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    Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 59275934

    Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

    Materials Science and Engineering A

    j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / m s e a

    Texture and mechanical properties of EUROFER 97 steel processed by ECAP

    M. Eddahbi a,, M.A. Monge a, T. Leguey a, P. Fernndez b, R. Pareja a

    a Departamento de Fsica, Universidad Carlos III, 28911 Legans, Madrid, Spainb CIEMAT. Avda. Complutense 22. 28040 Madrid, Spain

    a r t i c l e i n f o

    Article history:

    Received 30 November 2010

    Received in revised form 4 April 2011

    Accepted 5 April 2011Available online 12 April 2011

    Keywords:

    RAFM steels

    EUROFER 97

    ECAP processing

    Texture

    Microtexture

    Mechanical properties

    a b s t r a c t

    The EUROFER 97 steel was processed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) at 550 C for four passes

    viarouteC. Thestarting material consistedof ferritemartensite dual phase composed by small subgrains

    of about 0.5m and low angle boundaries less than 5

    . The volume fraction of second phase particleswas around 10 vol.%, besides a texture formed by several fibers orientations belonging to the zone axes

    1 1 0, 1 1 1 and 1 1 2. Increasing ECAP deformation, this microstructure became into equiaxed grain

    structures of less than 1m, and the misorientation between contiguous grains increased. This refine-

    ment of the microstructure was accompanied by the development of a newtexture described by a family

    of fiber orientations related by rotations around axes 1 1 0 and 1 1 1. Tensile tests have revealed that

    an ECAP treatment at 550 C for two passes could significantly strengthen the tempered material still

    maintaining good ductility.

    2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

    1. Introduction

    Due to its mechanical properties, long-term stability

    and predictability up to 650 C, the reduced activation

    ferriticmartensitic EUROFER 97 steel is being considered for

    structural applications in the breeding blankets of ITER, and

    for the demonstration fusion reactor DEMO [1,2]. The strength

    of this steel can be enhanced by precipitation hardening, and

    strengthening induced by dislocations, particle dispersion or grain

    boundaries. However, precipitation hardening and strengthening

    by dislocations or particles dispersion can reduce dramatically

    ductility and toughness compared with grain refinement [3].

    Ultrafine grained structures can be developed in metals by

    severe plastic deformation techniques (SPD), among which ECAP is

    a successful method to develop submicron microstructures in bulk

    steel [49]. The aim of the present work has been to explore the

    capability of warm ECAP fordevelopinga stablegrainstructure and

    texture in tempered EUROFER 97 that can enhance its mechanicalbehavior in its operational temperature range, i.e. below 600 C.

    2. Experimental procedure

    The material used for this study was produced by Bhler

    (Austria) with composition (wt.%): 0.11%C, 8.7%Cr, 1%W, 0.1%Ta,

    0.19%V, 0.44%Mn, 0.004%S, with the balance Fe (EUROFER 97). The

    Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 91 624 8734; fax: +34 91 624 8749.

    E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Eddahbi).

    as-received plates were normalized at 980 C for 27 min followed

    by temperingat 760C for 90min.12mm12mm65mm billets

    of the as-tempered material were ECAP processed at 550 C with a

    velocity of 10mm min1 through a diewithan intersection angleof

    105. The billets were subjected to one, two and four ECAP passes.

    They were rotated 180 around its longitudinal axis before insert-

    ing in the die for the subsequent ECAP pass, what is referred to as

    route C.

    Samples for microstructural studies and tensile tests were

    machined from the billets, polished with alumina and etched by

    solution of 5g FeCl3 +6ml HCl+100ml H2O. The microstructure

    was characterized by optical microscopy (OM), Scanning electron

    microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).

    Room temperature tensile tests were performed on flat tensile

    specimens at a constant crosshead rate of 0.04 mm min1 (initial

    strain rate of about 3.3105 s1). The specimens with a gauge

    length of 20 mm, a width of 3 mm, and a thickness of 1 mm were

    cut parallel to the flow plane of the billets as shown in Fig. 1.Texture measurements were accomplished by measurement

    of pole figures using the Schulz reflection method, in a Siemens

    diffractometer equipped with a D5000 goniometer. The mea-

    surements were performed through the range of azimuthal

    angles between 0 and 75 in the step mode with incre-ments of== 5. A textureless standard sample of annealedpure iron was used for defocusing correction. Quantitative

    three-dimensional orientation distribution functions (ODFs) were

    obtained using a Siemens software [10]. These were represented by

    iso-intensity lines in equidistant sections, 1 = 10, through the

    Euler space defined by 1, and 2 angles. For the representation

    0921-5093/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

    doi:10.1016/j.msea.2011.04.006

    http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2011.04.006http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2011.04.006http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09215093http://www.elsevier.com/locate/mseamailto:[email protected]://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2011.04.006http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2011.04.006mailto:[email protected]://www.elsevier.com/locate/mseahttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09215093http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2011.04.006
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    5928 M. Eddahbi et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 59275934

