Fabrication of nanoparticle strengthened IF steel via ARB process

Accumulative roll bonding (ARB) process was used in this study as a very effective method for fabrication of the nanoparticle strengthened IF steel. The microstructure of the produced composites after fourth cycle of the ARB process was exhibited a highly-uniform distribution of SiC nanoparticles in the IF steel matrix without any porosity. It was found that when the number of ARB cycles was increased, the tensile strength of the produced composites was improved, but their elongation was decreased at first step and then was increased at second step. The tensile strength of the composite was 6 times higher than that of the annealed IF steel. The findings also revealed that with increasing the number of cycles, first hardness rapidly increased and then dwindled. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.