Materials Science and Technology

ISSN: 0267-0836 (Print) 1743-2847 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ymst20

Effect of the heat treatment on the microstructure

and mechanical properties of medium-Mn-steels

Reinhold Schneider, Katharina Steineder, Daniel Krizan & Christof

Sommitsch

To cite this article: Reinhold Schneider, Katharina Steineder, Daniel Krizan & Christof Sommitsch
(2018): Effect of the heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of medium-
Mn-steels, Materials Science and Technology, DOI: 10.1080/02670836.2018.1548957

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02670836.2018.1548957

Published online: 30 Nov 2018.

Submit your article to this journal

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ymst20
MATERIALS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
https://doi.org/10.1080/02670836.2018.1548957

Effect of the heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties

of medium-Mn-steels
Reinhold Schneidera , Katharina Steinederb , Daniel Krizanc and Christof Sommitsch d

a Department for Materials Technology, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Wels, Austria; b Research & Development and

Innovation, voestalpine Steel GmbH, Linz, Austria; c Business Unit Coil, voestalpine Steel GmbH, Linz, Austria; d Institute of Material Science,
Joining and Forming, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The heat-treatment (HT) schedule and selected annealing parameters have a substantial effect Received 8 August 2018
on the microstructure and mechanical properties of medium-Mn-steels. The structure mor- Revised 9 November 2018
phology depends on the fact, whether the austenite-reverted transformation takes place from Accepted 10 November 2018
deformed (one-step HT) or non-deformed (two-step HT) microstructures. Depending on the KEYWORDS
intercritical annealing temperature, the stability of the retained austenite can be altered to a large Medium-Mn-steels; heat
extent. As a result, the mechanical properties can be adjusted from high strength with excellent treatment; microstructure;
ductility to very high strength with reasonable ductility. The present contribution, therefore, elu- mechanical properties
cidates the dependence of the microstructural characteristics and material behaviour on the HT
parameters for medium-Mn alloy compositions with different Mn-contents.

Introduction austenite. To achieve a substantial TRIP-effect, retained

Growing demands for weight reduction and improved
crashworthiness properties for automotive applications
are the driving force for the development of new
steel grades and advanced heat-treatment (HT) pro-
cesses in the steel industry. Based on these demands
Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS) have been
developed within the last decades. Dual-phase (DP)
and transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) steels,
generally regarded as 1st generation AHSS, offer a
widespread property range to minimise wall thick-
nesses or increase passenger safety due to high strength
(typically 800–1000 MPa) combined with a good duc-
tility (elongations of 15–25%) [1–4]. High manganese
(up to 22%) alloyed twinning induced plasticity steels
(TWIP) are regarded as the 2nd generation AHSS.
These high-ductile steels combine the high-tensile
strength of about 1000 MPa with elongations of about
50% [5]. A 3rd generation AHSS has recently being
developed to fill the property gap between the two pre-
vious ones [6,7]. Apart from Quenching and Partition-
ing (Q&P) steels [8–10] and TRIP bainitic Ferrite (TBF)
steels [11–13], one of potential candidates, to fulfil the
criteria for the 3rd generation AHSS with respect to
their mechanical properties, are the so-called medium-
Mn-steels with manganese contents between typically 3
and 10 wt-%. The challenges of modern AHSS concepts
from the HT point of view are the exact adjustment of
the volume fraction of the individual microstructural
constituents, i.e. that of martensite, bainite and retained
austenite is stabilised by partitioning of carbon and
manganese between tempered martensite (ferrite) and
austenite during long holding times in the intercritical
temperature range [14–16].
To adjust the microstructure, two different HT
routes, which are displayed in Figure 1, can be used:
a two-step HT [17–20], which combines an austeni-
tising step during continuous – annealing and a (usu-
ally longer) intercritical (batch-) annealing cycle; or a
one-step HT consisting only of the (usually longer)
intercritical (batch-) annealing directly after (hot or
cold) rolling [20–23]. As mentioned for the one-step
HT, the heat treatment starts from an either hot-rolled
or additionally cold-rolled state, which can contain
mixed martensitic, bainitic, ferritic or even annealed
(tempered) microstructures. In the one-step HT cycle
(Figure 1), the hot (and additionally cold) rolled mate-
rial is directly transferred to intercritical annealing.
While for hot-rolled non-deformed material austen-
ite formation and its carbon and manganese enrich-
ment are the dominant processes during intercritical
annealing, for deformed cold-rolled material recrys-
tallisation additionally occurs [18,20]. This difference
in the microstructural evolution results into differ-
ent morphologies of the respective phases. Indeed, the
ferritic-austenitic microstructure of the non-deformed
hot-rolled starting material appears in a predomi-
nantly lath-like shape [21–23], whereas a fully glob-
ular microstructure is obtained when starting from a