    PD

    TD

    ND

    Die

    Die

    105

    (a)

    (b)

    Fig. 1. Sketches of (a) the ECAP die used, and (b) samples machined from the ECAP

    processed billets for tensile tests.

    of the ODFs, a monoclinic symmetry was used resulting in a good

    concordance between the measured ODFs and the calculated ones

    for all ECAP deformed samples.

    Grain orientation maps of the material in the as-tempered

    condition and after ECAP deformation were obtained from the

    corresponding electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD) patterns

    recorded using a HKL Nordlys EBSD system interfaced with a field

    emission gun scanning electron microscope FEG-SEM JEOL JSM-

    6500F equipped with an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS).

    The applied accelerating voltage and the working distance were

    25kV and1520mm, respectively. The EBSD scans using step sizes

    of 0.140.18m were performed on 54m43m areas in cen-

    tral region of the specimen surfaces parallel to the flow plane.

    These surfaces were carefully polished. The EBSD data were ana-

    lyzed using the in-house software package CHANNEL 5. The OIM

    images applying the usual coloring scheme for the Euler angles

    were obtained using the external software package MTEX MatLab

    Toolbars for quantitative texture analysis [11]. Grain boundaries

    with misorientation between the contiguous grains of mis 10

    have been defined as low angle grain boundaries (LABs), or sub-

    grain boundaries, and the ones with mis

    > 10 referred to as high

    angle grain boundaries (HABs).

    3. Results and discussion

    3.1. Microstructure

    Fig. 2 shows the effect of the ECAP processing on the EUROFER

    97. The microstructure of thematerialin the as-tempered condition

    exhibits laths substructure as Fig. 2(a) and (b) reveal. Both the OM

    observations and the SEM analyses revealed that this microstruc-

    ture contains small carbide particles as Fig. 2(b) shows. Most of

    these particles were found at the prior-austenite boundaries and

    along the lath sub-boundaries. Two types of carbides were iden-

    tified: Cr-rich M23C6 with sizes of less than 0.2m, and fine

    Ta- and V-rich MX carbides. The volume fraction of second phase

    particles was estimated of about 10% using SME and EBSD mea-

    surements.

    Fig. 2. OM and SEM micrographs of EUROFER 97. (a) and (b) microstructures in the as-tempered condition showing martensite laths, carbide particles and prior-austenite

    boundaries decorated with carbide particles. Microstructure after (c) and (d) one pass ECAP deformation, and (e) and (f) four ECAP passes. The pressing direction (PD) is

    horizontal.

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    M. Eddahbi et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 59275934 5929

    Fig. 3. ECAP deformation effect on the grain structure of the EUROFER 97. (a) and (d) OIM images for as-tempered material and ECAP deformed for four passes, respectively.

    (b) and (e) grain size distribution, and (c) and (f) misorientation distribution for the material in the as-tempered condition and ECAP deformed for four passes, respectively.

    After the first ECAP pass the microstructure was reoriented

    and shear strained as shown in Fig. 2(c) and (d) [12]. After

    four passes, Fig. 2(e) and (f), the microstructure turned out

    near equiaxed. In addition, the SEM images show that ECAP

    deformation did not induce agglomeration of second phase par-

    ticles.

    3.2. EBSD observations

    Fig.3 shows the effectof four ECAP passeson the grain structure.

    The indexation of the EBSD patterns also showed that the sam-

    ples exhibit a dual phase ferritemartensite microstructure. The

    OIM images and the distributions of grain sizes and misorienta-

    tion reveal that ECAP deformation under the present conditions

    induces grain refinement and misorientation increment in the fer-

    rite phase. Moreover, ECAP deformation transformed martensite

    into ferrite. The martensite fraction of27 vol.% for the EUROFER

    97 in the as-tempered condition was lowered to 5 vol.% after four

    ECAP passes.

    The as-tempered state consisted of fine subgrains confined in

    coarse grains of up to 7m in size as shown in Fig. 3(a) and (b).

