Journal of Manufacturing Processes 58 (2020) 1171–1181

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Manufacturing Processes

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/manpro

Influence of hot compressive parameters on flow behaviour and

microstructure evolution in a commercial medium carbon micro-alloyed
spring steel
Yao Lu a, Haibo Xie a, Jun Wang a, Zhou Li a, Fanghui Jia a, Hui Wu a, Jingtao Han b,
Zhengyi Jiang a, *
a
School of Mechanical, Materials, Mechatronics and Biomedical Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
b
School of Materials Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, PR China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The spring fastener that connects sleepers and rail in high-speed railway is with a high responsibility since its
Medium carbon micro-alloyed spring steel quality directly affects the safety of the railway system. This paper investigates the isothermal hot compression
Hot compression behaviour of a commercial medium carbon micro-alloyed spring steel (raw material) by a Gleeble 3500 thermal-
Flow behaviour
mechanical simulator, which was used to produce spring fasteners. The dependency of the flow behaviour and
Dynamic recrystallisation and recovery
microstructure evolution under different deformation conditions were systematically studied. The results
Microstructure evolution
revealed that the peak stress points are not necessarily recognised as the dynamic recrystallisation (DRX)
behaviour because the partial occurrence of DRX may appear in flow stress curves with no stress peak. The
metallurgical events that happen during the process of hot compression are close related to the phase trans­
formation products. In the prior austenite grains, high dislocation density can promote the nucleation acicular
ferrite. Nevertheless, the DRX behaviour consumed the stored energy, which is conducive to the transformation
of bainite and martensite. Besides, the microstructure evoluted from prior austenite grains occupies a larger
fraction of middle angle grain boundaries and higher mean local strain compared to the counterparts of DRX
grains. The findings would provide useful references for the industrial optimisation in the hot forming process of
a spring fastener using Si-Cr medium carbon spring steels.

1. Introduction steel, the precipitation of carbide in the progress of bainite trans­

Recently, modern railway transportation has achieved remarkable
development. The spring fastener as one primary application of the
medium carbon micro-alloyed steel in the high-speed railway is related
to the improvement of the public transport system [1]. Although the
train speed can reach up to 350 km/h at present, the transport de­
partments worldwide still aspire to increase train speed to optimise the
quality of transport [2,3]. Owing to the close dependence of spring
fastener on the high-quality spring steel, the homogenised, fine grain
and pure raw materials are necessarily required for the spring fastener in
the high speed and load working conditions [4].
Si-Cr medium carbon spring steel as one novel raw material applied
in high-speed railway fastening system has attracted a lot of attention
owing to its various structural applications on account of its high
strength and toughness [3,5]. Because of high silicon proportion in Si-Cr
formation can be reduced due to the low solubility of silicon in
cementite, which leads to the microstructures of bainite ferrite and
retained austenite with concentrated carbon. In addition, it has diffi­
culty to produce high-silicon bainitic steels because the bainite trans­
formation in medium carbon steel is vastly postponed at low
transformation temperatures [6]. However, owing to enough nucleation
sites for bainite produced by fine austenite grains, the refined prior
austenite grains can improve the process of bainite transformation [7].
Hot-working is an effective method for the size reduction of prior
austenite grains. Thus, investigating the effects of hot compression on
the flow stress and microstructures in high-silicon bainitic steels is
significantly necessary to improve the final mechanical properties. Hot
deformation investigation of metal materials like spring steels is vastly
performed with required geometric shape and desired properties in the
manufacturing of final goods [8]. A remarkable hot working design is

