Microstructure-Mechanical Properties Relationships for Complex Microstructures in High Strength Steels

Due to the increased complexity of steel microstructures, when considering the application of available Hall-Petch type equations for yield strength prediction, a number of difficulties raises. For example, the correlation between grain size measurements by EBSD technique and optical microscopy (OP) in complex microstructures is required in order to integrate data to the traditional equations developed for OP results and ferrite-pearlite microstructures. Besides, the introduction of some additional terms to the equations to account for precipitation, C in solution and forest dislocation contributions presents some difficulties that need to be overcome to improve prediction accuracy. Different microstructures (ferrite-pearlite, bainite, quenched and Q&T) have been produced by thermal and thermomechanical treatments, followed by microstructural characterisation and mechanical testing. A Hall-Petch coefficient dependent on the boundary misorientation distribution is proposed. This approach allows dealing in a similar way ferritic, bainitic and martensitic microstructures. The Hall-Petch coefficient, thus defined, corresponds to the previously proposed by Pickering for ferrite, while bainitic microstructures give a smaller value. Additionally, the equation used to express the fracture appearance transition temperature of ferritic-pearlitic microstructure has been generalized from the developments made in the calculation of the yield stress.