    Most of the subgrains are of about 0.5m in size. The misorien-

    tation histograms corresponding to both ferrite and martensite

    phase in as-tempered state revealed the presence of high den-

    sity of LABs of less than 5 and low density of HABs as shown

    in Fig. 3(c). After four ECAP passes the subgrain size is less

    than 1m and the misorientation angle in the ferrite phase

    increases, Fig. 3(f).

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    5930 M. Eddahbi et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 59275934

    Fig. 4. TEM micrographs showing the effect of the ECAP deformation on the microstructure of as-tempered EUROFER 97. (a) Elongated substructure and (b) details showing

    the nucleation of subgrains at a grain triple junction for the material ECAP deformed for one pass; the arrows indicate sub-boundaries or dislocation walls. Microstructure

    in a sample processed for two passes showing: (c) lamellar and (d) equiaxed grain structure. (e) and (f) images showing equiaxed grains with high density of dislocations in

    a sample ECAP deformed for four passes.

    3.3. TEM observations

    Also, the TEM images shown in Fig. 4 illustrate the ECAP effect

    on the microstructure of the EUROFER 97. After the first and sec-

    ond pass, the microstructure turned out highly elongated and

    shear strained as shown in Fig. 4(a) and (c). The microstructure

    after a single pass exhibited a low dislocation density and small

    subgrains, or grain domains, as Fig. 4(a) and (b) reveal. These

    domains appear to form by the development of a structure of

    dislocations walls (indicated by arrows) that can transform into

    sub-boundariesand boundaries during further deformation via dis-

    location motion and accumulation into the sub-boundaries, i.e. by

    extended recovery, also called continuous recrystallization [13].

    The sub-boundaries are pinned by small carbide particles retain-

    ing the microstructure on the succeeding passes. EBSD analysis

    and TEM observations indicate that the mechanism of continuousrecrystallization appears to be the main responsible for the grain

    refinement induced by ECAP in EUROFER 97. Nevertheless, the for-

    mation of new subgrains is also observed to occur at precipitate

    particles associated to sub-boundaries or grain triple junctions as

    shown in Fig. 4(b). In particular, the size of the subgrains nucle-

    ated at the triple junctions appear to be less than 100 nm, i.e. much

    smallerthanthesubgrainsproducedbythemechanismofextended

    recovery. Due to the considerable volume fraction of precipitate

    particles present in this steel, the mechanism of subgrain nucle-

    ation at particles associated to sub-boundaries, or triple junctions,

    could significantly contribute to the development of a homoge-

    neousultrafine-grained structure.It should be emphasized thatthe

    mechanism of subgrain formation apparently induced by particles

    associated to sub-boundaries should be different from the particle

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    M. Eddahbi et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 59275934 5931

    Fig. 5. The ODFs for EUROFER 97, represented through 1-sections (1 = 10) and the spatial arrangement of the fibers in the Euler space, showing the effect of ECAP

    deformation. a) and b) as-tempered material; c) and d) after a single pass; e) and f) after two passes and g) and h) after four passes.

    stimulated nucleation (PSN) mechanism based on the deformation

    zones around the second phase particle [14,15]. This mechanism is

    characteristic of some alloys containing hard particles and requires

    a critical particle size of12m, below which a subgrain cannot

    develop and become into a recrystallization nucleus [14]. Instead,

    it is suggestedthatECAP deformationin EUROFER 97 contributes to

    activate new slip systems and creates a homogenous distribution

    of strain in the surrounding region of a small carbide particle that

    favors the dislocation rearrangementinto walland sub-boundaries,

    i.e. giving rise to subgrains.

    After two ECAP passes the samples exhibited a microstructure

    composed of elongated grains containing equiaxed substructure

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    5932 M. Eddahbi et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 59275934

    Fig. 6. Orientation density functions, f(g), for ECAP deformed EUROFER 97 as a function of1: a) one pass, b) two passes and c) four passes.

    as shown in Fig. 4(c) and (d). The corresponding OIM images

    obtained from a sample area of 2322m2

    reveal enhancement ofthe microstructure fragmentation and a shift of the misorienta-

    tion distribution toward high mis values although the LABs arestill themajorfractionof boundaries present in the ECAP deformed

    samples. Onthe contrary, theequiaxedsubstructure hada high dis-

    location density, and boundaries that exhibited a thick and blunt

    image. Afterfour passes, the elongatedstructure is no longer visible

    andthemicrostructureisroughlyequiaxedasshownin Fig.4(e)and

    (f). This result is in contrast to that obtained for an IF steel, where

    the lamellar structure is still retained after four passes via route C

    [16].

