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The Progress of Advance High-Strength Steels (AHSS)

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A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Manufacturing Processes and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 23652

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Tibor Kvačkaj

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Guest Editor

Bodva Industry and Innovation Cluster (BIIC), Budulov 174,04501 Moldava nad Bodvou, Kosice, Slovakia
Interests: plastic deformation; materials properties; microstructures; ultrafine-grained structures; nanostructures; additive manufacturing; cryorolling
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS) are characterized by selected chemical compositions and final microstructures that are obtained via a controlled process of heating, and plastic deformations in austenitic regions, with the possibility of continuing deformations in the dual phase region (γ+α), followed by controlled cooling. AHSS, according to final microstructures that determine mechanical properties, are classified as follows: High-Strength Low Alloy (HSLA), Dual Phase (DP), Complex-Phase (CP), Ferritic-Bainitic (FB), Martensitic (MS or MART), Transformation-Induced Plasticity (TRIP), Twinning-Induced Plasticity (TWIP), and boron-based Press Hardened Steels (PHS).

The level of yield strength, tensile strength, and reduction of area depend on the control of the strengthening mechanisms (grain size refinement, precipitation strengthening, dislocation strengthening, and transformation strengthening). The strengthening mechanisms depend on the control of external factors such as thermo–deformation conditions, time, and cooling rate.

This Special Issue aims to present the latest works in the research and development of AHSS steels. It is our pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript to this Special Issue. Full papers, communications, and reviews are welcome for submission.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

Materials base: AHSS steels (introduction and characterization);
Strengthening mechanisms to increase mechanical properties;
New trends to increase mechanical properties;
Application of AHSS.

Prof. Tibor Kvačkaj
Guest Editor

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Keywords

AHSS
recrystallization
precipitation
phase transformation
structures
grain size
mechanical properties
plastic deformations
deep drawing

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 4549 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Austenitization Temperature on Hot Ductility of C-Mn-Al HSLA Steel

by Peter Prislupcak, Tibor Kvackaj, Jana Bidulska, Pavol Zahumensky, Viera Homolova, Lubos Juhar, Pavol Zubko, Peter Zimovcak, Roman Gburik and Ivo Demjan

Materials 2022, 15(3), 922; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15030922 - 25 Jan 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2074

Abstract

The article aims to investigate the effect of different austenitization temperatures on the hot ductility of C-Mn-Al High-Strength Low-Alloy (HSLA) steel. The thermo-mechanical simulator of physical processes Gleeble 1500D was used for steel hot ductility study. Hot ductility was estimated by measuring the reduction of area after static tensile testing carried out at temperatures in the range 600 °C to 1200 °C with the step of 50 °C. Evaluation of fracture surfaces after austenitization at 1250 °C and 1350 °C with a holding time of the 30 s showed significant differences in the character of the fracture as well as in the ductility. The fracture surfaces and the microstructure near the fracture surfaces of samples at a test temperature of 1000 °C for both austenitization temperatures were analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Light Optical Microscopy (LOM), and AZtec Feature analysis (particle analysis of SEM). AlN and AlN-MnS precipitates at grain boundaries detected by the detailed metallographic analysis were identified as the main causes of plasticity trough in the evaluated steel. Moreover, using Thermo-Calc software, it was found that AlN particles precipitate from solid solution below the temperature of 1425 °C. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Progress of Advance High-Strength Steels (AHSS))

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20 pages, 80511 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Fracture Surface Behavior of 34CrNiMo6 High-Strength Steel Bars with Blind Holes under Bending-Torsion Fatigue

by Wojciech Macek, Ricardo Branco, José Domingos Costa and Jarosław Trembacz

Materials 2022, 15(1), 80; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15010080 - 23 Dec 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3057

