Kinetics of Ferrite Recrystallization and Austenite Formation During Intercritical Annealing of the Cold-Rolled Ferrite/Martensite Duplex Structures

Ultrafine-grained, dual-phase (UFG DP) steels were produced by a new route using an uncommon cold-rolling and subsequent intercritical annealing of ferrite/martensite duplex starting microstructures. The effects of processing parameters such as rolling reduction, intercritical annealing temperature, and time on the microstructural evaluations have been studied. UFG DP steels with an average grain size of about 1 to 2 μm were achieved by short intercritical annealing of the 80 pct cold-rolled duplex microstructures. The kinetics of ferrite recrystallization and austenite formation were studied based on the Johnson–Mehl–Avrami–Kolmogorov (JMAK) model. The proposed model for describing the isothermal austenite formation kinetics was applied successfully to the nonisothermal conditions. It was found that complete recrystallization of ferrite before the austenite formation led to the formation of a large extent randomly distributed austenite in the ferrite matrix and a chain-networked structure.