Nature of strain aging stages in bake hardening steel for automotive application

Strain aging behavior of industrially produced ultra low carbon bake hardening (BH) steel for automotive application was investigated. The aging process was studied by the dynamic Young's modulus and amplitude-independent dislocation internal friction measurements with acoustic methods. Analysis of the revealed strain aging stages was carried out and has resulted in the conclusion that formation of interstitial atoms atmospheres on the dislocations is accompanied and substantially affected by the dissolution of their grain boundary segregations.