Effect of Intercritical Annealing Temperature on Martensite and Bainite Start Temperatures After Partial Austenitization

The microstructure evolution of dual-phase steel during partial austenitization was investigated for different intercritical annealing temperatures between Ac-1 and Ac-3 temperatures. Partial austenitization may result in different austenite volume fraction, chemical composition, and grain size of austenite depending on the intercritical annealing temperature. This study examines the effect of intercritical annealing temperature on M-s and B-s temperatures for dual-phase steels. M-s and B-s were measured experimentally for different intercritical annealing temperatures by using dilatometry and were compared with calculated values from empirical formulas. The grain sizes of the final microstructures were also quantitatively analyzed. It was shown that M-s depends on the intercritical annealing temperature and austenite grain size. It was concluded that this double effect is attributed to the intercritical annealing temperature, which is responsible for both austenite chemical composition and grain size.