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jiang@uow.edu.au (Z. Jiang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2020.09.021
Received 13 June 2020; Received in revised form 27 August 2020; Accepted 9 September 2020
Available online 19 September 2020
1526-6125/© 2020 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Y. Lu et al.
necessary to construct the relations between hot compressive parame­
ters and microstructural evolution, which include strain rate, strain and
compressive temperatures. The hot working behaviours of metal mate­
rials are accompanied by complex compression mechanisms, such as
work hardening [9], flow instability [10], dynamic recrystallisation
(DRX) [11] and dynamic recovery (DRV) [12]. It is noted that the work
hardening directly leads to the decrease of metal ductility and an in­
crease of flow stress, but dynamic softening caused by phenomena of
DRX or DRV can recover the ductility of metals [13]. Besides, a lot of
metallurgical events, e.g., dislocation slip, grain boundary bulging,
carbide precipitation and substructure evolution, would occur during
the process of compression and influence the flow behaviour, micro­
structure and mechanical properties [14,15]. Therefore, the importance
of hot compression can be divided into two main aspects: the constitu­
tive relation of studied metal materials (strain-stress curves), and the
effects of hot working conditions on mechanical properties and micro­
structures of the metal [16].
Actually, the flow stress curves sometimes can imply the metallur­
gical behaviours appeared in the hot compression process. With regard
to the plain carbon steel, the occurrence of peak stress is conventionally
recognised as an apparent signal of DRX [16]. However, in some ma­
terials, the DRX still happens without the occurrence of peak stress, so
the points of critical stress and strain can be applied to illustrate the DRX
behaviour more precisely independent of peak stress [17]. It was re­
ported by Beladi et al. [18] that the substructure characteristics of the
compressed matrix (banded and organised subgrain arrangements with
an alternating distribution of misorientation) and DRX grains (complex
and unconstant cell/subgrain arrangements featured by local misori­
entation) were different. These substructures should be gone if phase
transformation occurs after hot compression. However, they will influ­
ence the transformation behaviour because they can be retained until
the transformation temperature under the condition of fast cooling [19].
In fact, the microstructures and transformation kinetics are influenced to
a certain degree by hot compression. However, transformation behav­
iours are quite complex under different hot working parameters. Thus, it
is valuable to investigate the phase transformation under various hot
compression conditions [16].
Nowadays, a lot of work has been done about the investigation of the
microstructure evolution [20,21], mechanical properties [22–24],
crystallographic features [25] and heat treatment optimisation [26] of
the Mn-Si-C alloyed steels. Some previous studies have focused on the
effects of isothermal treatment on the medium-high carbon Mn-Si-Cr
alloyed steels. Besides, the DRX evolution of the Mn-Si-C based
58Mn2SiCr steel [27], the 51CrV4 spring steel [28], and a medium and
high carbon Si-rich steel [6] during hot compression process were dis­
cussed. However, most of them did not combine the flow stress curve
with the occurrence of phase transformation during hot deformation. In
this work, the relationship between the final microstructures and
deformed behaviour was studied. The obtained results would guide the
control of microstructural evolution to improve the mechanical prop­
erties of the experimental steel. Further, the high-temperature defor­
mation property is one of the key properties of the medium carbon
spring steel for the optimization of the hot forming process. Through
in-depth investigating the hot flow behaviour and microstructure evo­
lution of the Si-Cr medium carbon spring steel, this work aims to provide
a reference for the further design in the hot forming technology of spring
fasteners applied in the high-speed railway.
2. Experimental procedures
The chemical composition in wt.% of the experimental steel is shown
in Table 1. Testing cylindrical specimens with respective diameter and
height of 10 and 15 mm were extracted from the hot-forged rods along
the transverse direction.
Hot compression experiments for investigating the flow behaviour of
experimental steel were conducted on Gleeble 3500 thermal-mechanical
1172
Journal of Manufacturing Processes 58 (2020) 1171–1181
Table 1
The chemical composition of experimental steel (wt. %).
C Si Mn Cr Ni Cu S P
0.55 1.40 0.65 0.65 0.11 0.12 0.012 0.018
% % % % % % % %
test simulator. According to the phase diagram calculated by a thermo-
calc software (Fig. 1(b)) [29], the austenite transformation temperature
of the experimental steel is around 750.7 ◦ C. Thus, the deformation
temperatures are selected in the range of 850 ◦ C − 1000 ◦ C. To compare
the behaviour of DRX and DRV, the true strain rates were chosen in the
range of 0.01 s− 1 – 1 s-1. The process parameters and all required steps
for the thermal profiles are schematically illustrated in Fig. 1.
Temperature monitoring during the whole progress of deformation
was collected by a thermocouple welded on the middle part at the cy­
lindrical profile of the specimens (see Fig. 1 (a)). The graphite and
tantalum foils were together adhered to both smooth ends of cylindrical
samples as lubricant to avoid bonding and reduce friction between
mating surfaces and samples. Before hot deformation, all samples were
heated up to 1100 ◦ C at 20 ◦ C/s and hold for 3 min to achieve a ho­
mogeneous distribution of austenite microstructure. Subsequently,
samples were cooled to the compression condition (850, 900, 950 and
1000 ◦ C, respectively) at 10 ◦ C/s and soaked for 30 s to obtain homo­
geneous deformation temperatures. Whereafter, the samples were
deformed under the total reduction of 60 % (true strain is 0.9) with
respective strain rates of 0.01, 0.1 and 1 s− 1 and then water quenched till
ambient temperature to retain the high-temperature microstructures.
After hot compression, the deformed samples were cut centerline by
wire cutting method, which is parallel to the deformation axis. The
analysis of microstructure was focused in the central area of metallo­
graphic specimens by a Leica optical microscope, which aims to avoid
the influence of inconsistency caused by uneven compression at the
boundary of tested samples. These surfaces were ground by various
grades of sandpapers, polished and then, etched (detailed grinding and
polishing procedures are listed in Table 2.). The etching technology was
carried out at the temperature from 60 to 65 ◦ C using 4% picric acid
(mixed with a small amount of detergent) for several seconds (5–15 s).
The electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) facility was used to
reveal the microstructural evolution as well. Electro-polishing was
applied using a Struers Lectropol-5 operating at 37 V for 35 s at a flow
rate of 15 with the electrolyte containing 800 MLS ethanol + 140 MLS
water + 60 MLS perchloric acid. EBSD was conducted by a JEOL-7001
field emission gun-scanning electron microscope at 12 mm work dis­
tance and 6.5 nA probe current and applied together with an Oxford
Instrument Nordlys-II(S) camera with Aztec software. The EBSD map­
ping was considered to be characterised by an area of 120 × 90 μm with
a step size of 0.1 μm to cover some prior austenite grains or recrystallised
grains, which aims to present the evolved compression microstructure
therein. All the information in crystallographic orientation was analysed
by the Oxford Instrument Channel 5 software.
3. Results
3.1. Characteristic strain and stress
The representative strain-stress curves of the hot compression tests at
various compression temperatures and strain rates are exhibited in
Fig. 2. As revealed, the increasing rate of true stress apparently
decreased with the increment of strain at the early stage of compression
until a stable state on account of DRV, indicating the principal mecha­
nism of reducing strain hardening rate [16,30]. The variation of flow
stress curves was attributed to work hardening and softening during the
process of deformation [6]. Besides, it can be seen from Fig. 2 (a–c) that
the peak stresses (marked by red arrows) decrease with increasing
temperatures from 850 to 1000 ◦ C, as well as with declining strain rate
Y. Lu et al. Journal of Manufacturing Processes 58 (2020) 1171–1181

Fig. 1. Diagrammatic drawing of hot deformation schedule and specimen morphology (a), and phase diagram (b).