CONTACT Katharina Steineder katharina.steineder@voestalpine.com Research & Development and Innovation, voestalpine Steel GmbH, Linz,
Austria

© 2018 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

2 R. SCHNEIDER ET AL.
Figure 1. Illustrations of the one-step HT and the two-step
HT routines (α´ = martensite, B = bainite, α = ferrite or tem-
pered martensite, α´d Bd α d = cold deformed microstructural
constituents, γ = austenite, γ ret = retained austenite).
deformed microstructure [18,22,24]. In order to obtain
these lath-like microstructural constituents in a cold-
rolled material, an additional HT step consisting of a
full austenitisation, followed by a quenching operation
to achieve a preferentially fully martensitic microstruc-
ture, has to be incorporated. Subsequently, intercritical
(batch-) annealing in the α–γ -region permits carbon
and manganese to diffuse into the newly formed lath-
like austenite [18]. This HT schedule is referred to as
two-step HT in this contribution. For both HT sched-
ules, the austenite is chemically and mechanically sta-
bilised by a very fine-grained microstructure and the
enrichment in carbon and manganese [17,25,26] con-
sisting of a ferritic matrix and typically between 20
and 40 vol.-% of retained austenite can be obtained
[17,18,22,23,26,27].
The present study gives a broad overview about var-
ious influencing factors as Mn-content, cooling rate,
annealing temperature and different HT on medium-
Mn steels. The paper elucidates the controlling factors
that significantly govern the microstructural develop-
ment and, therefore, the final mechanical properties
during manufacturing of these steel grades.
Materials and methods
The present contribution focuses on the microstruc-
tural evolution and corresponding mechanical proper-
ties of three lab-scale low-carbon steels with varying
amounts of manganese. The chemical compositions of
the investigated steels are listed in Table 1.
Table 1. The chemical composition of the investigated steels in
wt-%.
Grade C Mn Si Al P S
0.1C3.5Mn 0.11 3.5 0.3 0.008 0.005 0.007
0.1C5Mn 0.10 5.1 0.01 0.009 0.006 0.007
0.1C6.5Mn 0.10 6.4 0.01 0.009 0.006 0.006
The steels were cast into ingots of 80 kg in a lab-scale
medium frequency induction furnace followed by their
sectioning. Subsequently, hot-rolling was performed in
a temperature range between 1100 and 900°C, lead-
ing to a final reduction in the thickness of the sample
from 40 to 3 mm. After a soft annealing process, the
hot-rolled strips were cold-rolled to a final thickness of
1 mm.
In a first investigation step of the two lower Mn-
alloyed steels CCT-diagrams were established. Samples
for these dilatometric investigations were produced
from hot-rolled strips by wire electrical discharge
machining to dimensions of 4 × 3 × 10 mm3. After the
measurement of the transformation temperatures (Ac1,
Ac3), the transformation behaviour of the two steels
from fully austenitic-state was determined for cooling
rates between 100 and 0.03 K/s. These results provide
useful information for the transformation behaviour in
the first-step of a two-step HT sequence.
Further dilatometric investigations concentrated on
the simulation of the second-step batch-annealing
cycles in the intercritical temperature region. The
applied time-temperature schedules were adopted from
data used in industrial-scale furnaces. The holding
time during batch-annealing simulation was 8 h. The
temperature range investigated was between 575 and
750°C. To determine the effect of the cooling con-
ditions upon intercritical annealing, the cooling rates
were varied between 10 and 0.01 K/s.
Material for mechanical testing was obtained by
intercritical annealing of the cold-rolled sheet mate-
rial at temperatures between 580 and 700°C for 8 h,
referred to as one-step HT regime. Heating and cool-
ing were conducted slowly with rates of 1 K/min and
0.001 K/s, respectively. These parameters are in accor-
dance with industrial batch-annealing cycle. To study
the effect of a different initial microstructure prior
to the intercritical annealing a two-step HT was also
applied, which consisted of a prior full austenitisation
at 810°C for 120 s and gas quenching with a cooling
rate of 36 K/s. Subsequently, the material was inter-
critically annealed according to the aforementioned
parameters.
For light optical microstructural investigations, sam-
ples were grinded, polished and etched with 3% nital
etchant. More detailed microstructural characterisa-
tions were carried out by scanning electron microscopy
(SEM), whereby the samples were electrochemically
polished. Since medium-Mn-steels contain highly Mn
and C enriched austenite, the etching of the austen-
ite responded differently to conventional TRIP-steels.
Retained austenite in conventional TRIP-steels remains
elevated and smooth [28,29], while retained austenite
in medium-Mn-steels dissolves and appears as cavi-
ties [18,24]. Further information on the microstruc-
tural development and characterisation can be found in
[16,19].

