A comparative study on hot deformation behaviours of low-carbon and medium-carbon vanadium microalloyed steels

Carbon is an essential element in steel, but there are still discrepancies regarding its effect on steel hot deformation behaviours. In this research, isothermal compression tests were carried out for a low-carbon (0.05 C) and a medium-carbon (0.38 C) vanadium microalloyed steel with deformation temperatures of 900-1050 degrees C and strain rates of 0.01-30 s(-1). It was found that carbon causes a softening effect at low strain rates (0.01-1.0 s(-1)), while a hardening effect at high strain rates (10.0-30 s(-1)). Through constitutive analysis, the hot deformation activation energy for 0.05 C steel is 305.9 kJ/mol in the whole strain rate range, while for 0.38 C steel, the activation energy is 292.3 kJ/mol in the low strain rate range (0.01-1 s(-1)) and 475.0 kJ/mol in the high strain rate range (10-30 s(-1)). It was proposed that the addition of carbon decreases the deformation activation energy at low strain rates (0.01-1 s(-1)), due to its positive influence on the self-diffusion coefficient of iron, which increases the rates of dislocation climb and recovery. On the other hand, carbon lowers the stacking fault energy of austenite, which could make partial dislocation collapse more difficult than dislocation climb and thus becomes the rate-controlling mechanism for 0.38 C steel at high strain rates (10-30 s(-1)). This gives rise to the higher activation energy and work hardening rate of 0.38C steel at high strain rates. Comparing the power-dissipation-efficiency maps, two peak domains were found in those of 0.38 C steel, while only one peak domain exists in those of 0.05 C steel. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.