Cyclic Re-austenitization of Copper-bearing High-Strength Low-Alloy Steels Fabricated by Laser Powder Bed Fusion

TL;DR

This study investigates cyclic re-austenitization of additively manufactured HSLA steels via laser powder bed fusion, revealing microstructural evolution, grain refinement, and hardness variations across cycles, with implications for microstructure control.

Contribution

First demonstration of cyclic re-austenitization on LPBF-fabricated HSLA steels, showing how microstructure and hardness evolve with multiple cycles.

Findings

Maximum microhardness achieved at 2nd cycle

PAG size decreases then increases after 3rd cycle

Retained austenite acts as a boundary pinning particle

Abstract

For the first time, cyclic re-austenitization is carried out for additively manufactured high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels in order to refine the microstructure by reducing the prior austenite grain (PAG) size. In this work, HSLA-100 steels processed using laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technique are subjected to several cycles of re-austenitization using quenching dilatometry. Microstructure characterization for every cycle revealed the presence of bainite, martensite and martensite/austenite (M/A) islands. From the analysis of the dilatometry curves and extensive microstructure characterization, it was found that till the 2nd cycle of re-austenitization, both PAG size and martensite start (Ms) temperature get reduced, while the amount of bainite transformed decreased and the retained austenite content increased. Concomitantly, the highest microhardness along with peak nanohardness of the constituent phases was achieved at the 2nd cycle. Conversely, from the 3rd cycle, the microhardness, as well as the nanohardness of the constituent phases, are found to decrease due to an increase in the PAG size. This behavior is in contrast to the general tendency where a saturation limit is reached after the peak refinement is achieved. It is found that retained austenite can act as a pinning particle to obstruct the PAG boundary movement and its fraction is found to decrease from the 3rd cycle. Hence, the increase in PAG size after the 3rd cycle can be attributed to the destabilization of effective pinning particles to hinder the PAG boundary movement during the re-austenitization.