Strengthening κ-carbide steels using residual dislocation content

A steel with nominal composition Fe-28Mn-8Al-1.0C in mass percent was hot rolled at two temperatures, 1100 °C and 850 °C and subsequently aged at 550 °C for 24 h. The lower temperature rolling resulted in a yield strength increment of 299 MPa while still retaining an elongation to failure of 26%. The large improvement in strength was attributed to an increase in residual dislocation density which was retained even after the ageing heat treatment. A homogeneous precipitation of κ-carbides in both samples also showed that the high residual dislocation density did not adversely affect precipitation kinetics. These findings demonstrate that the tensile properties of this class of steel can yet be improved by optimising hot rolling process parameters.