For the purpose of developing a 1 500 MPa grade steel sheet with excellent strength and ductility, a 0.15C-10Mn-1.5Al steel was employed to study austenite stability and microstructural evolution based on a novel double annealing processing.After a conventional intercritical annealing process, the sample was heated again to a temperature higher than Ac3 for a very short time to generate austenite grains with different manganese content; thus, the microstructure of martensite plus austenite can be obtained at room temperature.The experimental results show that with increasing annealing temperature, the tensile strength and yield strength increase.When the annealing temperature was higher than 820 ℃,the microstructure consisted of martensite plus austenite, and the tensile strength almost remained invariant with the annealing temperature.A tensile strength of 1 537 MPa and an elong-ation of 25.1% were achieved for the 820 ℃ condition.The volume fractions of austenite and martensite were identified by X-ray diffraction.It was found that with increasing annealing temperature, the volume fraction of the retained austenite decreased, and the ductility also had a gradual downward trend.The related austenite stability was discussed here as well.
