Design and Development of bcc-Copper- and B2 Nickel-Aluminium-Precipitation-Strengthened Ferritic Steel

A series of high-strength low-carbon bcc-Cu- & B2-NiAl-precipitation-strengthened ferritic steels with Mn, Cu, Ni and Al were studied. The yield strength of these alloys increases with the amount of alloying elements. A maximum strength of 1600 MPa, with 12.40 at. % elements, is achieved which is about 30 % higher than the strength of previously reports NUCu (Northwestern Copper) alloys. All the alloys studied attain a maximum hardness within 1–2 h of aging at 500°C–550°C. Aging at a lower temperature and solution treating at a higher temperature can increase the hardness of all the alloys. The lower aging temperature is limited to 500°C by the slow precipitation kinetics observed at 400°C. The higher solution treatment temperature is limited to 1050°C by the adverse impact on toughness in dilute alloys.;The primary strengthening contribution is due to combined precipitation of bcc Cu and NiAl-type intermetallic precipitates. The composition, structure and morphology evolution of the precipitates from the 1600 MPa alloy was studied using atom probe tomography and transmission electron microscopy, as a function of aging time at 550°C. Near the peak hardness, the equiaxed bcc Cu-alloyed precipitates have substantial amounts of Fe and are coherent with the Fe matrix. On subsequent aging, the Cu-alloyed precipitates are progressively enriched with Cu and elongate to transform to the 9R phase. The number density of the Cu-alloyed and NiAl-type precipitate is similar near peak hardness indicating that NiAl-type precipitates nucleate on Cu-alloyed precipitates. Almost all Cu-alloyed precipitates are enveloped on one side by ordered NiAl-type precipitates after aging from 2 h to 100 h. Cu-alloyed precipitates coarsen slower than NiAl-type precipitates because of three possible reasons: interfacial energy differences between the two types of precipitates, slower diffusion kinetics of Cu through the ordered B2 NiAl envelope around the bcc Cu-alloyed precipitate versus bcc Fe and solute transfer from Cu-alloyed precipitate to B2 NiAl. The relatively slow growth and coarsening of Cu-alloyed precipitate is consistent with the observation of modest decrease of hardness with aging in all the alloys studied.