METAL 2009 19. 21. 5.

2008, Hradec nad Moravic

EFFECT OF MARTENSITE VOLUME FRACTION ON THE WORK

HARDENING BEHAVIOR OF DUAL PHASE STEELS

Ebrahim Najafi Birgani1 and Majid Pouranvari2

1-Materials and Metallurgical Department, School of Engineering,
Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz Branch, Ahvaz, Iran
2- Materials and Metallurgical Department, School of Engineering,
Islamic Azad University, Dezful Branch, Dezful, Iran
E-mail: najafi.eb@gmail.com

Abstract
The strain hardening exponent (n) in the stress-strain relationship of metals and
alloys is an indicator of their stretchability during press forming operations. The larger
the n value, the more the material can deform before instability, and the material can
be stretched further before necking starts. This paper aims to investigate work
hardening behavior of dual phase steels. A series of dual-phase (DP) steels
containing ferrite and martensite with different volume fractions of martensite (Vm)
were produced by intercritical heat treatment. Work hardening behavior was
analyzed in terms of Holloman analysis. Results showed that in DP steels with less
than %50 Vm, the work hardening took place in one stage and the work hardening
exponent increased with increasing Vm. By increasing the volum fraction of
martensite (Vm>%50) more than one stage will be observed in the Hollomon analysis.

1. INTRODUCTION
Dual phase steels are an important branch of high strength low alloy (HSLA) steels.
These materials have a combination of special mechanical properties such as high tensile
strength, high work hardening rate at early stages of plastic deformation as well as good
ductility, which distinguishes them among HSLA steels. These favorable properties are
definitely related to special microstructure of dual phase steels in which, soft ferritic network
provides good ductility; while, hard particles and martensite phase play the load bearing role.
This microstructure, in fact, shows some kind of metallic composite. Beside these features,
properties such as continuous yielding behavior, uniform plastic deformation and high
elongation (good formability) are important features of dual phase steels (RASHID 1979).
Intercritical heat treatment is the way to enhance low alloys (carbon content less than
%0.2) steels to dual phase microstructure with superior strengthductility combination. This
thermal treatment contains heating the specimens in intercritical temperature range to obtain
ferrite and austenite followed by quenching to obtain dual-phase (martensite-plus-ferrite)
structure.
In the present work the SAE 1010 sheet steel was intercritically heat treated and the effect
of martensite content on work hardening behavior and tensile properties was examined. It
should be noted that since the heat treated steel as a sheet has more applicable results in
automobile industry, the examinations were carried out on sheet and also most of the
previous issues discussed about bar specimens.

2. EXPRIMENTAL PROCEDURE
The steel used in the present investigation was 2mm in thickness SAE 1010 sheet steel.
The chemical composition of this steel is: Fe-0.111C-0.534Mn-0.70Si-0.034Ni-0.026Cr-
0.019S-0.016P.
The heat treatment which is used in this work is shown in Fig.2. All of the specimens
were heated in intercritical temperature range (between AC1 and AC3) except one specimen

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METAL 2009 19. 21. 5. 2008, Hradec nad Moravic

which was heat treated above AC3. All the specimens were hold for 20min in muffely furnace
and followed by water quenching (WQ).

Fig 1 Schematic illustration of heat treatment cycle used in this study.

For this study, the AC1 and AC3 temperatures were calculated to be 736 and 852 oC,
according to [8].
The heat treated samples are designated by capital letter, as shown in Fig.1. The as-
received sample is designated by R.
Metallographic specimens were prepared according to the standard procedure from the
as-received and heat-treated samples and etched with %2 nital solution. Microscopic
examinations were carried out by optical microscope. The volume fraction of the martensite
was measured by Point count technique according to ASTM E 562. The tensile test was
conducted on as-received and heat treated specimens with 50mm gage length and 200mm
overall length using an INSTRON testing machine with cross-head speed of 10 mm/min at
room temperature in accordance to ASTM E8M. Key parameters obtained from stress-strain
curves include yield strength (YS), ultimate tensile strength (UTS), uniform elongation (UEL)
and total elongation (TEL).