Additionally, the amount of retained austenite (RA)
was determined by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) accord-
ing to ASTM 975-03 using a 40 kV Mo-Kα-radiation
and by the saturation magnetisation method (SMM).
While there was a good agreement between XRD and
magnetic measurements for the hot-rolled samples,
XRD delivered lower values after recrystallisation and
intercritical annealing of the cold-rolled samples. These
differences were attributed to texturing effects and only
magnetic values were used for documentation.
Tensile testing was performed according to the inter-
national standard ISO 6892-1 on a ZWICK-Roell BTC-
FR020TN tensile testing machine. Specimens with a
gauge length of 25 mm and a width of 12.5 mm were
machined with their tensile axis parallel to the rolling
direction.
Results and discussion
Quenching behaviour
The CCT-diagrams of the steel 0.1C3.5Mn and
0.1C5Mn are shown in Figure 2. The bainite forma-
tion of the steel 0.1C3.5Mn takes place quite early i.e.
at a cooling rate of 30 K/s and ferrite is formed when
the cooling rate decreases below 1 K/s, thereby lowering
the Ms -temperature. For the steel 0.1C5Mn, the ferritic
transformation could not be observed even at cooling
rates of 0.03 K/s. The bainite formation could only take
place at cooling rates of about 3 K/s or lower.
In addition to dilatometric and microstructural
investigations, Vickers-hardness measurements were
performed and the hardness values are indicated in the
CCT-diagrams in Figure 2. In general, the steel with 5%
Figure 2. CCT-diagrams for the steels, top: 0.1C3.5Mn and bot-
tom: 0.1C5Mn.
MATERIALS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 3
Mn has an overall higher hardness, dropping slightly
with slower cooling rates. In comparison, the hardness
of the 3.5% Mn-steels drops more significantly by about
100 HV10 between a cooling rate of 10 and 1 K/s.
The microstructure of the 0.1C3.5Mn steel in
Figure 3 is fully martensitic after rapid quenching. After
slow cooling, it consists of ferrite, bainite and also
martensite. The microstructure of the 0.1C5Mn steel
is fully martensitic after quenching and it consists of a
mixture of bainite and martensite when applying lower
cooling rates than 1 K/s. More detailed information of
the transformation behaviour, including the effect of
microalloying, can be found in [30].
This transformation behaviour indicates the nec-
essary cooling conditions to achieve a predominantly
martensitic microstructure. At lower Mn-contents
rapid quenching is pre-requisite. For higher Mn-
contents, > 5 wt-% transformation kinetics are rea-
sonably decelerated to achieve martensite by typical
continuous annealing lines.
Microstructural changes during intercritical
annealing
The intercritical annealing, independent whether one-
step or two-step HT is applied, represents the most
important process step to adjust the material properties.
Effect of the annealing temperature
During intercritical annealing, a microstructure con-
sisting of either ferrite in the case of one-step HT or
tempered martensite in the case of two-step HT and
austenite is formed. The higher the selected anneal-
ing temperature, the larger is the intercritical austen-
ite content. With sufficient holding time not only C
but also Mn is enriched in the austenite contributing
to its stability. Owing to these changes in the chemi-
cal composition of the austenite, the Ms -temperature
decreases with declining annealing temperature and at
a certain point, the martensite formation can be com-
pletely shifted below ambient temperature (AT). As a
result, the intercritical austenite can be fully stabilised at
AT. At annealing temperatures higher than this optimal
temperature, considerable amounts of the intercritical
austenite transform into martensite (or bainite) and,
therefore, decrease the amount of retained austenite.
On the contrary, at lower annealing temperatures than
the optimal one, no phase transformation takes place
during cooling but the amount of RA is limited by a
lower amount of intercritical austenite.
These microstructural changes are clearly reflected
by the SEM observations in Figure 4, exemplarily
shown for the steel 0.1C6.4Mn after two-step HT. After
8 h annealing at 580°C and cooling with 1 K/s, the
microstructure exhibits a matrix consisting of highly
tempered martensite with undissolved (Fe,Mn)3 C and
4 R. SCHNEIDER ET AL.

