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The possibility of the structural turbulence of plastic flow and ductile fracture in low-carbon and low-alloy steel 09Mn2Si is shown by fracture toughness measurements and uniaxial tension of chevron-notched specimens at 20°C. The conditions for the structural turbulence of plastic deformation of solids are determined which provide high fracture toughness. The decisive functional role is played by the lattice curvature, the appearance of mesoscopic structural states in the lattice interstices at the nanoscale, the activation of self-consistent rotational motion in the hierarchy of mesoscopic structural levels, the presence of free volume, and the possibility of structural transformations at the nanoscale. A nonlinear theory of describing structural turbulence in a deformable solid is discussed.

The paper analyzes the nucleation and growth of bainite in low-carbon low-alloy 09Mn2Si steel doped with titanium carbonitride nanoparticles in impact toughness testing. The analysis shows that such particles segregate at low-angle boundaries, retarding the formation of high-angle ones, and when impacted into the steel, they curve the lattice and generate a new bainite phase at the curvature interstices. The mechanism of bainite nucleation and growth is sympathetic, obeys the angular momentum conservation law, and provides the formation of multilayered packets of bainite plates capable for unlimited thinning to sub-sub-subunits during deformation. Such bainite plates can respond to their stress-strain state by one or another rotation, showing a high relaxation capacity and providing a high impact toughness of the steel at low temperatures.

The paper is devoted to an experimental investigation of a high-temperature deformation in V-alloyed high-nitrogen austenitic Fe-19Cr-22Mn-1.5V-0.3C-0.6N steel processed via different thermo-mechanical treatments. Simple thermo-mechanical processing regimes (cold rolling or rolling with single post-deformation anneal) do not allow to realize a substantial elongation in high-nitrogen steel during high-temperature tensile tests. For fine-grained austenitic structure with an average grain size of 3 µm, the maximal value of elongation to failure of 150% was realized at temperature 950 °C. Using a multi-stage thermo-mechanical treatment included cold rolling and intermediate anneals, a heterophase grain/subgrain structure with high density of deformation-induced defects and precipitates was produced. When heated to a deformation temperature, this deformation-assisted microstructure recrystallizes into a stable fine-grained structure and demonstrates the attributes of superplastic flow (values of elongation to failure higher than 400%) in the temperature range of 850-1000 °C. The maximum elongation of 900% is achieved at temperature of 950 °C and an initial strain rate of 10-4 s-1.

The microstructure, deformation mechanisms, tensile properties and fracture micromechanisms of ultrahigh-interstitial austenitic Fe-22Cr-26Mn-1.3V-0.7C-1.2N (mass.%) steel were investigated in wide temperature interval. After conventional homogenization and solid-solution treatment, the steel possesses complex hardening which includes grain boundary, solid-solution and dispersion strengthening. In the temperature interval of &minus, 60 to +60 &deg, C, steel demonstrates striking temperature dependence of a yield strength which could be enhanced by the increase in solid-solution treatment temperature. The variation in test temperature does not change the dominating deformation mechanism of the steel, dislocation slip and insufficiently influences tensile elongation and fracture micromechanisms. The insignificant increase in the fraction of brittle cleavage-like component on the fracture surfaces of the specimens in low-temperature deformation regime is promoted by increase in planarity of dislocation arrangement and the gaining activity of mechanical twinning. In high-temperature range (200&ndash, 300 &deg, C) of deformation, a negative strain-rate dependence, serrations on the stress-strain diagrams and improved strain-hardening associated with a dynamic strain aging phenomenon have been observed.

Tensile properties, work-hardening, microstructure and fracture mechanisms were studied in two vanadium-containing high-nitrogen austenitic steels, Fe-19Cr-21Mn-1.3V-0.22C-0.81N and Fe-17Cr-10Mn-7Ni-1.0V-0.09C-0.65N, in low-temperature deformation regime. Vanadium-alloying provides several concurrent effects – decreases a solid solution hardening in the steels (softening effect) due to formation of nitrides(carbonitrides), causes precipitate hardening by vanadium-based particles (hardening effect) and suppresses grain growth during solid solution treatment (hardening effect). The yield stresses at room temperature deformation and 77 K-deformation are analyzed taking into account the contributions from these softening/hardening mechanisms. As a result of complex hardening and softening effects, both steels possess high tensile properties, show striking temperature dependences of the yield strength, an ultimate tensile strength and an elongation (the ultimate tensile strength and elongation at 77 K reaches 2600 MPa and 14% for Fe-19Cr-21Mn-1.3V-0.22C-0.81N steel) in low-temperature deformation regime. Striking temperature dependence of the yield strength for particle-containing steels is in accordance with deformation behavior of high-nitrogen particle-free steels with high solid-solution strengthening. In spite of similarities in temperature dependence of strength properties and deformation mechanisms with precipitate-free high-nitrogen steels, V-containing steels do not undergo ductile-to-brittle transition during deformation at cryogenic temperatures and they fracture in ductile manner even during tensile deformation at 77 K. Deformation microstructures at different strain levels and test temperatures are studied in order to reveal the dominating structural parameters responsible for fracture micromechanisms. Despite the activation of mechanical twinning and planar dislocation slip as dominating deformation mechanisms during tension at 77 K, precipitate-hardened high-nitrogen steels show rather high elongation values of 14–15% and ductile fracture with dimple micromechanism. Vanadium-based precipitates of ≈ 300 nm in diameter do not cause strong precipitate hardening, but strongly influence dislocation arrangement and suppress low-temperature brittle fracture in high-nitrogen austenitic steels.