3. RESULTS AND DISSCUSIONS

3.1. Microstructural investigation
The microstructures of the heat treated samples (A,B,D) are shown in Fig.3.
Increasing Vm is clearly observed in Fig.3a, b and c. Fig.4 shows the variation of the
martensite volume fraction by intercritical heat treatment temperature. This complies
with lever rule in the ferrite-austenite dual phase region. According to the lever rule,
increasing the temperature increases the austenite volume fraction, which then will
transform to martensite upon quenching in the water. It worth noticing that by
increasing the temperature, Vm increases at higher rate.
One of the key controlling parameter for mechanical properties of the dual phase steels in
carbon content of the martensite phase. The Carbon content of the martensite can be
calculated according to the rule of mixtures (equation 1).
C0 = Cf Vf + C m Vm (1)

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METAL 2009 19. 21. 5. 2008, Hradec nad Moravic

(a) (b)

(c)
Fig.3 The microstructures of the heat treated samples at various intercritical
temperatures of a) 760 C b) 800C and c) 820C

where C0 is the steel mean carbon content and Cf and CM are the carbon content of ferrite
and martensite phases, respectively. Vf and VM are the ferrite and martensite volume
fractions. In this equation, the carbon content is assumed to be 0.015, which is the solubility
limit of the carbon in ferrite phase. Fig 5 shows variation of carbon content of the steels with
martensite volume fraction. As can be seen, the carbon content of the martensite phase
decreases by increasing the martensite volume fraction.

Fig 4 The variation of martensite volume fraction (Vm% ) as a function of

intercritical temperature

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METAL 2009 19. 21. 5. 2008, Hradec nad Moravic

Fig 5The variation of martensite carbon content as a function of martensite volume

fraction(Vm%)

3.2. Ultimate tensile strength

The strength values of the investigated dual phase steels are higher than the strength of
the as-received steel. The higher strengths of the dual phase steels are known to be due to
the presence of the harder second phase (martensite) (BAG et al. 1999, TOMITA 1990).
The variation of ultimate strengths of the heat treated samples as a function of the
martensite volume fraction is illustrated in Fig.6. It can be seen that the yield strength of
these steels is linearly increased by increasing the Vm, while, the ultimate strength first
increases by increasing martensite volume fraction and then remains nearly constant.
In fact, maximum ultimate strength is obtained at 50% martensite volume fraction. This
trend is in contrast to the law of mixture. Some researchers showed that the tensile strength
of the dual phase steels obey from law of mixture (DAVIES 1987, MARDER 1982, BYUN &
KIM 1993). However, results presented in this work and some of the others work shows that
there is not linear relation between u,DP and Vm.

Fig.6 Effect of martensite volume fraction on the ultimate tensile strength for
investigated steel martensite volume fraction

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METAL 2009 19. 21. 5. 2008, Hradec nad Moravic

The strength of a dual phase steels is a function of volume fraction of the constituent
phases and their strength. Increasing volume fraction of the martensite has two contradicting
effects on the tensile strength:
i) On one hand, the increase in martensite volume fraction increases tensile strength of
the DP steel due to increasing volume fraction of harder phase
ii) On the other hand, carbon content of the martensite phase decreases with increasing
volume fraction of the martensite. As it is known, the strength of the martensite is mainly
determined by its carbon content.
For the investigated DP steels, it seems that for high martensite dual phase steels, the
compromise of these two factors has undermined the effect of Vm on the u,DP. Reducing the
u,DP is expected by a further increase in the volume fraction, as reported by some
researchers (BAG et al.1999).

