Evolution of Microstructure and Hardness of High Carbon Steel under Different Compressive Strain Rates

Understanding the effect of high strain rate deformation on microstructure and mechanical property of metal is important for addressing its performance as high strength material. Strongly motivated by the vast industrial application potential of metals having excellent hardness, we explored the phase stability, microstructure and mechanical performance of an industrial grade high carbon steel under different compressive strain rates. Although low alloyed high carbon steel is well known for their high hardness, unfortunately, their deformation behavior, performance and microstructural evolution under different compressive strain rates are not well understood. For the first time, our investigation revealed that different strain rates transform the metastable austenite into martensite at different volume, simultaneously activate multiple micromechanisms, i.e., dislocation defects, nanotwining, etc. that enhanced the phase stability and refined the microstructure, which is the key for the observed leap in hardness. The combination of phase transformation, grain refinement, increased dislocation density, formation of nanotwin and strain hardening led to an increase in the hardness of high carbon steel.