Influence of metastable retained austenite on macro and micromechanical properties of steel processed by the Q&P process

By stabilising metastable austenite with a suitable morphology in a martensitic structure, it is possible to impart to multi-phase steels high ductility combined with tensile strengths exceeding 2000 MPa. One way to achieve such mixed structures consisting of martensite and retained austenite (RA) is the Q&P (quenching and partitioning) process. The resulting structure contains metastable austenite in the form of thin foils located between martensite laths or plates. The stability of austenite under mechanical loading is the essential factor contributing to the extraordinary plasticity of such materials during cold deformation. A steel with 0.43% of carbon, alloyed with manganese, silicon and chromium was chosen for the experiment described in the present paper. Using the Q&P process, a martensitic structure with 20% of retained austenite was obtained. As cold plastic deformation causes the austenite to transform, 10% cold deformation was applied after the Q&P process. This deformation reduced the RA fraction to 11%. Materials prepared by this method were examined using micro-pillar compression experiments. Using the focused ion beam (FIB) method, pillars of 3 × 3 μm cross-section and 8 μm length were fabricated. These were afterwards mechanically tested in situ in an electron microscope in quasi-static compression at a true strain rate of 3 × 10−4 s−1 to different amounts of plastic strain. The experiment showed that mechanical properties of the two conditions of material differ in terms of yield strength and the strain hardening exponent. An additional metallographic analysis of structures, including the exploration of the influence of decomposition of retained austenite, was performed.