Intercritical heat treatments in ductile iron and steel.

摘要

Materials such as dual phase (DP) steels, transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) steels and dual phase ductile irons are produced by intercritical heat treatments. These materials can provide significant weight savings in the automotive industry. The goal of this dissertation is to study intercritical heat treatments in ductile iron and steel to optimize the production parameters. Three different aspects were addressed.;First, common steels were intercritically austenitized and austempered (intercritically austempered) under a variety conditions. The results showed that common grade steels that were intercritically austempered exhibited tensile properties in the same range as DP and TRIP steels.;The second study consisted of determining the effect of heat treatment conditions on the tensile properties of intercritically austenitized, quenched and tempered ductile iron (IAQ&TDI). The results showed that (1) ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and yield strength (YS) were determined by the volume fraction of martensite, (2) tempering improved the elongation 1.7-2.5 times with only a slight decrease in strength, (3) the carbon in austenite formed during the intercritical heat treatment of ductile iron with a ferritic-pearlitic matrix came from the carbon available in the matrix and that carbon diffusion from the graphite nodules was restricted, and (4) limited segregation of substitutional elements occurred during intercritical austenitizing.;Finally, intercritically austempered ductile iron (IADI) alloyed with different amounts of manganese and nickel was produced. Tensile properties and microstructure were determined. Also, the stability of the austenite during deformation and the lattice strains of the ferrite and the austenite phases were determined using x-ray diffraction (XRD) and neutron diffraction. The results indicated that: 1) high manganese concentrations produced materials with large blocky, low carbon austenite particles at the intercellular boundaries which decreased the elongation of the materials and transformed to martensite during deformation at low strains. 2) Nickel and nickel-manganese alloys formed a combination of blocky and plate-like austenite particles, which were more stable during deformation and either transformed to martensite after yielding or did not transform at all.