3.3. Work hardening

The flow behavior of the most metals and alloys can be described by Hollomon equation
(2) (HOLLOMON 1945):
= K n (2)
Where K and n are constants which are normally called: the strength coefficient and
stain hardening exponent, respectively. Drawing the stress-strain data in logarithmic scale
and fitting a line to these data, determines the values of these coefficients for the under
investigation metal. Stain hardening exponent (n) is the slope of this line and its cross section
with = 1, (ln =0), gives strength coefficient (K).
Stain hardening exponent (n) is a good indicator for work hardenability of the material.
The higher the value of n, the higher is the rate at which the materials work hardens. A
material with a high value of n is preferred for processes, which involve plastic deformation.
The larger the n value, the more the material can deform before instability, and the material
can be stretched further before necking starts (AKBARPOUR & EKRAMI 2008).
Ln - Ln diagrams for samples B, D and E are shown in Fig.9 and the n constant of the
fitted lines are mentioned, there. Variation of ln with ln for investigated DP steel with
Vm<50% is linear. This indicate that work hardening of these DP steels obey one stage work
hardening behavior (See table 1). While, nonlinear variations of ln with ln for DP steels
with Vm of 70.6 % indicate that the work hardening behavior of this steel obey the two stage
work hardening mechanism. In this DP steel, strain hardening exponent of the first stage is
higher than the second one (See table 1).
It should be mentioned that the presence of different stages of work hardening for some
dual phase steels is related to the activation of different work hardening mechanisms. The
first stage work hardening can be related to the ferrite plastic deformation, while, the second
stage can be related to the co-deformation of both ferrite and martensite (LIAN 1991).
According to (MAZINANI & POOLE, 2007) the martensite plasticity is favored when (i) its
strength is reduced (either by lowering its carbon concentration or by tempering) or (ii) the
martensite islands morphology is changed from equiaxed to banded. As mentioned above,
increasing Vm
decreases carbon content of the martensite phase and hence its strength decrease.
Therefore, plastic deformation of martensite phase is encouraged.
In contrary to some reports (GRIBB et al. 1979, SPIECH & MILLER 1979) the value of n
increases by increasing the volume percent of martensite. As work hardening power equals
the maximum plastic deformation, increasing the value of n, increases the plastic
deformation. n can be considered as a measure of ductility; therefore, it is expected that the
ductility and thus n decrease by increasing the Vm. However, it is not so for the investigated
dual phase steels. The reason for this behavior could be due to the difference in the strength
of ferrite and martensite with increasing Vm which affects the work hardening. The trend of
variation of stain hardening exponent is similar to that of the variation of ductility with
martensite volume fraction.

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METAL 2009 19. 21. 5. 2008, Hradec nad Moravic

Fig.9 LnLn plot of true stress vs. true strain for investigated steel
with different martensite volume fraction a) sample B consist of 23.6 Vm%, b) Sample D
consist of 46.8 Vm% and c) Sample E with 70.6 Vm%.

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METAL 2009 19. 21. 5. 2008, Hradec nad Moravic

Table 2 Work hardening power for different stages for heat treated samples.

Specimen Vm % Stage I Stage II

A 21.6 0.251 ---
B 23.6 0.257 ---
C 29.7 0.267 ---
D 46.8 0.288 ---
E 70.6 0.431 0.188

4. CONCLUSIONS
In this research a series of dual phase steels containing ferrite and martensite with
different volume fractions of martensite (Vm) were produced by intercritical heat treatment. It
was fond that, martensite volume fraction increases by increasing the intercritical heat
treatment temperature, which in turn decreases the carbon content of this phase according to
the rule of mixtures. Generally, dual phase steels containing approximately equal amounts of
ferrite and martensite phases exhibit the optimum mechanical properties in terms of tensile
strength, ductility and fracture energy. The variations of ultimate tensile strength, ductility and
fracture energy with volume fraction of martensite exhibit unusual behavior. Tensile strength
increases with increasing Vm, peaking around 50% Vm and decreasing with further increase
in Vm. Work hardening behavior was analyzed in terms of Holloman analysis. In this
analysis, the work hardening behavior of the samples containing less than 50% martensite is
single stage. By increasing the martensite volume fraction, the work hardening capacity also
increases. For sample containing more than 50% martensite, double stage work hardening is
observed.

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