Tensile properties of strip casting 6.5Â wt% Si steel at elevated temperatures

Tensile behaviors of strip casting 6.5 wt% Si steel are tested at elevated temperatures ranging from 300 °C to 800 °C. A detailed study of the morphology of the fracture surface and the ordered phase at each deforming temperature is carried out by a scanning electron microscope and a transmission electron microscope. The results show that the deforming temperature rather than the ordered degree determines the tensile properties. As the deforming temperature increases, the stress level in the whole deforming stage continually decreases, whereas the elongation gradually increases. The ductile-brittle transition occurs around 350 °C. The elongation of 2% at 300 °C rapidly increases up to 16.4% at 350 °C and the corresponding fracture mode transforms from the complete cleavage fracture to the mixture of the very limited cleavage fracture, intergranular dimple fracture and the dimple fracture. Serrated flow is observed at 350 °C and 400 °C probably due to the occurrence of dynamic strain aging. Due to the gradually weakened grain boundary cohesion with the deforming temperature increasing, intergranular dimple pattern dominates the fracture surface at 600 °C and the elongation slowly increases from 16.4% at 350 °C to 22.8% at 600 °C. At 700 °C and 800 °C, the much more enhanced dynamic recovery, the substantially decreased stress levels which contribute to the inhibition of the intergranular dimple fracture, the much lower content of the B2 ordered phase at 700 °C, and the completely disordered state at 800 °C give rise to the dramatically improved elongations of 88.8% and 130.8%, respectively.