Improvement of toughness and hardness in BR1500HS steel by ultrafine martensite

Abstract

To obtain the ultrafine martensite for BR1500HS ultra-high-strength steel, a new preparation process of cyclic heat treatment (CHT) with descending heat temperature and holding time along with cycle steps was developed. First, a series of thermal dilation tests were conducted with the temperature range of 420-730°C and the heat rate of 5 K/s on a Gleeble-3800 thermomechanical physical simulator. According to the experimental data, the temperature ranges and the optimal holding time to completely austenitize BR1500HS were determined. Then, to confirm the optimal parameters of CHT for BR1500HS, several tests with various temperatures and cycle steps were conducted and analyzed by optical microscope and scanning electron microscope. Subsequently, the CHTs with decreasing heating temperature and holding time were studied due to the increasing internal energy of steel along with the CHT process. The lath width was measured as a criterion to evaluate the refinement degree in this article. After several loops of heat treatment, the lath width is reduced to 0.268 μm. Finally, the hardness evolution of the specimens subjected to CHT in this study was analyzed and compared with the lath width test results, which justified the effectiveness of the new developed process.