A temperature dependence of the tensile mechanical properties, microstructure and fracture mechanism of high-nitrogen Fe-(19-23)Cr-(17-21)Mn-(0-3)V-(0.1-0.3)C-(0.5-0.9)N vanadium-free and vanadium-containing steels was investigated. For all steels, the 0.2% offset yield strength and strain-hardening drastically increase with a decrease in test temperature. This is associated with high interstitial solid solution strengthening of the steels and more pronounced twinning and stacking-fault formation during straining below room temperature. For the vanadium-free steel, a ductile-to-brittle transition was evaluated: at 77K specimens destroy by cleavage mechanism while at room temperature steels show ductile fracture. Vanadium-alloying provides a particle strengthening of the steels and, at the same time, reduce solid-solution strengthening. Increase of vanadium concentration fully or partially suppress brittle fracture of the steels at 77K. Particle strengthening changes interstitial solid-solution effect, dislocation arrangement and slip/twinning relation in vanadium-containing high-nitrogen steels compared to vanadium-free one.

The experimental evidence for the realization of a superplastic behavior with 900% elongation in V-alloyed high-nitrogen austenitic Fe-19Cr-22Mn-1.5V-0.3C-0.6N steel was proposed. Using thermomechanical processing, a misoriented grain/subgrain austenitic microstructure with a high density of deformation-assisted defects and precipitates was developed in the steel. During high-temperature tensile deformation in a temperature interval from 850 to 1000 &deg, C and strain-rate range from 4 &times, 10&minus, 4 s&minus, 1 to 6 &times, 3 s&minus, 1, this microstructure demonstrated the characteristics of superplastic flow: elongation in the interval 400&ndash, 900%, strain-rate sensitivity exponent m = 0.40&ndash, 0.49, grain boundary sliding mechanism. The maximum elongation to failure (900%) was reached at deformation temperature 950 &deg, C and strain rate 4 &times, 1.

Austenitic stainless steels are frequently used for hydrogen applications due to their high ductility at low temperatures and lower hydrogen environment embrittlement compared to ferritic steels. We study the effect of electrochemical hydrogen saturation up to 40 h on tensile behavior and fracture mechanisms in high-nitrogen austenitic 17Cr–24Mn–1.3V–0.2C–1.3N steel. Hydrogen saturation weakly influences the characteristic of stress–strain curves, but decreases steel ductility, yield stress, and ultimate tensile stress. Hydrogenation provides a change in steel fracture peculiarities—a hydrogen-assisted thin brittle surface layer of ≈5 μm and ductile subsurface layer of 50–150 μm in width in hydrogen-saturated specimens. The subsurface layer shows ductile transgranular fracture with elongated dimples and flat facets. The central parts of fracture surfaces for hydrogenated specimens show ductile fracture mode similar to hydrogen-free state, but they include numerous secondary cracks both for central part and for transition zone between ductile central part and subsurface layer associated with highest hydrogen saturation. The possible reasons of decrease in hydrogen-associated ductility and change in fracture character are discussed.

New high-interstitial austenitic Fe–19Cr–22Mn–1.6V–0.4C–0.8N (mass. %) and Fe–22Cr–26Mn–1.3V–0.7C–1.2N steels were designed. A combination of high interstitial content (C + N = 1.2 mass. % and C + N = 1.9 mass. %, C/N = 0.5–0.6) and V-alloying of these steels provides a complex hardening mechanism (a solid-solution hardening, a particle strengthening and a grain boundary hardening). Increase in solid-solution temperature in the interval 1100–1230 °C forces solid-solution hardening, causes grain growth and changes a distribution and volume fraction of the precipitates in austenite. The relation of these factors governs the value of a yield strength, an ultimate tensile strength and an elongation in the high-interstitial steels. The variation in particle strengthening with solid-solution temperature has minor effect on the yield strength of the steels, but the distribution of precipitates strongly influences a tensile fracture micromechanism of the steels. The effect of solid-solution temperature on fracture peculiarities is described based on microstructural analysis of the steels.

In this paper, we investigate the microstructure and microhardness of high-nitrogen austenitic steel after high-pressure upset and high-pressure torsion (6 GPa) at room temperature. As the result of deformation, steel microhardness increases by 1.5 times after high-pressure torsion per one revolution while the distribution of microhardness is quasi-homogeneous across the disks. The level of solid solution hardening of steel remains high after deformation processing, and the main mechanisms determining fragmentation of the steel structure are slip, twinning, formation of localized deformation microbands, and precipitation hardening.

Electron-beam deposition (EBD) is an advanced technique intended for the formation of protective coatings that exhibit high strength and wear, and fatigue resistance. The investigation of the structure of coated materials and the development of mesoscale plastic deformation shows that these properties depend heavily on EBD modes. It is proposed that the latter can be optimized by: (i) choosing the electron-beam parameters that ensure a uniform structure of the coating, appropriate width and proper structure of the transient zone, (ii) the trial-and-error method of selecting such deposited powder composition that ensure high strength properties, and (iii) mechanical test aimed at distinguishing the coatings whose performance has been advantageously increased by EBD.