A dislocation model, accurately describing the uniaxial plastic stress-strain behavior of dual phase (DP) steels, is proposed and the impact of martensite content and ferrite grain size in four commercially produced DP steels is analyzed. It is assumed that the plastic deformation process is localized to the ferrite. This is taken into account by introducing a nonhomogeneity parameter, f(ε), that specifies the volume fraction of ferrite taking active part in the plastic deformation process. It is found that the larger the martensite content the smaller the initial volume fraction of active ferrite which yields a higher initial deformation hardening rate. This explains the high energy absorbing capacity of DP steels with high volume fractions of martensite. Further, the effect of ferrite grain size strengthening in DP steels is important. The flow stress grain size sensitivity for DP steels is observed to be 7 times larger than that for single phase ferrite.

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The present study concerns the simulation of a continuous annealing line (CAL), using dilatometry. Simulations of CAL have been performed on four commercial steel grades with different chemical compositions in order to investigate how the alloying elements C, Mn, Si and B affect the microstructure and hardness of dual phase (DP) and martensitic steels. Three annealing cycles corresponding to those used in a CAL have been applied. When annealing intercritically, as is the case in DP‐steel production, the materials do not reach equilibrium during soaking. Mn and C increase the austenite content and consequently the hardness of the materials. Higher levels of Si (0.4 wt %) are required to retard the formation of new ferrite during cooling in the gas jet section, prior to quenching. B increases hardenability effectively when annealing in the austenite region but is not as efficient during intercritical annealing, which implies that boron restrains ferrite nucleation rather than impeding ferrite growth. Results from DICTRA calculations show that it is possible to simulate the phase transformations during soaking, gasjet cooling and quenching.

This study concerns the effects of coiling temperature after hot rolling and the degree of reduction during cold rolling on formability-related properties of high strength cold rolled dual phase (DP) steels. The effect of coiling temperature on the final structure and properties of two cold rolled and annealed DP-steels is investigated. Further, the effect of cold rolling reduction and its impact on the final properties of the material is studied. Aspects of the impact of the different process parameters on the ferrite to austenite and austenite to martensite transformation are discussed based on results from production scale experiments, tensile testing and metallographic examinations of the materials.