softening became clearer. And it is more difficult for making the

Table 2
attainment of the peak stresses owing to the increasing strain rates,
Grinding and polishing procedures for the experimental steel.
which results from work hardening and softening during plastic defor­
Procedure Surface Time Force Solution mation. At lower compressive temperatures of 850 and 900 ◦ C, more
(min) (N)
obvious thermal-softening would result in a drop in flow stress due to the
Grinding
320# SiC paper 10 25 water enhanced temperature sensitivity, while at higher strain rates, the
1200# SiC paper 3 25 water
adiabatic temperature increases more evidently which results from
Water-based
9 μm Largo cloth 6 25
lubricant bigger plastic compression and not enough time for the generated heat
Water-based to dissipate into the ambient [33,34].
3 μm Dur cloth 6 25
Polishing
lubricant When it comes to the characteristic points of DRX, some critical
Water-based conditions including peak stress (σ p), peak strain (εp), critical stress (σ c),
1 μm Dur cloth 4 25
lubricant
critical strain (εc), steady-state stress (σss) and steady-state strain (εss)
0.25 μm MD-Chem
3 25 50 % OPS during deformation could be achieved by establishing the correlation
cloth
between flow stress and work hardening rate (θ = dσ/dε) [6,17], since
the work hardening rate could greatly reflect the microstructural evo­
from 1 s− 1 to 0.01 s-1. The hot compression is one nonisothermal lution during the hot compression process. Fig. 3 illustrates the θ - σ and
progress in principal because the temperature rise and microstructure θ - ε curves under different conditions. The prominent dynamic softening
evolution can consume the instantaneous power in a hot compression process was received in comparison of various work hardening rate, and
process [8]. Some previous studies have indicated that the flow stress the decreasing work hardening rate indicated that the DRX and DRV
can be reduced because of the temperature rise, and an increase of occurred [14,35]. The work hardening was stronger than the softening
temperature (from 3 to 31 ◦ C) can result in a flow softening (from 2.5 to process when the value of θ is positive, and vice versa. In Fig. 3 (a) and
42.4 MPa) during the hot compression process [31,32]. Further, the (b), the peak stress is in accordance with the first point where θ = 0.
peak stress decreased at higher deformation temperatures because the When the DRX rate speeds up, the flow stress declined after peak value.
The corresponding strains are shown in Fig. 3 (c) and (d). Besides, the

1173
Y. Lu et al. Journal of Manufacturing Processes 58 (2020) 1171–1181

Fig. 2. Strain-stress curves of 55SiCr spring steel at different deformed temperatures (850 ◦ C, 900 ◦ C, 950 ◦ C, and 1000 ◦ C) with a strain rate of (a) 0.01 s− 1, (b) 0.1
s− 1, and (c) 1 s− 1.

1
Fig. 3. Variation of the work hardening rate (θ) as functions of true stress (σ ) at (a) ε˙ = 0.01 s− and (b) T = 1000 ◦ C, correlations between θ and true strain (ε) at (c)
ε˙ = 0.01 s− 1 and (d) T = 1000 ◦ C.

inflection points up to the peak of the curves presented in Fig. 3 (a) and this study.
(b) indicates the critical stress points for starting the DRX. This could be To observe the DRX behaviour more accurately, the model provided
ascribed to the fact that the occurrence of transformed subgrains at the by Poliak and Jonas [17] was applied to reflect the peak and critical
onset of DRX leads to the sudden decline of work hardening rate. conditions. However, for obtaining the data more precisely, the θ–σ
Therefore, the value of the critical stress can be determined by observing curve could be fitted by a 3rd-degree polynomial function below [37]:
the maximum point in the dθ/dσ-σ curve. The detailed explanation is
θ = A1 σ3 + A2 σ 2 + A3 σ + A4 (1)
provided by Lin et al. [36]. Further, as seen in Fig. 3 (a) and (b), the σc
increases with the decrease of compressive temperatures and increase of
where A1, A2, A3, and A4 are the constants under the corresponding
strain rates. Besides, the σc was obtained by plotting it back onto the
deformation conditions. The critical stress (σc) can be obtained when the
curve for simplified calculation. When θ drops to zero for the first time,
second derivative of Eq. (1) becomes zero. At the initial point of DRX,
the corresponding value of strain is identified as peak strain (εp) (as
the following expressions can be acquired:
shown in Fig. 3 (c) and (d)). However, it shows a slow DRX progress at a
lower temperature (850 ◦ C in Fig. 3 (c)) and a higher strain rate (1 s− 1 in d2 θ A2
= 6A1 σ + 2A2 = 0→σ c = − (2)
Fig. 3 (d)), so the ending strain was thought to be a steady-state strain in dσ 2 3A1

