2019 Volume 105 Issue 2 Pages 127-145
Our strategy to enhance fracture properties of ultra-high-strength low-alloy steel with a yield strength of 1.4 GPa or over is to arrest the propagation of brittle crack in a hierarchical, anisotropic and ultrafine grain structure designed to be fail-safe, in addition to suppressing the crack initiation. The present article reviews strength, ductility, toughness and delayed fracture resistance of ultra-high-strength low-alloy steel with an ultrafine elongated grain structure that was processed by deformation of a tempered martensitic structure at an elevated temperature (warm tempforming). The evolution of heterogenous microstructure during warm tempforming using multi-pass caliber rolling and the microstructural factors controlling the strength and the fracture properties of the warm tempformed steels are discussed. Furthermore, we introduce the application of the warm tempformed steel with an ultrafine elongated grain structure to ultra-high-strength bolt.
