An investigation into the effect of carbon on the kinetics of dynamic restoration and flow behavior of carbon steels

A study has been made to determine the influence of the carbon content on the kinetics of dynamic recrystallization and recovery as well as flow stress during hot deformation of carbon steels. For this purpose, single hit hot compression experiments at various strain rates and temperatures on two grades of carbon steel together with the Avrami-type kinetics equation and Bergstrom approach have been utilized. The results show that the apparent hot deformation activation energy decreases with increasing carbon content and this phenomenon results in a faster dynamic recrystallization and recovery and a lower flow stress at high temperatures and/or low strain rates in high carbon steels, while at low temperatures and/or high strain rates the low carbon steel has a lower flow stress and higher rate of dynamic recovery. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.