1174
Y. Lu et al.
Fig. 4 (a) and (b) shows the θ–σ curve and lnθ–ε curve at 950 ◦ C and
0.01 s− 1 with their corresponding third-order polynomial, respectively.
It can be seen that the calculated values are in good agreement with the
experimental values. The relationship between work hardening and
stress or strain could be fitted by a 3rd-order polynomial function. Be­
sides, although the critical and peak points are changed with various
compressive parameters, the dependent points somewhat obey a linear
relationship, as shown in Fig. 4 (c). The ratio of σc to σp well matches the
results of other micro-alloyed steels [16].
3.2. Microstructure evolution
Fig. 5 depicts the SEM micrographs in the middle region of samples
at various compression temperatures at the strain rate of 0.1 s− 1. It has
been proposed that the acicular ferrite (AF) presents elongated and fine
structures, and shows interlocked distribution because of various
compression substructures between nucleation process, such as dislo­
cation slip bands formed in the compressed austenite grains [19,38]. The
AF is one optimal microstructure in pipeline steels [39,40]. In this study,
the microstructure exhibits a majority of AF companied by a small
quantity of bainitic ferrite (BF) at the compressive temperatures of 850
◦
C and 900 ◦ C, which is consistent with previous literature [16,41,42].
When the compressive temperature reached 950 ◦ C, the microstructure
consists of major BF together with a few AF, as shown in Fig. 5 (c). In
comparison, the volume fraction of AF decreased with increased tem­
perature owing to the DRV effect enhanced at a higher deformed tem­
perature reduces the compression dislocation density and the formation
of substructures. Inversely, the microstructure mainly exhibits lath
martensite (M) and bainite ferrite (BF) when the deformation temper­
ature is 1000 ◦ C (Fig. 5 (d)), which could put down to the DRX behav­
iour. To prove the reliability of the Poliak-Jonas model, the evolution of
prior austenite was further investigated.
Fig. 6 displays the evolution of prior austenite grains of studied steel
under various conditions. To compare the effects of compression tem­
peratures on DRX, four sets of experiments were selected at the strain
rate of 0.01 s− 1 and deformation temperatures at 850, 900, 950 and
1000 ◦ C, respectively (Fig. 6 (a–d)). As observed, the grains were
coarsened with the elevation of temperatures from 850 ◦ C to 1000 ◦ C.
This is mainly because the grain boundary migration ability would be
enhanced at elevated temperatures, thus, accelerated the nucleation rate
as well as boosted the grain growth [6].
The occurrence of fine grains at the prior austenite grain boundaries
indicates the emergence of DRX behaviour during the deformation
process, as marked by the reddish arrows in Fig. 6 (a) and (d). It is well
accepted that DRX grains preferred growing along inwardly concave
interfaces in the grains with over six sides on the two-dimensional cross-
section [43]. With the development of grain boundary migration, the
final equiaxed structure at a stable state was acquired (Fig. 6 (d)).
Notably, the DRX progress completed at low strain rates. The higher the
compressive temperatures, the coarser the DRX grains and the faster the
DRX progress. Nevertheless, the grains at 0.1 s− 1were finer compared to
1
Fig. 4. θ–σ curve (a) and lnθ–ε curve (b) at 950 ◦ C and 0.01 s− with their corresponding third-order polynomial, and the relationship between peak stress and
critical stress (c).
1175
Journal of Manufacturing Processes 58 (2020) 1171–1181
the counterparts at 0.01 s− 1, which could be ascribed to the fact that
higher strain rate generated a relatively greater driving force and pro­
vided sufficient sites for the nucleation of DRX grain [44]. Accordingly,
the DRV phenomenon is dominant at 1 s-1 (Fig. 6 (f)), which could be
observed in the strain-stress curves in Fig. 2 (c). Furthermore, several
fine DRX grains are formed at the boundaries and a few amount prior
austenite grains show serrated boundaries with trenchant observation,
as indicated by blue arrows in Fig. 6 (e). This is because the serrated
grains can bulge out more easily, resulting in the formation of DRX
structures [15].
The microstructure consisting of major AF within the prior austenite
grains results from the increase of deformation substructure (i.e. dislo­
cation), which can supply more intragranular nucleation sites for AF but
suppress the nucleation of BF. Nevertheless, the dominant microstruc­
tures in recrystallised austenite grains are M and BF, which is mainly
because that the work hardening-triggered substructures were coun­
teracted by DRX.
3.3. Crystallographic features
Owing to the phase transformation, the compression austenitic
substructure in experimental specimens is less distinct than that in
austenitic steel [45], while the crystallographic features were affected
by the metallurgical events that happen in the hot compression process
(Fig. 7). Generally, regardless of the austenitic condition, the distribu­
tion of orientation domains is comparatively fine and consistent. This is
because all the phases generated during the hot deformation process
follow the Kurdjumov-Sachs rules theoretically and each austenite grain
can obtain 24 orientations [46].
For samples processed at different deformed parameters, the inverse
pole figure (IPF) maps show little correlations between the grain dis­
tribution and deformation axis (Fig. 7 (a), (c), (e) and (g)), which could
also be identified from the grain boundary maps (Fig. 7 (b), (d), (f) and
(h)). Here, the misorientation angles in the range of 20◦ - 45◦ traced by
reddish lines indicate the middle angle grain boundaries (MAGBs) while
the blue region reflects the high angle grain boundaries (HAGBs, < 45◦ ).
It has been reported that the characteristic of misorientation in prior
austenite boundaries is random [47], the red lines mainly imply the
distribution of DRX grains.
When the specimen compressed under the condition of 1000 ◦ C/
0.01 s− 1, the initial austenite structures showed deformed band mor­
phologies (marked by a red arrow) along the compression direction,
which could be determined by the red line in Fig. 7 (f). This can be
ascribed to nucleation of favourable variants assisted by dislocation
substructures and activated slip planes in the work hardening matrix
[16]. The non-recrystallised and compressed austenite matrix are
depicted by the large region without red lines, which further indicates
that only partial DRX occurs in these samples.
Fig. 8 displays the misorientation angle distributions of samples
deformed under different compressive conditions.
A similar distribution trend could be observed in all conditions
Y. Lu et al.
1
Fig. 5. Microstructural evolution of studied specimens at the strain rate of 0.1 s−
1000 ◦ C.
Fig. 6. Evolution of prior austenite grains of experimental steel under various sets of parameters: (a) 850 ◦ C / 0.01 s− 1, (b) 900 ◦ C / 0.01 s− 1, (c) 950 ◦ C / 0.01 s− 1,
(d) 1000 ◦ C / 0.01 s− 1, (e) 1000 ◦ C / 0.1 s− 1, and (f) 1000 ◦ C / 1 s− 1.
(Fig. 8 (a), (b), (d) and (e)). To adapt the transformation strain, the
formed transformation dislocation in the matrix results in a larger pro­
portion of low angle grain boundaries (LAGBs, 2◦ - 5◦ ). The higher
transformation temperature, the lower is the density of the dislocation
(as observed in Fig. 8 (a) and (b)) [40,46]. It is interesting that the
MAGBs of the sample compressed at 850 ◦ C / 0.1s− 1 has a higher fre­
quency than that of sample deformed at 900 ◦ C / 0.1s-1 (Fig. 8 (c)), and
1176
Journal of Manufacturing Processes 58 (2020) 1171–1181
and different deformed temperatures of (a) 850 ◦ C, (b) 900 ◦ C, (c) 950 ◦ C, and (d)
the similar trend can be also observed between the samples compressed
at 1000 ◦ C / 1s− 1 and 1000 ◦ C / 0.01s− 1 (Fig. 8 (f)). While a surprising
finding is MAGBs of the sample compressed at 900 ◦ C occupied higher
proportions compared to the counterpart deformed at 1000 ◦ C (Fig. 8
(g)), which signifies the microstructure in hot deformation process is
more easily influenced by temperatures. Since the misorientation angle
in this range is the default value of the coherent transformation, these
Y. Lu et al.
Fig. 7. Inverse pole figure (IPF) maps and grain boundary maps of the samples for various compressive parameters: (a-b) compressed at 850 ◦ C / 0.1 s− 1; (c-d)
compressed at 900 ◦ C / 0.1 s− 1; (e-f) compressed at 1000 ◦ C / 0.01 s− 1; (g-h) compressed at 1000 ◦ C / 1 s− 1; Note, the crystallographic orientation-color relation map
corresponding to the colour-coded stereographic triangle IPF.
MAGBs should inherit the prior compressed austenite to a great extent
[46], this phenomenon indicates that the new substructures and bulging
were formed in the MAGBs range when prior austenite boundaries
compressed at 900 ◦ C suffered from a large strain.
In the individual grains, the specific-range orientation gradients can
be vividly exhibited by kernel average misorientation (KAM) map [48].
The KAM maps in this investigation were obtained through a 7 × 7 filter
and misorientation boundaries larger than 5◦ regardless of samples. For
the samples compressed at 850 ◦ C / 0.1 s− 1 and 1000 ◦ C / 0.01 s− 1, the
areas marked by red dashed ellipses (Fig. 9 (a) and (c)) exhibited a
comparatively higher frequency of local strain than other deformed re­
gions owing to the occurrence of non-recrystallised austenite grains in
these areas before phase transition. This phenomenon indicates the
plastic deformed austenite is inherited by the phase generated during
the deformation process by degree due to the shear mechanism, while
most plastic strains could be offset once the DRX took place. Another
1177
Journal of Manufacturing Processes 58 (2020) 1171–1181
aspect needs to be mentioned that the local misorientation near 5◦
indicated by red arrows shown in Fig. 9 (a–d) always exists along the
elongated grain boundaries, implying that the newly formed sub­
structures may grow in these regions.
Further, the samples compressed at 850 ◦ C and 900 ◦ C show the
higher mean local strains than other samples when compared the four
KAM maps (Fig. 9 (e)). It appears to be consistent with the fact that the
higher temperature transformation microstructure may have lower local
strain because less transformation plastic strain requires to be accom­
modated [48,49]. However, owing to the various deformed parameters
from initial status to phase transformation, the intensity of local strain in
the final microstructure is determined by both the true strain and the
amount of plastic strain occurred during the austenitic compression.
Hence, the samples compressed at 850 ◦ C and 900 ◦ C are expected to
have higher proportions of local strain because of the major DRV in this
case.
Y. Lu et al. Journal of Manufacturing Processes 58 (2020) 1171–1181