    The morphology of the substructure developed by ECAP will

    depend on the initial grain orientation respects to the shear plane

    imposed in the ECAP die. This substructure would control the

    rearrangement of dislocations into dislocation walls contribut-ing to increase the angular misorientation across the cell walls

    or sub-boundaries. The as-tempered material consists of laths

    substructure randomly distributed in different orientations into

    the volume material (Fig. 2(a) and Fig. 3(a)), which would imply

    different ECAP induced substructures depending on their initial

    orientation respect the shear plane. ECAP deformation activates

    dislocation gliding on the slip planes giving rise to an elongated

    lamellar substructure on these planes. After an ECAP pass, this

    elongated substructure tends to align almost parallel to the shear

    plane, thus should conserve the initial lamellar substructure on

    ECAP deformation, although they become more elongated and its

    spacing might be reduced.On thecontrary, if thelamellarsubstruc-

    ture, or the active slip planes, forms a high angle with shear plane,

    a new substructure would be developed, so that ECAP deforma-

    tion refines the substructure of these grains. After several ECAP

    passes, the lamellar structure would be fragmented resulting in

    a more equiaxed and refined substructure with higher misorien-

    tation mis across the subgrain boundaries as Fig. 3(f) shows. Theeffectiveness of the ECAP treatment for refining the grain struc-

    ture will depend on the change of strain path induced by the ECAP

    routes.

    3.4. Texture

    Fig. 5 shows the effect of ECAP deformation via route C on the

    texture of EUROFER 97 material. The ODFs are represented in the

    Euler space through 1-sections from 1 = 0180, for the mate-

    rial in the as-tempered condition(Fig.5(a)), and ECAP processedfor

    onepass(Fig. 5(c)), two passes(Fig.5(e))and four passesvia route C

    (Fig. 5(g)). The corresponding spatial arrangements of the ODFs arerepresented in Fig.5(b), (d), (f)and (h) showing the positionsof the

    fibersintheEulerspace.Formoredetails,Fig. 6 plotsthe orientation

    intensity, f(g), as a function of1 for the ECAP deformed materials.In the present work, the Miller index {h k l}u vw represents an

    orientation that has an {h k l} parallel to the flow plane of the bil-

    let, i.e. plan normal to ND in Fig. 1, and an u vw direction parallel

    to the longitudinal axis of the billet, i.e. PD in Fig. 1. As observed in

    Fig.5(a) and (b), the as-tempered material exhibits numerous weak

    fibers. This texture results from a combination of severe rolling and

    cross rolling underwent by the material before being tempered.

    Each fiber is an ensemble of orientations related to each other by

    rotationsaround the 1 1 0, 1 1 1 and 1 1 2 axes. Itis worthnotic-

    ing that these axes are either parallel to the ND or located at an

    azimuth angle.After the first ECAP pass some weak fibers disappear and new

    ones form, compare Fig. 5(b) and (d). However, the stronger fiber

    components observed in the material ECAP deformed for a single

    pass, marked as S1, S2, S3, S4, S5 and S6, remain after four ECAP

    passes, although their intensity varies along the skeleton line as

    shown in Fig. 6(a)(c). The maximum intensities for these fibers

    correspond to {1 1 0}1 2 2, {1 1 0}1 1 1 and {1 1 1}1 2 3 orienta-

    tions. The weak fibers, labeled W1, W2 and W3 can be described

    by (106)[0 10], (013)[4 31] and (103)[3 8 1] orientations. The

    present ECAP induced texture in the steel EUROFER 97 contrast

    with the fiber texture 1 1 1 and 1 0 0 and the fibers {1 1 0}u vw

    and {h k l}1 1 1 reported for low carbon and interstitial-free

    (IF) steels ECAP deformed at room temperature [9,16]. The dis-

    crepancies could be attributed to the differences in the ECAP

    parameters as well as to the high content of carbide particles in

    EUROFER 97.

