The hot deformation behavior of as-cast 30Cr2Ni4MoV steel was characterized using processing maps in the temperature range 850 to 1200 • C and strain rate range 0.01 to 10 s −1 . Based on the obtained flow curves, the power dissipation maps at different strains were developed and the effect of the strain on the efficiency of power dissipation was discussed in detail. The processing maps at different strains were obtained by superimposing the instability maps on the power dissipation maps. According to the processing map and the metallographic observation, the optimum domain of hot deformation was in the temperature range of 950-1200 • C and strain rate range of 0.03-0.5 s −1 , with a peak efficiency of 0.41 at 1100 • C and 0.25 s −1 which were the optimum hot working parameters.Metals 2017, 7, 50 2 of 12 2. Experimental Procedure
Hot Deformation TestsThe composition of the 30Cr2Ni4MoV steel used in this research, which was directly sampled from 600 t ingot, with a composition of 0.28C-0.02Mn-0.01Si-0.003P-0.003S-1.72Cr-0.41Mo-3.63Ni-0.11V-(bal.)Fe, and all values given in wt %. The steel was machined into cylindrical specimens which were 12 mm in height and 8 mm in diameter. One-hit isothermal compression tests were performed on a Gleeble-1500 thermal mechanical simulation tester (Dynamic Systems Inc., Poestenkill, NY, USA) in Tsinghua University. In order to reduce frictional effects during compression and avoid the sticking problem in quenching, the Ta pieces with a thickness of 0.5 mm were positioned between the anvils and the specimens. The specimens were firstly preheated at 1200 • C for 5 min to obtain the same initial grain size and homogeneous microstructure before compression [13]. After the structure uniformity, they were then cooled to the test deformation temperature at 10 • C/s and held for 1 min prior to deformation for the purpose of temperature gradient elimination. Deformation temperature ranging from 850 • C to 1200 • C in increments of 50 • C were chosen for these compression tests. A deformation of strain ε = 0.7 was applied at strain rates ranging from 0.01 s −1 to 10 s −1 , which was followed by water quenching to preserve the deformed austenite microstructure for metallographic observation. The polished surfaces were etched using a saturation picric acid for 7 min water bath heating at 70 • C. All optical micrographs were obtained from the center of the longitudinal sections of the specimens and the original grain size after soaking at 1200 • C for 5 min was 266.1 µm.
Processing Map EstablishmentThe processing map is generated using data of flow stress as a function of temperature and strain rate over a wide range obtained from the hot compression test based on the theory of DMM [1,2,14,15]. According to the DMM, the workpiece essentially dissipates power during hot deformation, which may be represented as a sum of two complementary parts: G and J [1,2]. The G represents the power dissipated by plastic deformation, most of which is converted into viscoplastic heat and the rest is stored as ...