Thermo-mechanical Treatments to Produce Nanostructured Interstitial Free (IF) Steels

In the present work, controlled thermomechanical processing was used to produce nanostructured interstitial free steel by promoting strain induced precipitation (SIP).Hot-pressure testing was then carried out at 900 °C, 1000 °C and 1100 °C and at the strain rates of 0.5 and 5 1/s. The produced nanostructures were then characterized using atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and microhardness measurements. The results show that the formation of nano-precipitates can significantly enhance the mechanical properties of IF steels. The formed nanoprecipitates range from 45-93 nm to 105-333 nm in the cases of 1100 °C and 900 °C, respectively. Both SIP and Zener drag phenomena are discussed as the controlling mechanisms to produce the nanostructure