    The crystallographic texture developed during the first ECAP

    pass is retained after the succeeding passes as shown in Fig. 5(c)

    and (g), albeit the distribution of orientations along the fibers

    changes. After the secondECAPpass theintensity of themain fibers

    decreases andthe weak fibers vanishor even disappearas occurred

    for the W1, W2 and W3-fibers, compare Fig. 6(a) and (b). Then, the

    second pass does not reverse the first pass texture to the original

    one of the billet as the approach assuming simple shear deforma-

    tion at the intersection plane of the die channels predicts for ECAP

    processing of bcc materials [17,18]. After the fourth ECAP pass,

    the intensities of two main fibers increase respect to the second

    pass, and the weak fibers, which are removed or reduced by the

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    M. Eddahbi et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 59275934 5933

    second pass, reappear. These results indicate that shear deforma-

    tion induced by the first pass, or by an odd-numbered pass, is not

    reversedby the subsequent pass tothe strainstate ofthe billetat the

    beginning or after a previous even-numbered route C pass. In fact,

    it hasbeen reported forIF steel that the real ECAP processing condi-

    tions alter the cyclic changes of thetexture predictedby the simple

    shear model [16,19]. The inhomogeneous strain across the ECAP

    processed billet, the complex microstructure, the die geometry and

    the interaction with neighboring grains appear to constraint the

    capability of a route C pass to reverse shear deformation induced

    by thepreviousECAP pass. However, thecyclic tendency of thetex-

    ture for going back to the initial one can be still maintained for an

    IF steel, in particular if the die angle is changed from 90 to 120

    [17,18]. In the present work, the cyclic reversion of the texture by

    ECAP via route C neither appears to be partially accomplished even

    though a die with =105 is used. The results obtained for tem-pered EUROFER 97 ECAP processed under the present conditions

    reveal that shear deformation induced by a pass is practically irre-

    versible against a subsequent route C pass. This irreversibility that

    is much stronger than the reported for IF steel in Refs. [17,18] may

    be attributed to the complex substructure and high concentration

    of carbide particles present in the tempered EUROFER 97 steel.

    Furthermore, the present texture analyses give rise to issues

    related to deformation mechanism responsible for the evolution ofthe microstructure during severe plastic deformation of EUROFER

    97. Actually, it was found that the orientations developed during a

    single ECAP pass are connected by rotations in the range 1040

    around the same axes found for the material in the as-tempered

    condition, i.e. around 1 1 0 and 1 1 1 axes. Nevertheless, these

    axes are now located between the PD and TD directions. Similar

    results are found in the material deformed for two and four ECAP

    passes. To illustrate these rotations qualitatively, Fig. 7 shows the

    localizationof ND of theorientationsin the cubic stereographicpro-

    jection. The differences in the ND distribution withincreasing ECAP

    deformation, and keeping the rotation axes 1 1 0 and 1 1 1, are

    clearly evident.For one ECAPpass, theS5-fiber orientationsare con-

    nected through35 rotationaround[1 1 1] andthose corresponding

    to the S6-fiber through rotation of 20 and 10 around [0 1 1] and[1 0 1]. However, both fibers are closely joined together into rota-

    tions around 1 1 0 axes after two passes.Furthermore, the S1-fiber

    described by a rotation of30 around [1 0 1] transforms into the

    s11 and s12-fibers as shown in Fig. 7(a) and (b). The s11-fiber main-

    tains the rotation axis [1 0 1] whereas the rotation axis in s12-fiber

    is parallel to the ED. These results indicate that route C can pro-

    duce significant changes on the distribution of orientations along

    the main fibers during ECAP deformation of EUROFER 97.

    3.5. Tensile properties

    Tensile test true stresstrue strain curves are depicted in Fig. 8.

    Thetensilestrengthof thesamplesECAP deformed forone pass and

    twopasses viaroute C increasednoticeably in comparison withthatfor the as-tempered material. The yield stress y, ultimate tensile

    strength (UTS) and the uniform elongation (u) forthe as-temperedmaterial are 549 MPa, 685 MPa and 9.4%, respectively. After two

    passes u decreased to about 7.5% whilst y and UTS increased to

    638MPa and 800 MPa, respectively. However, ECAP deformation

    for four passes resulted in a decrease in the mechanical properties

    compared to two passes (y = 602 MPa, UTS = 746 MPa and u = 4%).It has been reported that route C beyond two passes is inef-

    fective for reducing the grain size in an IF steel ECAP processed

    at room temperature [17]. The strength decrease in EUROFER 97

    deformed for four passes under the present ECAP conditions can-

    not be attributed to a limited capability for the grain refinement

    beyond the second pass via route C because grain refinement

    was still achieved during the fourth pass as the TEM observa-

    Fig. 7. Traces of the ND to the fiber orientations in the stereographic projection for