Figure 3. Microstructures after different cooling rates 0.1C3.5Mn left: 100 K/s, right: 0.03 K/s and 0.1C5Mn left: 100 K/s, right: 0.03 K/s
(α = ferrite, α´ = martensite, B = bainite).

Figure 4. Microstructures of the Steel 0.1C6.5Mn after intercritical annealing different temperatures for 8 h and subsequent cooling
with 1 K/s (α = ferrite or highly tempered martensite, α´ = martensite, α´´ = self-tempered martensite, γ = retained austenite,
θ = M3 C, cementite).

lath-like shaped retained austenite. For an annealing

temperature of 620°C, a lath-like duplex microstructure
consisting of highly tempered martensite and consider-
able amounts of RA was observed. An increase in the
annealing temperature to 680 and 700°C, respectively,
led to the formation of fresh martensite during cooling.
With rising annealing temperature the amount of inter-
critically formed austenite further increases but the
chemical enrichment in C and Mn is not sufficient for
stabilisation to AT anymore. For an annealing temper-
ature of 700°C, some of the martensites showed finely
precipitated cementite, which indicates the occurrence
of self-tempering during cooling as the Ms -temperature
further increases. Figure 5. Retained austenite content as a function of the
Figure 5 shows the amount of RA as a function of annealing temperature after one-step HT and the cooling rate.
annealing temperature for all three steels 0.1C3.5Mn,
0.1C5Mn and 0.1C6.5Mn, respectively. It can be seen
that the RA content for all investigated compositions is potential at elevated Mn-contents. However, for all
substantially dependent on the annealing temperature. three steels, the same trend with a maximum of RA
For the steel 0.1C6.5, the austenite content was sig- at an optimal annealing temperature was found. This
nificantly higher compared to 0.1C5Mn and 0.1C3.5Mn optimal temperature corresponded with the highest
over the entire range of the investigated annealing investigated annealing temperature, where no transfor-
temperatures due to the higher chemical stabilisation mation to martensite during cooling takes place. For