Abstract

The present study evaluates the fracture surface response of fatigued 34CrNiMo6 steel bars with transverse blind holes subjected to bending with torsion loading. The analysis of the geometric product specification was performed by means of height parameters Sx, functional volume parameters Vx, and fractal dimension Df. Surface topography measurements were carried out using an optical profilometer with focus variation technology. The experimental results show that the doubling the bending to torsion moment ratio B/T from B/T = 1 to B/T = 2, maintaining the same normal stress amplitude, greatly reduces both Sa, Vv as well as the fractal dimension Df of the analyzed specimen fractures by 32.1%, 29.8%, and 16.0%, respectively. However, as expected, a two-fold increase in the B/T ratio, maintaining the same normal stress amplitude, resulted in a larger number of cycles to fatigue crack initiation, Ni, which can be explained by the lower shear stress level. These experiments prove that parameters Sx, Vx, Df are smaller for larger Ni values, which is an important finding. In addition, it was found a high consistency of surface topography measurements for the two sides of the broken specimens. The proposed methodology is both reliable and applicable for other engineering applications involving different geometries and loading conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Progress of Advance High-Strength Steels (AHSS))

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Graphical abstract

19 pages, 10617 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influence of LWE on Strength of Welded Joints of HSS S960—Experimental and Numerical Analysis

by Ihor Dzioba and Tadeusz Pala

Materials 2020, 13(3), 747; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13030747 - 06 Feb 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2161

Abstract

This paper presents a strength analysis of joints made during high-strength steel S960 welding. Joints obtained by conventional and laser welding were tested. The most attention was focused on assessing the strength of the material at Heat Affect Zone (HAZ). To this aim, the effect of Linear Welding Energy (LWE) on changes in microstructure and material characteristics was studied. Numerical models of welded joints were developed using the FEM ABAQUS program. The modelled joints were subjected to simulation loads, which allowed to determine areas (the weakest links) of joints in which the destruction process may develop. Good compatibility of the strains fields on the outer surfaces of the joints calculated numerically and recorded by means of the GOM video system was obtained. Based on the tests carried out, it can be concluded that the use of welding with low levels of LEW allow obtaining joints with comparable strength to the base material. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Progress of Advance High-Strength Steels (AHSS))

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14 pages, 2817 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Solidification Crack Evolution in High-Strength Steel Welding Using the Extended Finite Element Method

by Zhanglan Chen, Jianmin Liu and Haijun Qiu

Materials 2020, 13(2), 483; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13020483 - 19 Jan 2020

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2775

Abstract

High-strength steel suffers from an increasing susceptibility to solidification cracking in welding due to increasing carbon equivalents. However, the cracking mechanism is not fully clear for a confidently completely crack-free welding process. To present a full, direct knowledge of fracture behavior in high-strength steel welding, a three-dimensional (3-D) modeling method is developed using the extended finite element method (XFEM). The XFEM model and fracture loads are linked with the full model and the output of the thermo-mechanical finite element method (TM-FEM), respectively. Solidification cracks in welds are predicted to initiate at the upper tip at the current cross-section, propagate upward to and then through the upper weld surface, thereby propagating the lower crack tip down to the bottom until the final failure. This behavior indicates that solidification cracking is preferred on the upper weld surface, which has higher weld stress introduced by thermal contraction and solidification shrinkage. The modeling results show good agreement with the solidification crack fractography and in situ observations. Further XFEM results show that the initial defects that exhibit higher susceptibility to solidification cracking are those that are vertical to the weld plate plane, open to the current cross-section and concentratedly distributed compared to tilted, closed and dispersedly distributed ones, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Progress of Advance High-Strength Steels (AHSS))

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13 pages, 19354 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Critical Assessment of Techniques for the Description of the Phase Composition of Advanced High-Strength Steels

by Anna Knaislová, Darya Rudomilova, Pavel Novák, Tomáš Prošek, Alena Michalcová and Přemysl Beran

Materials 2019, 12(24), 4033; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12244033 - 04 Dec 2019

