Comparative Analysis of Strengthening with Respect to Microstructural Evolution for 0.2 Carbon DP, TRIP, Q&P Steels

The microstructures and mechanical properties of Dual Phase (DP), Transformation-Induced Plasticity (TRIP), and Quenching & Partitioning (Q&P) steels were investigated in order to define the strengthening mechanism of 0.2 C steel. An intercritical annealing between Ac1 and Ac3 was conducted to produce DP and TRIP steel, followed by quenching the DP and TRIP steel being quenched at to room temperature and by the TRIP steel being austemperingaustempered-air cooling cooled the steel toat room temperature, respectively. The Q&P steel was produced from full austenization, followed by quenching to the temperature between $M_s$ and $M_f$, and then enriching the carbon to stabilize the austenite throughout the heat treatment. For the DP and TRIP steels, as the intercritical annealing temperature increased, the tensile strength increased and the elongation decreased. The strength variation was due to the amount of hard phases, i.e., martensite and bainite, respectively in the DP and TRIP steels. It was also found that the elongation also decreased with the amount of soft ferrite in the DP and TRIP steels and with the amount of the that was retained in the austenite phasein the TRIP steel, respectively for the DP and TRIP steels. For the Q&P steel, as the partitioning time increased, the elongation and the tensile strength increased slightly. This was due to the stabilized austenite that was enriched with carbon, even when the amount of retained austenite decreased as the partitioning time increased from 30 seconds to 100 seconds.