Achieving an Excellent Hole Expansion Behavior in Complex Phase Steels by Characteristic Distribution of Martensite-Austenite Constituents
YANG Xiaoyu1,2, MI Zhenli1(), FANG Xing1, LIU Hangrui1, MU Wangzhong2,3()
1 Institute of Engineering Technology, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China 2 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE 100 44, Stockholm, Sweden 3 Engineering Materials, Lulea University of Technology, SE 971 87, Lulea, Sweden
Cite this article:
YANG Xiaoyu, MI Zhenli, FANG Xing, LIU Hangrui, MU Wangzhong. Achieving an Excellent Hole Expansion Behavior in Complex Phase Steels by Characteristic Distribution of Martensite-Austenite Constituents. Acta Metall Sin, 2025, 61(5): 674-686.
Complex phase (CP) steels are widely used in automotive components such as frame rails, rocker panels, and tunnel stiffeners owing to their high strength and good local formability. The subtle hardness difference between microstructures allows CP steels to exhibit excellent hole expansion performance, with the high-hardness martensite-austenite (MA) constituents being the critical structure. The distribution of MA constituents is crucial to the mechanical properties of the product. This study aims to improve the hole expansion property by constructing a continuous distribution of MA constituents along the rolling direction at the thickness center. Microstructures and hole expansion behavior were investigated using CLSM, SEM, EBSD, and hole expansion tests. Results indicate that after thermodynamic treatment, the MA constituents were aggregated at the thickness center in a continuous distribution along the rolling direction with a long axis of approximately 1.25 μm, and an average distance of less than 1.0 μm. Microhardness quantification of the plastic damage on the punching edge suggests that the advanced steel exhibits the highest hardening at the thickness center with a 41% hardness increase after punching, which is higher than the 31% hardening in the maximum hardening burr zone of the base steel. The advanced steel, despite suffering severe punching damage, exhibited a hole expansion ratio of approximately 43%, higher than the 34% of the base steel. Quasi in situ interrupted hole expansion tests indicate that at the thickness center of the advanced steel, the circumferential cracks formed through a multiple void interaction mechanism which promotes the stress release. In the matrix, pit-like damage is caused by a void coalescence mechanism. Both mechanisms lead to the mechanical instability and eventual failure of the steel. The damaging position of the hole edge had a decisive impact on the fracture mode.
Fund: National Natural Science Foundation of China(52274372);Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education(IB2022-9228)
Corresponding Authors:
MI Zhenli, professor, Tel: (010)62332598-6609, E-mail: mizl@nercar.ustb.edu.cn; MU Wangzhong, associate professor, Tel: +46-0920-493644, E-mail: wangzhong.mu@ltu.se
Table 1 Chemical compositions of base steel and advanced steel
Fig.1 Illustration of hole expansion test under ISO 16630 standard (D0—diameter of pore, F—force)
Fig.2 Schematics of the observation positions for punching hole sample (a) and milling hole sample (b), with the red area indicating the observation surface in interrupted hole expansion test (ND—normal direction, RD—rolling direction, TD—transverse direction)
Fig.3 Microstructure characteristics of the hot-rolled base steel (a-d) and advanced steel (e-h) (F—ferrite, B—bainite, MA—martensite-austenite constituent, GB—grain boundary) (a, e) OM images (b, c, f, g) SEM-SE images (d, h) EBSD images
Fig.4 Hardening characteristics in shear affected zone (SAZ) (a) schematic of observation position and regions of SAZ (b) regions of SAZ and microhardness positions (c-f) microhardness curves of rollover zone (c), burnished zone (d), interface of burnished zone and fracture zone (e), and fracture zone (f), respectively (Microhardness positions are shown in Fig.4b) (g, h) schematics of damage hardening in SAZ of base steel (g) and advanced steel (h) (The number is the damage characteristic value)
