Electrical steel sheets with 6.5%(mas fraction) Si with good shapes and superior magnetic inductions were successfully produced by a specially designed processing route including ingot casting, hot rolling and warm rolling both with interpass thermal treatment, and final annealing. The sheets were of 0.2 mm and 0.3 mm thick over 140 mm width. A detailed study of the microstructural and textural evolutions from the hot rolling to annealing was carried out by optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction and electron backscattered diffraction. The hot rolled sheet characterized by near-equiaxed grains was dominated by the mixture of <001>//ND fiber(λ-fiber), <110>//RD fiber(α-fiber) and <111>//ND fiber(γ-fiber) textures owing to the partial recrystallization and strain induced boundary migration(SIBM) during the hot rolling interpass thermal treatment. The static recovery and SIBM during the warm rolling interpass thermal treatment result in large and elongated warm rolling grains. The warm rolling texture is dominated by obvious λ, Goss and strong γ-fiber textures. The application of the interpass thermal treatment during hot and warm rolling significantly enhances the impact of SIBM during annealing, which is responsible for the formation of the moderate λ-fiber, some near-λ fiber texture components and the obviously weakened γ-fiber texture in the annealed sheet, leading to a higher magnetic induction compared to the commercially produced 6.5% Si steel by chemical vapor deposition(CVD).
The microstructure characteristics and mechanical properties of a low-silicon TRIP steel containing phosphorus and vanadium at different finish rolling temperatures were studied by laboratory hot rolling experiments. Different ratios of multiphase microstructure (ferrite, granular bainite and retained austenite) are obtained. With a decrease in finish rolling temperature, the volume fractions of ferrite and retained austenite increase. EBSD analysis reveals that most of the ferrite grains are fine, and decreasing of finish rolling temperature leads to an increase in low angle boundaries. Under the joint effects of fine grain strengthening, dislocation strengthening and precipitation strengthening, higher strength is obtained. When the finish rolling temperature is decreased to 800 ℃, the steel has excellent mechanical properties: Rp0.2=470 MPa; Rm=960 MPa; Rp0.2/Rm=0.49; A50=19.7%; n=0.25.
The effects of final air cooling temperature on the microstructure and mechanical properties of hot rolled 0.2C-1.9Mn-0.5Si-0.08P TRIP steel were studied by utilizing OM, SEM, TEM and tensile tests. Experimental results showed that in the multiphase microstructure of the investigated steel when the finish rolling temperature was about 820 ℃ and the final air cooling temperature was in the range of 630-700 ℃, the grain size of most of ferrite was finer (about 4 μm) and which had higher dislocation density, the bainite packets had chaotic orientations and lath boundaries of bainite were not quite straight, the retained austenite distributed in the ferrite grain boundaries or triradius was fine and dispersive, and their grain size was about 0.4-1.9 μm. With increasing the amount of ferrite, the volume fraction of retained austenite had a slight decrease. When the final air cooling temperature was 630 ℃, the steel had excellent mechanical properties, which was characterized by combination of continuous yielding, high strength (about 796 MPa) and high elongation (22.7%) as well as low yield/strength ratio (0.58); when the final air cooling temperature increased to 700 ℃, the matrix structure was bainite packets and the comprehensive properties were deteriorated.
Hou Xiaoying, Xu Yunbo, Wu Di State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
