Variants under the Continuous Tensile Stress: Phase-Field Simulation

The kinetics of martensitic variant reorientation as well as the evolutional pathway under the continuous tensile stress in NiMnGa alloys has been investigated by using Phase field method. The simulated results revealed that the final structures and the pathway of evolutioncan be determined by the different external stress and there existed a critical stress to obtain the single variant. The related kinetics and the mechanism of the structural conversion were proposed to explain the inner physical nature. The pseudo-elasticity related to the structural conversion was also investigated. The mechanism of the motion for interfacial step associated with the nucleation and growth of one variant in another variant at the twin boundary was discussed.

The Self-Accommodation and Rearrangement of Martensite Multi-Variants under Cyclic Stress: Phase-Field Simulation

A twin boundary model was established to describe the multi-variant interface in the martensitic materials. The modified semi-implicit Fourier-spectral method was proposed to solve the 3-D phase-field equation. Self-accommodation plays an important role in the micro-structural evolution during the loading and unloading. The external compressive stress can cause the rearrangement of martensites from three variants to one variant. After releasing the loading, another variant can nucleate and grow in one variant at the twin boundary. Cyclic stress may lead to the redistribution of martensite variants besides the rearrangement.

Characterization of Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of a Nb-Microalloyed Steel after Quenching-Partitioning-Tempering Process

A novel heat treatment process, that is, quenching-partitioning-tempering (Q-P-T) process, has been developed as a new way to obtain ultrahigh strength martensitic structural steel containing retained austenite and alloying carbide. In order to display merit of the Q-P-T process, a medium carbon Nb-microalloyed steel is treated by Q-P-T 1-step process and Q-P-T 2-step process, as well as treated by the transformation induced plasticity heat treatment process and quenching and tempering process, respectively. The results show that Q-P-T samples possess better mechanical properties than those treated by other heat treatment processes. The origin of the good mechanical properties is analyzed based on the phase and microstructure characterization using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.

Design and Characterization of Ultrahigh Strength Dual-Phase Steel with Low Ratio of Yield Strength/Ultimate Tensile Strength

An ultrahigh strength dual-phase (DP) steel with low ratio of yield strength/ultimate tensile strength (YS/UTS) was designed based on the simulation using JmatPro software so as to improve formability as well as to extend its application in automobile industry. Results show the DP steel suffered from water quenching (WQ) technology exhibits high ratio, 0.872, of YS/UTS, which loses the advantage of formability of DP steels and restricts its application in automobile industry. Therefore, the controlled slow-cooling rate (CSCR) technology is employed to this DP steel, and the low ratio, 0.458, of YS/UTS is obtained. Although the tensile strengths of the DP steel suffered from two kinds of technologies are over 1000 MPa, The YS of the DP steel with CSCR technology is 480 MPa and is much lower than 983MPa of the DP steel with WQ technology, which are attributed to relative large grains and small volume fraction of martensite in the former based on the characterization of microstructure by optical microscope, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope and electron backscattering diffraction.