Fig.5 Edge morphologies in base steel (a, a1, c, c1) and advanced steel (b, b1, d, d1) after the hole expansion test under pre-damage conditions with OM images (a, a1, b, b1) and un-damage conditions with SEM-SE images (c, c1, d, d1) (Figs.5a1-d1 are corresponding locally enlarged images of Figs.5a-d)
Fig.6 OM (a, d) and SEM-SE (b, c, e-h) images of the edge of the base steel (a-c) and advanced steel (d-h) under 15 mm punch displacement
Fig.7 OM (a, d) and SEM-SE (b, c, e, f) images of the edge of the base steel (a-c) and advanced steel (d-f) under 25 mm punch displacement
Fig.8 Schematics of base steel (a-c) and advanced steel (d-f) in original state (a, d), damage (b, e), and failure (c, f) during hole expansion deformation
1
Hudgins A W, Matlock D K. The effects of property differences in multiphase sheet steels on local formability [J]. Mater. Sci. Eng., 2016, A654: 169
2
Rana R. High-Performance Ferrous Alloys [M]. Cham: Springer, 2021: 113
3
Lesch C, Kwiaton N, Klose F B. Advanced high strength steels (AHSS) for automotive applications—Tailored properties by smart microstructural adjustments [J]. Steel Res. Int., 2017, 88: 1700210
4
Xue J Z. Study on microstructure control and hole expansion performance of 800 MPa grade hot-rolled complex phase steels [D]. Beijing: University of Science and Technology Beijing, 2021
Feistle M, Golle R, Volk W. Edge crack test methods for AHSS steel grades: A review and comparisons [J]. J. Mater. Process. Technol., 2022, 302: 117488
6
Paul S K. A critical review on hole expansion ratio [J]. Materialia, 2020, 9: 100566
7
Cao J, Banu M. Opportunities and challenges in metal forming for lightweighting: Review and future work [J]. J. Manuf. Sci. Eng., 2020, 142: 110813
8
Pathak N, Butcher C, Worswick M. Assessment of the critical parameters influencing the edge stretchability of advanced high-strength steel sheet [J]. J. Mater. Eng. Perform., 2016, 25: 4919
9
Schneider M, Geffert A, Peshekhodov I, et al. Overview and comparison of various test methods to determine formability of a sheet metal cut-edge and approaches to the test results application in forming analysis [J]. Materialwiss. Werkstofftech., 2015, 46: 1196
10
Bharathy R S, Venugopalan T, Ghosh M. Effect of precipitation characteristics on mechanical properties and stretch flangeability of nano-dispersion strengthened high strength ferritic steel [J]. Metallogr. Microstruct. Anal., 2023, 12: 74
11
Reddy A C S, Rajesham S, Reddy P R, et al. Formability: A review on different sheet metal tests for formability [J]. AIP Conf. Proc., 2020, 2269: 030026
12
Song E, Lee G H, Jeon H, et al. Stretch-flangeability correlated with hardness distribution and strain-hardenability of constituent phases in dual- and complex-phase steels [J]. Mater. Sci. Eng., 2021, A817: 141353
13
Efthymiadis P, Hazra S, Clough A, et al. Revealing the mechanical and microstructural performance of multiphase steels during tensile, forming and flanging operations [J]. Mater. Sci. Eng., 2017, A701: 174
14
Hu J, Du L X, Wang J J. Effect of cooling procedure on microstructures and mechanical properties of hot rolled Nb-Ti bainitic high strength steel [J]. Mater. Sci. Eng., 2012, A554: 79
15
Zhang J S. Development of hot rolled high strength steels with high hole expansion ratio in Baosteel [A]. 2011 CSM Annual Meeting Proceedings [C]. Beijing: Metallurgical Industry Press, 2011: 3843
Scott C P, Amirkhiz B S, Pushkareva I, et al. New insights into martensite strength and the damage behaviour of dual phase steels [J]. Acta Mater., 2018, 159: 112
17
Wu Y J, Uusitalo J, DeArdo A J. Investigation of the critical factors controlling sheared edge stretching of ultra-high strength dual-phase steels [J]. Mater. Sci. Eng., 2021, A828: 142070
18
Pathak N, Butcher C, Worswick M J, et al. Damage evolution in complex-phase and dual-phase steels during edge stretching [J]. Materials, 2017, 10: 346
19
Hasegawa K, Kawamura K, Urabe T, et al. Effects of microstructure on stretch-flange-formability of 980 MPa grade cold-rolled ultra high strength steel sheets [J]. ISIJ Int., 2004, 44: 603
20
Frómeta D, Cuadrado N, Rehrl J, et al. Microstructural effects on fracture toughness of ultra-high strength dual phase sheet steels [J]. Mater. Sci. Eng., 2021, A802: 140631
21
Yang X Y, Yang Y G, Fang X, et al. Improving flangeability of multiphase steel by increasing microstructural homogeneity [J]. J. Iron Steel Res. Int., 2024, 31: 1736
