Strain-induced transformation of retained austenite in low-carbon low-silicon TRIP steel containing aluminum and vanadium

Effects of intercritical annealing temperature on the microstructure and mechanical properties in low-carbon low-silicon TRIP (transformation-induced plasticity) steel containing aluminum and vanadium were investigated. The highest volume fraction of retained austenite of samples annealed at 1053 K was approximately 18%, while the product of strength and elongation of samples annealed at 1033 K was up to 22,000 MPa%. In addition, the retained austenite transformation kinetics were measured by tensile test and fitted by the function y = 1 − e−Ax. The correlation between the experimental and fitting results was good. A in the function might be a more effective factor to measure the mechanical properties of TRIP steel than the volume fraction of retained austenite.