this temperature, the entire amount of intercritically
formed austenite can be conserved to AT. For higher
annealing temperatures, the chemical enrichment in C
and Mn of the increasing amount of austenite is not
sufficient enough to suppress martensite formation.
Both observations, the possibility of increasing the
maximal RA content with higher Mn-contents as well
as the steady increase in austenite with annealing tem-
perature up to an optimum are among others consistent
with [22,23,31,32].
Effect of the cooling rate after intercritical
annealing
Apart from the influence of the intercritical annealing
temperature, the impact of the cooling rate in the suc-
cessive cooling phase on the microstructural evolution
was additionally investigated for the steel 0.1C5Mn.
Figure 6 shows that a reduced cooling (Ṫ ↓) from 10 K/s
to 0.01 K/s after intercritical annealing at 700°C for
8 h decreased the Ms -temperature from 260 to 220°C.
From this Figure, it is also evident that there is a change
in the thermal expansion coefficient of the steel by
varying cooling rate. Based on the dilatometric curves,
the most significant change in the gradient is initi-
ated at temperatures between 600 and 700°C and this
effect is most pronounced for the lowest cooling rate
(0.01 K/s) compared to the other three. This clearly
indicates that ferrite is formed as a consequence of an
extended cooling time at elevated temperatures. There-
fore, a shrinking amount of the remaining austenite
could be enriched higher in Mn and C, resulting in
the decline in the Ms -temperature (and hardness) for
cooling rates slower than 10 K/s. In comparison with
[33,34], it can be assumed that this new ferrite origi-
nates from epitaxial growth.
Consistent to the dilatometry, the cooling rate also
influenced the RA content. The measurement of the
amount of RA using dilatometric samples showed a
Figure 6. Effect of the cooling rate on the transformation
behaviour of the steel 0.1C5Mn after 8 h intercritical annealing
at 700°C.
MATERIALS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 5
slight increase at cooling rates between 10 and 0.1 K/s at
RA contents of ∼ 4% followed by a significant gain to
7.5% at reduced cooling rates between 0.1 and 0.01 K/s.
This effect of the cooling rate on the amount of
RA can also be observed for the steels 0.1C3.5Mn and
0.1C5Mn (Figure 5). For the steel 0.1C3.5Mn and a
cooling rate of 0.01 K/s (Ṫ ↓), the amount of RA drasti-
cally decreased in the temperature range around 650°C
compared to cooling with 1 K/s. This corresponds to a
pearlite formation during slow cooling (more detailed
information can be found in [16]). In contrast, for
the steel 0.1C5Mn, the maximum RA-content tends to
appear at higher annealing temperatures and displays
slightly higher maximum values with slower cooling
rates (Ṫ ↓). This effect is most remarkable in the tem-
perature range between 650 and 700°C and it can be
attributed to the epitaxial growth of the pre-existing fer-
rite. For the 0.1C5Mn steel, pearlite formation could
be prevented by the higher Mn-content and result-
ing decelerated transformation behaviour (compare
Figure 2).
Effect of the microstructure prior to intercritical
annealing
The selected process-route has a significant influ-
ence on the grain size and the morphology of all
microstructural constituents. While for cold-rolled
material, the initial microstructure prior to the (inter-
critical) one-step HT is heavily cold-worked, the first
part of the two-step HT transforms this microstructure
into martensite with low contents of RA ( < 4 vol.-%),
which, in turn, acts as the initial microstructure for
intercritical annealing (Figure 1).
Figure 7 displays exemplarily the microstructure
obtained after annealing at 640°C of the steel
0.1C6.5Mn either for one-step or for two-step HT,
respectively. After one-step HT, the two microstruc-
tural constituents, ferrite and RA, were both globular
shaped (Figure 7, left). In contrast, the microstructure
after two-step HT had a finer lath-shaped morphology,
