The Potential of Self-Tempered Martensite and Bainite in Improving the Fatigue Strength of Thermomechanically Processed Steels

In contrast to a two-stage hardening and tempering process, the definition of optimized cooling routes after hot working of low-alloy Cr steel allows the adjustments of high-strength microstructures with a sufficient degree of ductility at the same time without any additional heat-treatment. While compressed air cooling after hot forging of micro-alloyed steel grades leads to the formation of lower bainite with fine-dispersed cementite platelets, quenching by water spray down to the martensite start temperature results in the formation of martensite, that is self-tempered during the subsequent slow-cooling in air. The precipitation of nano-sized cementite precipitates result in superior mechanical properties with respect to impact and tensile testing. Cyclic deformation and crack propagation tests being carried out using resonance testing (100Hz) and ultrasonic fatigue testing (20kHz) systems revealed a pronounced increase in fatigue strength by about 150MPa of the self-tempered martensite condition as compared to the bainitic modification. For the latter one, a steady decrease of the fatigue strength is observed rather than the existence of a real fatigue limit.