Microstructures and mechanical properties of ferrite-based lightweight steel with different compositions

The microstructures and mechanical properties of ferrite-based lightweight steel with different compositions were investigated by tensile test,scanning electron microscopy(SEM),transmission electron microscopy(TEM),X-ray diffraction(XRD)and thermodynamic calculation(TC).It was shown that the ferrite-based lightweight steels with 5wt.%or 8wt.%Al were basically composed of ferrite,austenite andκ-carbide.As the annealing temperature increased,the content of the austenite in the steel gradually increased,while theκ-carbide gradually decomposed and finally disappeared.The mechanical properties of the steel with 5wt.%Al and 2wt.%Cr,composed of ferrite and Cr7C3carbide at different annealing temperatures,were significantly inferior to those of others.The steel containing 5wt.%Al,annealed at 820°C for 50sthen rapidly cooled to 400°C and held for 180s,can obtain the best product of strength and elongation(PSE)of 31242MPa·%.The austenite stability of the steel is better,and its PSE is higher.In addition,the steel with higher PSE has a more stable instantaneous strain hardening exponent(n value),which is mainly caused by the effect of transformation induced plasticity(TRIP).When theκ-carbide or Cr7C3carbide existed in the microstructure of the steel,there was an obvious yield plateau in the tensile curve,while its PSE decreased significantly.