22
Lan L Y, Yu M, Qiu C L. On the local mechanical properties of isothermally transformed bainite in low carbon steel [J]. Mater. Sci. Eng., 2019, A742: 442
23
Nanda T, Singh V, Singh G, et al. Processing routes, resulting microstructures, and strain rate dependent deformation behaviour of advanced high strength steels for automotive applications [J]. Archiv. Civ. Mech. Eng., 2021, 21: 7
24
Wang Y, Xu Y B, Wang X, et al. Improving the stretch flangeability of ultra-high strength TRIP-assisted steels by introducing banded structure [J]. Mater. Sci. Eng., 2022, A852: 143722
25
Mao X P, Huo X D, Sun X J, et al. Strengthening mechanisms of a new 700 MPa hot rolled Ti-microalloyed steel produced by compact strip production [J]. J. Mater. Process. Technol., 2010, 210: 1660
26
Yu H, Chen Q X, Kang Y L, et al. Microstructural research on hot strips of low carbon steel produced by a compact strip production line under different thermal histories [J]. Mater. Charact., 2005, 54: 347
27
Zhou D G, Fu J, Kang Y L, et al. Metallurgical quality of CSP thin slabs [J]. J. Univ. Sci. Technol. Beijing, 2004, 11: 106
28
Yoon J I, Lee H H, Jung J, et al. Effect of grain size on stretch-flangeability of twinning-induced plasticity steels [J]. Mater. Sci. Eng., 2018, A735: 295
29
Wu Y J, Uusitalo J, DeArdo A J. Investigation of effects of processing on stretch-flangeability of the ultra-high strength, vanadium-bearing dual-phase steels [J]. Mater. Sci. Eng., 2020, A797: 140094
30
Chen J H, Kikuta Y, Araki T, et al. Micro-fracture behaviour induced by M-A constituent (island martensite) in simulated welding heat affected zone of HT80 high strength low alloyed steel [J]. Acta Metall., 1984, 32: 1779
31
Liu K, Cheng S S, Li J P, et al. Effect of solidifying structure on centerline segregation of S50C steel produced by compact strip production [J]. Coatings, 2021, 11: 1497
32
Levy B S, Van Tyne C J. Review of the shearing process for sheet steels and its effect on sheared-edge stretching [J]. J. Mater. Eng. Perform., 2012, 21: 1205
33
Hamada S, Zhang K J, Zhang J W, et al. Effect of shear-affected zone on fatigue crack propagation mode [J]. Int. J. Fatigue, 2018, 116: 36
34
Chang Y, Zhang J R, Han S, et al. Influence of cutting process on the flanging formability of the cut edge for DP980 steel [J]. Metals, 2023, 13: 948
35
Chen X P, Jiang H M, Cui Z X, et al. Hole expansion characteristics of ultra high strength steels [J]. Procedia Eng., 2014, 81: 718
36
Guo H, Li Q, Fan Y P, et al. Bainite transformation behavior, microstructural feature and mechanical properties of nanostructured bainitic steel subjected to ausforming with different strain [J]. J. Mater. Res. Technol., 2020, 9: 9206
37
Gao G H, Liu R, Fan Y S, et al. Mechanism of subsurface microstructural fatigue crack initiation during high and very-high cycle fatigue of advanced bainitic steels [J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2022, 108: 142
doi: 10.1016/j.jmst.2021.08.060
38
Karelova A, Krempaszky C, Werner E, et al. Hole expansion of dual-phase and complex-phase AHS steels—Effect of edge conditions [J]. Steel Res. Int., 2009, 80: 71
39
Barnwal V K, Lee S Y, Yoon S Y, et al. Fracture characteristics of advanced high strength steels during hole expansion test [J]. Int. J. Fract., 2020, 224: 217
40
Pineau A, Benzerga A A, Pardoen T. Failure of metals I: Brittle and ductile fracture [J]. Acta Mater., 2016, 107: 424
41
Wciślik W, Lipiec S. Void-induced ductile fracture of metals: Experimental observations [J]. Materials, 2022, 15: 6473
42
Goods S H, Brown L M. Overview No. 1: The nucleation of cavities by plastic deformation [J]. Acta Metall., 1979, 27: 1
43
Barsoum I, Faleskog J. Rupture mechanisms in combined tension and shear—Micromechanics [J]. Int. J. Solids Struct., 2007, 44: 5481
44
Cox T B, Low J R. An investigation of the plastic fracture of AISI 4340 and 18 Nickel-200 grade maraging steels [J]. Metall. Trans., 1974, 5: 1457
45
Benzerga A A, Besson J, Pineau A. Anisotropic ductile fracture: Part I: Experiments [J]. Acta Mater., 2004, 52: 4623
46
Tvergaard V. Effect of stress-state and spacing on voids in a shear-field [J]. Int. J. Solids Struct., 2012, 49: 3047