Fig. 8. Misorientation angle distributions of the specimens under different deformed conditions: (a) 850 ◦ C / 0.1 s− 1, (b) 900 ◦ C / 0.1 s− 1, (d) 1000 ◦ C / 0.01 s− 1 (e)
1000 ◦ C / 1 s− 1; comparisons of middle misorientation angle distributions between (e) 850 ◦ C / 0.1 s− 1 and 900 ◦ C / 0.1 s− 1, (f) 1000 ◦ C / 0.01 s− 1 and 1000 ◦ C / 1
s− 1, and (g) 900 ◦ C / 0.1 s− 1 and 1000 ◦ C / 1 s− 1.

4. Discussion can improve the nucleation of new DRX owing to the unstable thermo­
dynamical situation [16]. This indicates the dislocation density and DRX
4.1. Mechanical behaviour of austenite at high-temperature deformation could neutralise during straining, leading to a work softening process
followed by a steady state stress. The σp and steady-state stress (σ s) can
The dislocation density evolution is one of the most significant fac­ be obtained by the following equations [52]:
tors influencing the flow behaviour of austenite during the process of hot
compression, which can be divided into two competing aspects (DRV σ p = K3 (ρc )1/2 (4)
and work hardening) in the form of dislocation annihilation. Besides, the
DRX of material is significantly affected by stacking fault energy (SFE) σ s = K3 (ρh )1/2 (5)
[50,51]. Thus, the dislocation density is expected to affect the flow stress ∫ ρc
(σ ) as a single parameter based on: ρh = ρ g(ρ, t) dρ (6)
√̅̅̅ ρ0
σ = σ 0 + αGMb ρ (3)
where, g(ρ,t)dρ represents the volume fraction of the area containing
Here, σ0 is the frictional stress, G is the shear modulus, M means the dislocation density in the range from ρ to ρ + dρ. Besides, the changes in
Taylor factor, α is invariable which is dependent on the geometrical dislocation substructures from homogeneous (ρc) to heterogeneous (ρh)
setting of dislocations, b refers to the Burgers vector, while ρ represents could contribute to the flow softening under DRX. The relationship be­
the dislocation density. As mentioned above, due to the low SFE, ρ is tween flow stress decrement (from peak stress to steady-state) and
considered as a single parameter to be distributed homogeneously. As dislocation density was reported by Sakai [52] as:
observed in Fig. 2, the flow stress varies with different compressive
( )12
conditions under a given small strain, which means the accumulated Δσ ρh
=1− (7)
dislocation density is various. This is because that the DRV is a thermally σp ρc
activated progress [51]. The continuously increased dislocation density

1178
Y. Lu et al. Journal of Manufacturing Processes 58 (2020) 1171–1181

Fig. 9. Local misorientation maps of the specimens compressed at conditions of (a) 850 ◦ C / 0.1 s− 1, (b) 900 ◦ C / 0.1 s− 1, (c) 1000 ◦ C / 0.1 s− 1
(d) 1000 ◦ C / 1 s− 1, (e)
comparison of mean local strain for each specimen.