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3910

Abstract

The phase composition and portion of individual phases in advanced high-strength steels (AHSS) CP1000 and DP1000 was studied by complementary microscopic and diffraction techniques. CP1000 and DP1000 steel grades have a high strength-to-density ratio and they are used in many applications in the automotive industry. The microstructure of the CP1000 “complex phase” steel consists of ferrite, bainite, martensite and a small amount of retained austenite. DP1000 is a dual phase steel, which has a structure of a ferritic matrix with islands of martensite and a minor amount of retained austenite. The influence of selected etchants (Nital, LePera, Beraha I, Nital followed by metabisulfite, Nital followed by LePera, and Nital followed by Beraha I) on the microstructure image is described. X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction and light optical, scanning and transmission electron microscopy were used in this work for advanced characterization of the microstructure and phase composition. The information provided by each technique is critically compared. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Progress of Advance High-Strength Steels (AHSS))

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17 pages, 11143 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Fracture Mechanisms of S355 Steel—Experimental Research, FEM Simulation and SEM Observation

by Ihor Dzioba and Sebastian Lipiec

Materials 2019, 12(23), 3959; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12233959 - 29 Nov 2019

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4776

Abstract

In this study, the fracture mechanisms of S355 ferritic steel were analyzed. In order to obtain different mechanisms of fracture (completely brittle, mixed brittle and ductile or completely ductile), tests were carried out over a temperature range of −120 to +20 °C. Our experimental research was supplemented with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations of the specimens’ fracture surfaces. Modeling and load simulations of specimens were performed using the finite element method (FEM) in the ABAQUS program, and accurate calibration of the true stress–strain material dependence was made. In addition, the development of mechanical fields before the crack tip of the cracking process in the steel was analyzed. The distributions of stresses and strains in the local area before the crack front were determined for specimens fractured according to different mechanisms. Finally, the conditions and characteristic values of stresses and strains which caused different mechanisms of fracture—fully brittle, mixed brittle and ductile or fully ductile—were determined. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Progress of Advance High-Strength Steels (AHSS))

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Review

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20 pages, 7412 KiB

Open AccessReview

Overview of HSS Steel Grades Development and Study of Reheating Condition Effects on Austenite Grain Size Changes

by Tibor Kvackaj, Jana Bidulská and Róbert Bidulský

Materials 2021, 14(8), 1988; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14081988 - 15 Apr 2021

Cited by 35 | Viewed by 3878

Abstract

This review paper concerns the development of the chemical compositions and controlled processes of rolling and cooling steels to increase their mechanical properties and reduce weight and production costs. The paper analyzes the basic differences among high-strength steel (HSS), advanced high-strength steel (AHSS) and ultra-high-strength steel (UHSS) depending on differences in their final microstructural components, chemical composition, alloying elements and strengthening contributions to determine strength and mechanical properties. HSS is characterized by a final single-phase structure with reduced perlite content, while AHSS has a final structure of two-phase to multiphase. UHSS is characterized by a single-phase or multiphase structure. The yield strength of the steels have the following value intervals: HSS, 180–550 MPa; AHSS, 260–900 MPa; UHSS, 600–960 MPa. In addition to strength properties, the ductility of these steel grades is also an important parameter. AHSS steel has the best ductility, followed by HSS and UHSS. Within the HSS steel group, high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steel represents a special subgroup characterized by the use of microalloying elements for special strength and plastic properties. An important parameter determining the strength properties of these steels is the grain-size diameter of the final structure, which depends on the processing conditions of the previous austenitic structure. The influence of reheating temperatures (T_Reh) and the holding time at the reheating temperature (t_Reh) of C–Mn–Nb–V HSLA steel was investigated in detail. Mathematical equations describing changes in the diameter of austenite grain size (d_γ), depending on reheating temperature and holding time, were derived by the authors. The coordinates of the point where normal grain growth turned abnormal was determined. These coordinates for testing steel are the reheating conditions T_Reh = 1060 °C, t_Reh = 1800 s at the diameter of austenite grain size d_γ = 100 μm. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Progress of Advance High-Strength Steels (AHSS))

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