Influence of warm rolling temperature on ferrite recrystallization in low C and IF steels

• Main Author: Barnett, Matthew Robert
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Subjects: engineering, materials science; engineering, metallurgy
• ISBN: 061229885X; 9780612298859

Experiments involving single pass laboratory rolling and isothermal salt bath annealing were carried out; three steels were studied: a titanium stabilized interstitial free grade and two low carbon grades, one of which contained a particularly low level of manganese ($\sim$0.009wt.%). The two low carbon grades were produced such that any complication from AlN precipitation was avoided. X-ray, neutron diffraction, optical metallography and mechanical testing measurements were carried out on the samples before and after annealing. The main aim of this work was to further the understanding of the metallurgy of recrystallization after ferrite rolling at temperatures between room temperature and 700$\sp\circ$C.
Deformation textures, recrystallization kinetics, final grain sizes and recrystallization textures were quantified for all the samples and experimental conditions. A major conclusion based on these data is that the influence of rolling temperature is far greater in the low carbon samples than in the IF grade. Indeed, the IF results alter only marginally with increasing temperature. In the low carbon grades, however, the rolling texture sharpens, recrystallization slows, the final grain size coarsens, and the recrystallization texture changes when the rolling temperature is increased.
This distinct difference between the two steel types is explained in terms of their contrasting deformation behaviors. Solute carbon and nitrogen in the low carbon grades interact with dislocations causing high stored energy levels after low temperature rolling (due to dynamic strain aging) and high strain rate sensitivities during high temperature rolling (due to the solute drag of dislocations in the transition region between DSA and DRC). Nucleation during subsequent recrystallization is strongly influenced by both the stored energy and the strain rate sensitivity. The latter affects the occurrence of the flow localisations that enhance nucleation.