Here, if the value of ρh/ρc is constant, the decrement of flow stress (Δσ) 4.2. Influence of hot compression on the room-temperature microstructure
will be proportional to σp. Through analysing the data obtained from
Fig. 2, the value of Δσ/ σp can be calculated in the range of 0.018 – 0.182 In reality, the aforementioned EBSD results further identify that the
(see Fig. 10). Yet other aspects like strain-induced precipitation has not characterisation of deformation substructures are various and suscepti­
been factored in, it still implies the diverse heterogeneity of dislocation, ble to different compression conditions. During the plastic deformation,
which means changes in dislocation substructures from ρc to ρh are quite the stored energy (Es ) could be utilised to reflect the influence of hot
different on account of DRX for various compressive conditions. compression on the evolution of microstructure since it represents the
One of the most important findings is that partial DRX behaviour of austenitic status through dislocation. Es could be represented below
the studied steel may correspond to the strain-stress curves without peak [55]:
stress points since the peak stress is not a reliable indication for DRX and
1
that DRX is linked to microstructure and processing effects such as strain Es = Gb2 ρ (8)
2
rate and compressive temperature. However, it is still unclear for this
phenomenon due to complex reasons. The dislocation density may be At the large strains condition, the frictional stress (σ0<<σ) can be
influenced by some different factors like various microalloying elements omitted when combining Eq. (10) with Eq. (5). Hence, Es can be
and induced precipitation which is caused by different strain rates [16], expressed as an equation of flow stress:
such as the carbide precipitation in the progress of bainitic trans­ 1
formation [27,53] and the alloying element Cu which can accelerate the Es = (σ /M α)2 (9)
2G
strain-induced precipitation [54]. However, the interaction mechanism
of these effects requires further identification. Applying the values G = 4 × 104 MPa at high temperatures [56], M =

