Thermodynamics of precipitation and textural development in batch-annealed interstitial-free high-strength steels

A systematic and detailed characterization of precipitates, as a function of steel composition, has been carried out in five batch-annealed interstitial-free high-strength steels. The precipitation behavior has been discussed from the point of view of thermodynamics as well as on the basis of the kinetics. An attempt has been made to explain the discrepancies between the thermodynamic prediction and the actual observations. Finally, the correlation between precipitation and textural evolution and deep drawability has been critically investigated.