Variation in Mechanical Properties and Heterogeneity in Microstructure of High-Strength Ferritic Steel During Mill Trial

HS600 and HS800 are two new generation, high-strength advanced ferritic steels that find widespread application in automobiles. During commercial production of the same grades with different thicknesses, it has been found that mechanical properties like tensile strength and stretchability varied widely and became inconsistent. In the current endeavor, two different thicknesses have been chosen from a mill trial sample of HS600 and HS800. An in-depth structural characterization was carried out for all four alloys to explain the variation in their respective mechanical and shear punch properties. The carbon content was smaller and Ti + Mo quantity was higher in case of HS800 with respect to HS600. The microstructure of both steels consisted of the dispersion of (Ti,Mo)C in a ferrite matrix. The grain size of HS800 was little larger than HS600 due to an increased coiling temperature (CT) of the former in comparison to the latter. It was found that in case of same grade of steel with a different thickness, a variation in microstructure occurred due to change in strain, CT, and cooling rate. The strength and stretch formability of these two alloys were predominantly governed by a microalloyed carbide. In this respect, carbides with a size range above 5 nm were responsible for loosing coherency with ferrite matrix. In case of HS600, both ≤5 and >5-nm size (Ti,Mo)C precipitates shared a nearly equal fraction of microalloyed precipitates. However, for HS800, >5-nm size (Ti,Mo)C carbide was substantially higher than ≤5-nm size alloy carbides. The ultimate tensile strength and yield strength of HS800 was superior to that of HS600 owing to a higher quantity of microalloyed carbide with a decreased column width and interparticle distance. A higher degree of in-coherency of HS800 made the alloy prone to crack formation with low stretchability.