1179
Y. Lu et al.
Fig. 10. Relationship between ration of decrement Δσ to peak stress (σp) and
peak stress (σp).
2.86 for FCC crystals [57], α is normally controlled in the range of 0.2 −
0.3 [55]. According to the flow stress acquired from Fig. 2, when all
samples are subjected to the same strain of 0.8, Es of the specimens
compressed at 950 ◦ C, 900 ◦ C, and 850 ◦ C could be determined to be
4.29, 6.18 and 8.42 J/mol, respectively. The discrepancy in Es is around
2 J/mol, which is tiny enough to provide sufficient nucleation of prod­
ucts in comparison with the strain energy of shear transformation (more
than 400 J/mol) [16]. The calculated values are just the mean Es of
dislocation per unit while the dislocations are focused more on the slip
bands and planes. Thus, it is still receivable that the nucleation of F is
probably promoted by the local Es .
5. Conclusions
In this study, the effects of hot deformation conditions on the flow
behaviour and microstructures in a medium carbon micro-alloyed spring
steel were comprehensively investigated. The detailed conclusions can
be drawn below:
(1) The DRX behaviour would be affected by different deformation
conditions (strain rate, strain and temperatures, etc) and was
accelerated as the strain rate decreased and temperature
increased. The peak stress points are not necessarily equal to the
occurrence of DRX phenomenon because some partial DRX may
happen in some flow stress curves with no peak stress points,
which may be related to compression condition, e.g., strain rate.
(2) The critical conditions (σc and εc) can more accurately reflect the
DRX behaviour, and the value of σc could be obtained by the θ-σ
curve. The σc/ σp ratio is in well line with other micro-alloyed
steels. The discontinuous DRX behaviour arose from the stress
softening in the hot compression process. Low strain rates and
high deformation temperatures contributed to DRX occurrence
and microstructure coarsening.
(3) In the prior austenite matrix, the Es of deformation dislocation
can promote the nucleation of AF and the formation of AF is
considered to be suppressed with the increase of deformed tem­
peratures. Additionally, the Es was consumed by DRX behaviour,
leading to the transformation of BF and M.
(4) Despite the other deformed substructures are almost disappeared,
the microstructure evoluted from major DRV samples occupied a
larger fraction of MAGBs and higher average KAM local misori­
entation angles than that of DRX samples according to the EBSD
results. The findings should be a valuable reference concerning
the control of phase transformation and process optimisation in
the further industrial hot forming/bending technique for a spring
1180
Journal of Manufacturing Processes 58 (2020) 1171–1181
fastener with acceptable phase compositions, grain structures and
mechanical properties.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declared that they have no conflicts of interest and have
no commercial or associative interest that represents a conflict of in­
terest in connection with the work submitted.
Acknowledgements
The authors are so grateful for the financial support from the ARC
ITTC-Rail project at the University of Wollongong (UOW). The authors
are thankful for the support of our industrial partner: the Innovative
Technology Beijing Company. We finally wish to thank all the techni­
cians in the UOW workshop for the sample preparation.
References
[1] Kai ZHANG YC, SUN Yanhui, XU Zhijun. Effect of H2O(g) on decarburization of
55SiCr spring steel during the heating process. Acta Metall 2018;54:1350–8.
https://doi.org/10.11900/0412.1961.2017.00558.
[2] Ferreño D, Casado JA, Carrascal IA, Diego S, Ruiz E, Saiz M, et al. Experimental and
finite element fatigue assessment of the spring clip of the SKL-1 railway fastening
system. Eng Struct 2019;188:553–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
engstruct.2019.03.053.
[3] Hasap A, Paitekul P, Noraphaiphipaksa N, Kanchanomai C. Analysis of the fatigue
performance of elastic rail clip. Eng Fail Anal 2018;92:195–204. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.engfailanal.2018.05.013.
[4] Cui J, Liu Y-z, Pan H, Gao L-f. Reheating austenitizing temperature of spring steel
60Si2MnA for railway. J Iron Steel Res Int 2008;15:62–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/
S1006-706X(08)60268-X.
[5] Ardehali Barani A, Ponge D, Raabe D. Refinement of grain boundary carbides in a
Si–Cr spring steel by thermomechanical treatment. Mater Sci Eng A 2006;426:
194–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2006.04.002.
[6] Han Y, Yan S, Yin B, Li H, Ran X. Effects of temperature and strain rate on the
dynamic recrystallization of a medium-high-carbon high-silicon bainitic steel
during hot deformation. Vacuum 2018;148:78–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
vacuum.2017.11.007.
[7] Hu F, Hodgson PD, Wu KM. Acceleration of the super bainite transformation
through a coarse austenite grain size. Mater Lett 2014;122:240–3. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.matlet.2014.02.051.
[8] Zhao J, Jiang Z, Zu G, Du W, Zhang X, Jiang L. Flow behaviour and constitutive
modelling of a ferritic stainless steel at elevated temperatures. Met Mater Int 2016;
22:474–87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12540-016-5541-8.
[9] Imbert CAC, McQueen HJ. Peak strength, strain hardening and dynamic restoration
of A2 and M2 tool steels in hot deformation. Mater Sci Eng A 2001;313:88–103.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-5093(01)00976-5.
[10] Ma X, Zeng W, Xu B, Sun Y, Xue C, Han Y. Characterization of the hot deformation
behavior of a Ti–22Al–25Nb alloy using processing maps based on the Murty
criterion. Intermetallics 2012;20:1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
intermet.2011.08.027.
[11] Chegini M, Aboutalebi MR, Seyedein SH, Ebrahimi GR, Jahazi M. Study on hot
deformation behavior of AISI 414 martensitic stainless steel using 3D processing
map. J Manuf Process 2020;56:916–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
jmapro.2020.05.008.
[12] Wu K, Liu G, Hu B, Li F, Zhang Y, Tao Y, et al. Hot compressive deformation
behavior of a new hot isostatically pressed Ni–Cr–Co based powder metallurgy
superalloy. Mater Des 2011;32:1872–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
matdes.2010.12.014.
[13] Zhao J, Ding H, Jiang Z, Wei D, Linghu K. Effects of hydrogen on the critical
conditions for dynamic recrystallization of titanium alloy during hot deformation.
Metall Mater Trans A 2014;45:4932–45. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-014-
2448-1.
[14] McQueen HJ, Yue S, Ryan ND, Fry E. Hot working characteristics of steels in
austenitic state. J Mater Process Technol 1995;53:293–310. https://doi.org/
10.1016/0924-0136(95)01987-P.
[15] Sakai T, Belyakov A, Kaibyshev R, Miura H, Jonas JJ. Dynamic and post-dynamic
recrystallization under hot, cold and severe plastic deformation conditions. Prog
Mater Sci 2014;60:130–207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmatsci.2013.09.002.
[16] Lan L, Zhou W, Misra RDK. Effect of hot deformation parameters on flow stress and
microstructure in a low carbon microalloyed steel. Mater Sci Eng A 2019;756:
18–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2019.04.039.
[17] Poliak EI, Jonas JJ. Initiation of dynamic recrystallization in constant strain rate
hot deformation. Isij Int 2003;43:684–91. https://doi.org/10.2355/
isijinternational.43.684.
[18] Beladi H, Cizek P, Hodgson PD. On the characteristics of substructure development
through dynamic recrystallization. Acta Mater 2010;58:3531–41. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.actamat.2010.02.026.
Y. Lu et al.
[19] Kim YM, Lee H, Kim NJ. Transformation behavior and microstructural
characteristics of acicular ferrite in linepipe steels. Mater Sci Eng A 2008;478:
361–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2007.06.035.
[20] Garcia-Mateo C, Caballero FG, Bhadeshia HKDH. Development of hard bainite. Isij
Int 2003;43:1238–43. https://doi.org/10.2355/isijinternational.43.1238.
[21] Xu G, Liu F, Wang L, Hu H. A new approach to quantitative analysis of bainitic
transformation in a superbainite steel. Scr Mater 2013;68:833–6. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.scriptamat.2013.01.033.
[22] Morales-Rivas L, Yen H-W, Huang B-M, Kuntz M, Caballero FG, Yang J-R, et al.
