Influence of Strain Path on Microstructure Evolution of Low Carbon Steels

Changes in strain path represent one of the most important processing parameters that characterise hot metal forming processes. In the present study, the effect of strain path change on dynamic recrystallisation, strain-induced precipitation processes and phase transformation behaviour in plain carbon and Nb-microalloyed steels was investigated. To assess the effect of strain-path change, forward/forward and forward/reverse torsion tests were conducted. It has been shown that the strain reversal delays the dynamic recrystallisation kinetics whereas its effect on strain-induced precipitation process of Nb(C,N) is rather negligible. Also the onset of austenite-ferrite transformation is delayed; its products however doesn’t change significantly. This can be due to the fact that ferrite nucleation density plays the second order role compared to the geometry of deformation.