Alloy Design for Fundamental Study of Quenched and Partitioned Steels

摘要

The goal of this work was to design steel(s) that can be utilized for fundamental study of quenched and partitioned (Q&P) steel. It was desired to design steel with sufficient alloying such that the initial quench temperature can be room temperature whilst maintaining significant fractions of austenite, to allow characterization of the steel before and after the partitioning step. Secondary alloy design goals (e.g. promotion of α'-martensite instead of ε-martensite, suppression of carbides, and suppression of bainitic ferrite) were established and empirical and theoretical methods are presented that can be used to design alloys that will stabilize austenite and might meet a subset of the secondary criteria. This paper presents a methodology to design alloys for fundamental study of Q&P steel, two alloy systems that were designed as a result, and experimental verification of the alloys created using dilatometry, XRD, and EBSD.