    EUROFER 97 ECAP deformed via route C for: a) a single pass, b) two passes and c)

    four passes. Each fiber is marked by its corresponding symbol.

    tions showed. Even assuming stabilization in the grain refinement

    beyond two ECAP passes, this cannot give account for the decrease

    in strength and ductility by itself. Nevertheless, the heterogeneous

    substructures developed in elongated and equiaxed subgrains

    could influence the mechanical behavior of the material. In fact,

    the microstructure after two passes is a combination of lamellar

    and equiaxed substructures, which evolved into an equiaxed sub-

    structure after four passes. Both substructures contribute to strain

    hardening at room temperature for a given strain rate, although

    hardeningshould be higher in the regions with equiaxed substruc-

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    5934 M. Eddahbi et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 59275934

    0

    200

    400

    600

    800

    1000

    0.150.10.050

    As-tempered

    One pass ECAP

    Two passes ECAP

    Four passes ECAP

    Truestress,M

    Pa

    True strain

    RT - 3x10-5

    s-1

    Fig. 8. Effect of ECAP deformation via route C on the tensile properties of as-

    tempered EUROFER 97.

    tures.Then,the expected flowstress increase in these zones should

    be relieved by assumingpropagationof deformation intothe lamel-

    lar substructure preventing the localization of high stresses in the

    equiaxed substructures. This stress release mechanism could be

    responsible for the improvement of tensile properties in the mate-

    rial ECAP deformed for one or two passes. So, it appears that the

    mechanical behaviorof the ECAPdeformedsteel EUROFER 97 could

    be explained in terms of a combination of lamellar and equiaxed

    substructures where the morphology, refinement, fraction and ori-

    entationof the lamellar substructure would determine the strength

    and ductility. Further assessment is needed for a comprehensi-

    ble understanding of the strengthening mechanisms competing in

    EUROFER 97 taking into account dislocation density, volume frac-

    tion of martensite phase and carbide particles.

    Also, in the material ECAP deformed for two passes it should

    be noted that the 1 1 0 directions are found at 3040 from the

    ED of the billet in the S5 and S6-fibers and at 30 in the s11-fiber.

    This means that many more subgrains in this case are favorably

    oriented to be plastically deformed in comparison with the mate-

    rials deformed for one or four ECAP passes, which accounts for the

    better tensile properties in the steel EUROFER 97 deformed for two

    ECAP passes.

    According to the results obtained in EUROFER 97 ECAP pro-

    cessed via route C, it is expected that a selected combination of

    routes and annealing treatments should produce a nanostructured

    microstructure with enhanced mechanical properties.

    4. Conclusions

    The EUROFER 97 steel was processed by ECAP at 550 C for up

    to four passes via route C, and the effects on the grain structure,

    crystallographic texture and tensile properties were investigated.

    The main results are as follows:

    1) The initial microstructure of the material in the as-tempered

    condition consisted of a ferrite-martensite dual phase

    microstructure (volume fraction of martensite was 27 vol.%).

    The microstructure contains fine subgrains of about 0.5m in

    size and LABs less than 5 and second phase particles around

    10vol.%. The texture was composed by several weak fibers with

    their orientations into the zone axes 1 1 0, 1 1 1 and 1 1 2.

    2) The first ECAP pass produced a highly elongated and shear

    strained structure with fragmented grains. After two ECAP

    passes a grain microstructure composed of lamellar and

    equiaxed substructure was observed. With further passes the

    fragmentation of the microstructure progressed giving rise to a

    practically equiaxed substructure after four passes.

    3) The evolutionof the microstructure uponECAP deformation was

    accompanied by the development of a newtexture describedby

    a family of fibers retaining the zone axes 1 1 0 and 1 1 1 after

    the successive passes. The martensite phase changes to ferrite

    and the fraction of LABs decreases with ECAP deformation. The

    martensite fraction lowered to 5 vol.% after four ECAP passes.

    4) The yield strength and tensile strength increased significantly

    after deformation for two ECAP passes but decreased after

    four passes. The enhanced mechanical behavior of the ECAP

    deformedsteel EUROFER97 could be attributed to theformation,

    refinement and texture evolution of the lamellar substructure

    induced by ECAP deformation.

    Acknowledgements

    This work has been supported by Madrid Community through

    the project TECHNOFUSION (S2009/ENE-1679) and Spanish Min-

    istryof Science and Innovation (Contract ENE2008-06403-C06-04).

    The authors thankthe microscopy laboratory of CENIM-CSIC for

    EBSD measurements.

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