A novel design to enhance the amount of retained austenite and mechanical properties in low-alloyed steel

A new method is proposed to increase the volume fraction of retained austenite and enhance the mechanical performance of low-alloyed steels. By deliberately preserving a small amount of interlath-retained austenite before annealing at a relatively high temperature, new intercritical austenite was thus encouraged to adopt an acicular morphology between laths. Therefore, the formation of blocky austenite, which usually exists during intercritical annealing of martensitic microstructure, was suppressed, which led to enhancement of retained austenite content and mechanical properties.