Microstructures and Mechanical Properties of a New As-Hot-Rolled High-Strength DP Steel Subjected to Different Cooling Schedules

Controlled rolling followed by accelerated cooling was carried out in-house to study the microstructure and mechanical properties of a low carbon dual-phase steel. The objective of the study described here was to explore the effect of cooling schedule, such as air cooling temperature and coiling temperature, on the final microstructure and mechanical properties of dual-phase steels. Furthermore, the precipitation behavior and yield ratio are discussed. The study demonstrates that it is possible to obtain tensile strength and elongation of 780 MPa and 22 pct, respectively, at the two cooling schedules investigated. The microstructure consists of 90 pct ferrite and 10 pct martensite when subjected to moderate air cooling and low temperature coiling, such that the yield ratio is a low 0.69. The microstructure consists of 75 pct ferrite and 25 pct granular bainite with a high yield ratio of 0.84 when the steel is directly cooled to the coiling temperature. Compared to the conventional dual-phase steels, the high yield strength is attributed to precipitation hardening induced by nanoscale TiC particles and solid solution strengthening by high Si content. The interphase precipitates form at a suitable ledge mobility, and the row spacing changes with the rate of ferrite transformation. There are different orientations of the rows in the same grain because of the different growth directions of the ferrite grain boundaries, and the interface of the two colonies is devoid of precipitates because of the competitive mechanisms of the two orientations.