Tensile response of two nanoscale bainite composite-like structures. JOM 2015;67:
2223–35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-015-1562-x.
[23] Zhou Q, Qian L, Meng J, Zhao L, Zhang F. Low-cycle fatigue behavior and
microstructural evolution in a low-carbon carbide-free bainitic steel. Mater Des
2015;85:487–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2015.06.172.
[24] Morales-Rivas L, Garcia-Mateo C, Kuntz M, Sourmail T, Caballero FG. Induced
martensitic transformation during tensile test in nanostructured bainitic steels.
Mater Sci Eng A 2016;662:169–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2016.03.070.
[25] Zhang MX, Kelly PM. Crystallography of carbide-free bainite in a hard bainitic
steel. Mater Sci Eng A 2006;438-440:272–5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
msea.2006.05.022.
[26] Soliman M, Palkowski H. Microstructure development and mechanical properties
of medium carbon carbide-free bainite steels. Procedia Eng 2014;81:1306–11.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.10.148.
[27] Yin B, Han Y, Wang W, Li H, Liu Y, Ran X. Flow characteristics of a medium–High
carbon Mn-Si-Cr alloyed steel at high temperatures. J Mater Eng Perform 2019;28:
5104–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-019-04197-7.
[28] Wang Z, Liu X, Xie F, Lai C, Li H, Zhang Q. Dynamic recrystallization behavior and
critical strain of 51CrV4 high-strength spring steel during hot deformation. JOM
2018;70:2385–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-018-3054-2.
[29] Chen Q, Engström A, Höglund L, Strandlund H, Sundman B. Thermo-calc program
interfaces and their applications-direct insertion of thermodynamic and kinetic
data into modeling of materials processing, structure, and property. Mater Sci
Forum 2005.
[30] Tsao LC, Chen CH, Wu RW, Chang SY, Chen RS. Plastic flow behavior,
microstructure, and corrosion behavior of AZ61 Mg alloy during hot compression
deformation. J Manuf Process 2015;18:167–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
jmapro.2015.01.008.
[31] Han Y, Qiao G, Sun J, Zou D. A comparative study on constitutive relationship of
as-cast 904L austenitic stainless steel during hot deformation based on Arrhenius-
type and artificial neural network models. Comput Mater Sci 2013;67:93–103.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.commatsci.2012.07.028.
[32] Liu J, Chang H, Wu R, Hsu TY, Ruan X. Investigation on hot deformation behavior
of AISI T1 high-speed steel. Mater Charact 2000;45:175–86. https://doi.org/
10.1016/S1044-5803(00)00071-1.
[33] Xu Z, Huang F. Plastic behavior and constitutive modeling of armor steel over wide
temperature and strain rate ranges. Acta Mech Solida Sin 2012;25:598–608.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0894-9166(12)60055-X.
[34] Ren F, Chen F, Chen J, Tang X. Hot deformation behavior and processing maps of
AISI 420 martensitic stainless steel. J Manuf Process 2018;31:640–9. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2017.12.015.
[35] Han Y, Liu G, Zou D, Liu R, Qiao G. Deformation behavior and microstructural
evolution of as-cast 904L austenitic stainless steel during hot compression. Mater
Sci Eng A 2013;565:342–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2012.12.043.
[36] Lin YC, Chen X-M. A critical review of experimental results and constitutive
descriptions for metals and alloys in hot working. Mater Des 2011;32:1733–59.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2010.11.048.
[37] Najafizadeh A, Jonas JJ. Predicting the critical stress for initiation of dynamic
recrystallization. Isij Int 2006;46:1679–84. https://doi.org/10.2355/
isijinternational.46.1679.
[38] Zhao H, Wynne BP, Palmiere EJ. Conditions for the occurrence of acicular ferrite
transformation in HSLA steels. J Mater Sci 2018;53:3785–804. https://doi.org/
10.1007/s10853-017-1781-3.
1181
Journal of Manufacturing Processes 58 (2020) 1171–1181
[39] Lan L, Chang Z, Kong X, Qiu C, Zhao D. Phase transformation, microstructure, and
mechanical properties of X100 pipeline steels based on TMCP and HTP concepts.
J Mater Sci 2017;52:1661–78. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-016-0459-6.
[40] Lan L, Yu M, Qiu C. On the local mechanical properties of isothermally transformed
bainite in low carbon steel. Mater Sci Eng A 2019;742:442–50. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.msea.2018.11.011.
[41] Díaz-Fuentes M, Gutiérrez I. Analysis of different acicular ferrite microstructures
generated in a medium-carbon molybdenum steel. Mater Sci Eng A 2003;363:
316–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-5093(03)00665-8.
[42] Krauss G, Thompson SW. Ferritic microstructures in continuously cooled low- and
ultralow-carbon steels. Isij Int 1995;35:937–45. https://doi.org/10.2355/
isijinternational.35.937.
[43] Wang S, Zhang M, Wu H, Yang B. Study on the dynamic recrystallization model
and mechanism of nuclear grade 316LN austenitic stainless steel. Mater Charact
2016;118:92–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchar.2016.05.015.
[44] Shi Z-x, Yan X-f, Duan C-h, Zhao M-h. Effect of strain rate on hot deformation
characteristics of GH690 superalloy. Trans Nonferrous Met Soc China 2017;27:
538–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1003-6326(17)60082-7.
[45] Haghdadi N, Cizek P, Beladi H, Hodgson PD. The austenite microstructure
evolution in a duplex stainless steel subjected to hot deformation. Philos Mag 2017;
97:1209–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/14786435.2017.1293860.
[46] Flower HM, Lindley TC. Electron backscattering diffraction study of acicular
ferrite, bainite, and martensite steel microstructures. Mater Sci Technol 2000;16:
26–40. https://doi.org/10.1179/026708300773002636.
[47] Lan L, Kong X, Qiu C. Characterization of coarse bainite transformation in low
carbon steel during simulated welding thermal cycles. Mater Charact 2015;105:
95–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchar.2015.05.010.
[48] Sun L, Muszka K, Wynne BP, Palmiere EJ. Effect of strain path on dynamic strain-
induced transformation in a microalloyed steel. Acta Mater 2014;66:132–49.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2013.11.062.
[49] Hidalgo J, Santofimia MJ. Effect of prior austenite grain size refinement by thermal
cycling on the microstructural features of As-Quenched lath martensite. Metall
Mater Trans A 2016;47:5288–301. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-016-3525-4.
[50] Ding R, Guo ZX. Coupled quantitative simulation of microstructural evolution and
plastic flow during dynamic recrystallization. Acta Mater 2001;49:3163–75.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1359-6454(01)00233-6.
[51] Huang K, Logé RE. A review of dynamic recrystallization phenomena in metallic
materials. Mater Des 2016;111:548–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
matdes.2016.09.012.
[52] Sakai T. Dynamic recrystallization microstructures under hot working conditions.
J Mater Process Technol 1995;53:349–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/0924-0136
(95)01992-N.
[53] Vargas VH, Mejía I, Baltazar-Hernández VH, Maldonado C. Characterization of
resistance spot welded transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) steels with
different silicon and carbon contents. J Manuf Process 2018;32:307–17. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2018.02.005.
[54] M.B.W, Zhou GF, Li PH, He WIXL. 1) National Enterprise Technology Center, W.
Steel Group Co., China 2) University of Science, B. Technology Beijing, China.
Effect of copper and boron content on strain-induced Nb(C,N) precipitation in ulcb
steels at hot deformation temperature. Acta Metall Sin 2000;13:623–8.
[55] Sun L, Muszka K, Wynne BP, Palmiere EJ. Influence of Strain history and cooling
rate on the austenite decomposition behavior and phase transformation products in
a microalloyed steel. Metall Mater Trans A 2014;45:3619–30. https://doi.org/
10.1007/s11661-014-2283-4.
[56] Ghosh G, Olson GB. The isotropic shear modulus of multicomponent Fe-base solid
solutions. Acta Mater 2002;50:2655–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1359-6454(02)
00096-4.
[57] Shrivastava SC, Jonas JJ, Canova G. Equivalent strain in large deformation torsion
testing : theoretical and practical considerations. J Mech Phys Solids 1982;30:
75–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5096(82)90014-X.