Abstract
The EUROFER 97 steel was processed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) at 550° degrees C for four passes via route C. The starting material consisted of ferrite-martensite dual phase composed by small subgrains of about 0.5 μ m and low angle boundaries less than 5° degrees. The volume fraction of second phase particles was around 10 vol.%, besides a texture formed by several fibers orientations belonging to the zone axes , and . Increasing ECAP deformation, this microstructure became into equiaxed grain structures of less than 1 μ m, and the misorientation between contiguous grains increased. This refinement of the microstructure was accompanied by the development of a new texture described by a family of fiber orientations related by rotations around axes and . Tensile tests have revealed that an ECAP treatment at 550° degrees C for two passes could significantly strengthen the tempered material still maintaining good ductility.
Madrid Community through the project TECHNOFUSION (S2009/ENE-1679) and Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Contract ENE2008-06403-C06-04).
The authors thank the microscopy laboratory of CENIM-CSIC for EBSD measurements.