Research on low strain magnetic mechanical hysteresis damping performance of Fe–15Cr–3Mo–0.5Si alloy

•Heat treatment system has a great effect on the alloy damping performance.•Damping performance does not improve monotonously with temperature.•Furnace cooling is higher than that of alloy after air cooling.•There is an optimum annealing temperature and grain size to obtain high damping.

This paper studies the preparation of Fe–15Cr–3Mo–0.5Si alloy by using vacuum induction melting furnace and vacuum annealing furnace, the damping performance of which in different heat treatment states is tested with dynamic mechanical thermal analyzer (DMA). Through microstructure observation with metallographic microscope (OM), grain boundary observation with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), phase structure analysis with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and internal stress of S–B model analysis, the effect law of annealing temperature, types of cooling, holding time and grain sizes on the damping performance of alloy and the related mechanism can be concluded as follows. The annealing temperature and grain sizes have a significant impact on the damping strain amplitude as well as the magnetic and mechanical damping performance of this ferromagnetic alloy. Proper annealing temperature and grain size is the necessary condition to get high damping performance of the alloy. It is not conducive to improvement of the damping performance if the annealing temperature is too high or too low and the grain size is too small or too large. For Fe–15Cr–3Mo–0.5Si alloy, within the range of the low strain amplitude, alloy damping performance does not improve monotonously with the increase of the annealing temperature and grain size. The maximum value appears at the annealing temperature of 1100 °C/1 h with the grain size of about 300 μm. At high annealing temperature of 1100 °C, the damping performance of alloy in the slow cooling furnace is higher than that with air cooling treatment. The extension or shortening of the holding time, to a certain extent, reduces the damping performance of the alloy. This alloy shows low damping performance after air cooling and cold working.