Improving Tensile Properties of Room-Temperature Quenching and Partitioning Steel by Dislocation Engineering

A new strong and ductile steel is developed by combining the dislocation engineering concept with the room-temperature quenching and partitioning process. The dislocations generated during the warm rolling process are inherited by both martensite and austenite grains during water quenching. The warm rolling process refines the martensite block size and increases the austenite volume fraction, owing to the dislocation stabilization mechanism, resulting in improvement of the ultimate tensile strength and uniform elongation simultaneously.