Modeling of austenite formation kinetics overlapping recrystallization in cold-rolled Q&P steel during ultrafast heating process
摘要
The cold-rolled quenching and partitioning (Q&P) steel with an initial microstructure of deformed ferrite and pearlite was studied. The microstructural evolution under various heating rates of 1.78, 50, and 300 °C/s was investigated using microstructural characterization and theoretical modeling. At the same time, the characteristics of recrystallization and austenite formation kinetics were decoupled by examining recrystallized ferrite and deformed ferrite as initial conditions. The findings revealed that the austenite formation during continuous heating can be simplified into two stages: (i) the early nucleation-dominated formation stage and (ii) the later grain growth-dominated stage, resulting in the development of a modified two-stage model based on Johnson–Mehl–Avrami–Kolmogorov. Further experiments confirmed that when the austenite volume fraction exceeded approximately 5% at a heating rate of 1.78 °C/s, ferrite recrystallization was suppressed. In consequence, a mixed model including recrystallization kinetics was employed to couple the austenite formation occurring in deformed ferrite and recrystallized ferrite, thereby describing the austenite formation kinetics affected by recrystallization. Precise predictions of non-isothermal austenite formation kinetics in cold-rolled Q&P steel were achieved during slow and ultrafast heating processes by integrating the suppression effect into the model for austenite formation.