except for the RA formed at the triple points of the prior
austenite grains, which was globular (Figure 7, right).
These results confirm the findings in [18], which
provide a detailed description of the microstructural
evolution in medium-Mn steels. The globular shape
in the case of the one-step heat-treated samples orig-
inates from combined recrystallisation of the heav-
ily cold-worked microstructure and partial austenitisa-
tion, whereas the lath-like shape after two-step HT was
a consequence of austenite nucleation from cementite
as a result of martensite tempering along with the ini-
tial martensite laths. Furthermore, corresponding EDX
mappings showed a clear partition of the Mn-content
between ferrite (approx. 3% Mn) and austenite (approx.
12% Mn) in both microstructures. On the basis of
research published on the field of medium-Mn steels
6 R. SCHNEIDER ET AL.
Figure 7. Comparison of the microstructure of the steel 0.1C6.5Mn after 8 h intercritical annealing at 640°C left: one-step HT, right:
two-step HT.
[17,25,26], which clearly depicted the high-Mn enrich-
ment in the austenitic phase, the identification of ferrite
and austenite could be carried out with confidence.
Heat-treatment effects on the mechanical
properties
Figure 8 displays the engineering stress–strain curves of
the steel 0.1C6.5Mn with altering intercritical anneal-
ing temperatures for the one-step and two-step HT,
respectively. It can be seen that the mechanical prop-
erties are considerably dependent on this anneal-
ing parameter. For the lowest annealing temperature
of 580°C, high-yield strengths (YS) were achieved
for both one-step and two-step HT, followed by a
low-work hardening rate, which resulted in com-
paratively low UTS combined with rather moder-
ate total elongation (TE). With increasing temper-
ature (620°C), YS decreased and the work harden-
ing response was improved. Therefore, the desired
Figure 8. Comparison of the stress–strain curves of the steel
0.1C6.5Mn for different intercritical 8 h batch-annealing cycles
of the process routes: one-step HT and two-step HT.
mechanical properties, including high UTS combined
with excellent TE, were achieved (e.g.: two-step HT
640°C, UTS ∼ 810 MPa, TE ∼ 41.5%). Although rais-
ing the annealing temperature further promoted the
noticeable increase in UTS (up to 1400 MPa), TE was
significantly deteriorated. The yield point elongation
(YPE) was remarkable reduced by the increased anneal-
ing temperature until it completely disappeared.
By the mutual comparison of the two different heat-
treated specimens (one-step vs. two-step), several cru-
cial differences could be derived. After one-step HT
higher YS was observed compared to two-step HT after
annealing in the lower temperature range of the inves-
tigated temperatures (580–620°C). UTS, as well as TE,
were throughout different, depending which HT sched-
ule was applied. For UTS, no general trend could be
stated. Elongations were found to be generally higher
after the two-step HT, which can be explained by a
generally higher RA-stability compared to one-step HT.
This was found to be caused by an improved mechan-
ical stabilisation due to the lath-like morphology and
smaller grain size of the RA after two-step HT. Addi-
tional results on the influencing factors of RA-stability
in differently heat-treated medium-Mn steels can be
found in [26,35] in more detail. Furthermore, signifi-
cantly higher YPE is observed after one-step annealing.
The physical mechanisms behind this phenomenon
were attributed to the ultra-fine grain size in numer-
ous publications [35–37] and the accompanying lack
of work hardening capacity of the globular shaped
grains resulting from one-step HT. The lath-shaped
microstructural constituents of the two-step HT are
smaller than their globular shaped counterparts, result-
ing from one-step HT considering their grains size as
equivalent circle diameter but offer the possibility of
dislocation movement in the elongated direction of the
laths. A more detailed analysis of the phenomenon of

