Effect of Cold Rolling on Microstructural and Mechanical Properties of a Dual-Phase Steel for Automotive Field

A new advanced dual-phase (DP) steel characterized by ferrite and bainite presence in equal fractions has been studied within this paper. The anisotropy change of this steel was assessed as a progressively more severe cold rolling process was introduced. Specifically, tensile tests were used to build a strain-hardening curve, which describes the evolution of this DP steel's mechanical properties as the thinning level increases from 20 to 70% with 10% step increments. As expected, the cold rolling process increases mechanical properties, profoundly altering the material's microstructure, which was assessed in depth using Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) analysis coupled with the Kernel Average Misorientation (KAM) maps. At the same time, the process strongly modifies the material planar anisotropy. Microstructural and mechanical assessment and the Kocks-Mecking model applied to this steel evidenced that a 50% strain hardening makes the DP steel isotropic. The material retains or resumes anisotropic behavior for a lower or higher degree of deformation. Furthermore, the paper evaluated the forming limit of this DP steel and introduced geometric limitations to testing the thin steel plates' mechanical properties.

Automated summary

A new advanced dual-phase steel with equal fractions of ferrite and bainite was investigated in this study. The anisotropy change of the steel was evaluated during a cold rolling process, which progressively increased the thinning level. Tensile tests were conducted to construct a strain-hardening curve that described the evolution of the steel's mechanical properties. The microstructure and mechanical assessment revealed that the steel became isotropic after 50% strain hardening. The paper also assessed the forming limit of the steel and introduced geometric limitations to testing the mechanical properties of thin steel plates.