yielding depending on different initial microstructures
and on annealing temperatures in medium-Mn steels
can be found in [35].
In order to elucidate the structure–property relation-
ship of medium-Mn-steels dependent on the annealing
temperature and the processing route (one-set vs. two-
step HT), the interplay between the evolution of the
RA content and the resulting mechanical properties
(UTS, YS and TE) should be taken into consideration.
It is apparent from Figure 9, exemplarily depicted for
the steel containing 0.1C6.5Mn that the amount of RA
remained alike at all investigated annealing tempera-
tures irrespective of the applied processing route. As
shown in Figure 5 and in Figure 9, the RA content
increased until the maximum was reached, followed by
its declination at annealing temperatures ≥ 660°C. The
SEM micrographs in Figure 4 manifest the formation
of athermal martensite upon final cooling to AT and
therefore RA could not be sufficiently stabilised both
chemically as well as mechanically (III), which is the
cause of the apparent RA drop at higher annealing tem-
peratures. More detailed insight into the chemical and
mechanical stabilisation of RA in medium-Mn steels
as a function of annealing temperature is given else-
where [35]. At the lower range of investigated anneal-
ing temperatures, namely ≤ 600°C, the lack of work
hardening, expressed by the high UTS to YS ratio, indi-
cated a relatively stable RA. UTS strongly increased
with annealing temperatures > 620°C due to a more
effective TRIP-effect (II) and in addition, for anneal-
ing temperatures ≥ 660°C by the presence of fresh
athermal martensite (III) formed upon final cooling.
These two mechanisms were also active when consid-
ering the development of YS. Increasing the anneal-
ing temperature in the investigated temperature range
Figure 9. Effect of the HT procedure on the retained austen-
ite content and mechanical properties of the steel 0.1C6.5Mn;
I . . . relatively stable austenite, II . . . increasing TRIP-effect,
III . . . initial martensite upon quenching.
MATERIALS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 7
up to 680°C, YS constantly dropped as a result of a
less stable RA that tended to transform stress-assisted
to martensite during yielding. The volume expansion
related to the stress-assisted austenite to martensite
transformation initiated internal stresses at the inter-
phases between ferrite and newly formed martensite
[38,39]. This, in turn, promotes the formation of mobile
dislocations in the ferritic matrix in the vicinity of
hard martensitic inclusions [38], causing the ferrite
to yield at lower external stresses. This behaviour is
already well-known from the development of conven-
tional TRIP-steels [4]. The decrease of YS was further
enhanced due to the fresh martensite formed during
cooling to AT (III) after annealing at temperatures
higher than the RA maximum. This athermal marten-
site has similar effects on the yielding behaviour as
stress-assisted austenite to martensite formation and is
commonly observed for DP-steels [38–40]. The rise of
YS after annealing at 700°C stemmed from the self-
tempering process of the martensite during cooling
as described and presented in Figure 4. TE followed
a similar trend as the RA content but with the max-
imum shifted to lower annealing temperatures. This
clearly indicates that both the amount and stability of
RA are decisive in order to obtain the highest TE. As
reported from other researchers dealt with the devel-
opment of TRIP-assisted steels a moderate and con-
tinuous strain-induced transformation of austenite to
martensite is, therefore, required in order to exploit
the TRIP-effect sufficiently [29,41]. Regarding the influ-
ence of the different applied HT schedules, it is obvious
that although no significant difference in the amount
of RA content was obtained, two-step HT resulted in
a better overall combination of UTS*TE. This is in
analogy to the experimental work in [26,35] reporting
improved RA-stability after two-step HT due to higher
mechanical stabilisation of the lath-like shaped austen-
ite grains compared to the globular ones contributed to
one-step HT.
A comparison of the mechanical properties UTS and
TE of the three steels with different manganese contents
infers a clear dependence both from the Mn-content as
well as from the process route (Figure 10). The trend
lines for all three steels describe the effect of increas-
ing intercritical annealing temperature from the left to
the right (towards higher UTS). The lines of a constant
product of UTS*TE equal to 20,000 MPa% and 30,000
MPa% are inserted for easier comparison.
There is a clear trend towards higher strength
and ductility with rising Mn-contents. The increasing
amount of RA with elevated Mn-content (see Figure 5)
evidently improved the mechanical properties, which is
in accordance with the results in [21]. Above approxi-
mately 6% Mn, it is possible to achieve UTS*TE-values
> 30,000 MPa%. For all three steels, the best values
could only be achieved when the intercritical annealing
temperature was chosen in the range at or slightly below
8 R. SCHNEIDER ET AL.
Figure 10. Effect of the Mn-content and the intercritical
annealing temperature on the correlation between elongation
at rupture A25 and tensile strength Rm .
the maximum of the RA content. Furthermore, the
difference between the two distinct process routes, one-
step and two-step HT, can also be clearly recognised.
While there is a little difference for high-intercritical
annealing temperatures, leading to high UTS and low
TE-values, the gap widens for lower annealing tem-
peratures where highest ductility can be achieved. In
this property range, the TRIP-effect and, therefore, RA-
stability plays a dominant role governing the mechani-
cal properties. Therefore, the applied HT and its effect
on RA-stability gains significance. It can be stated that
the generally higher RA-stability after two-step HT
results in improved mechanical properties [26,35]. This
improved stability even enables a two-step heat-treated
0.1C5Mn steel to compete with a one-step heat-treated
0.1C6.5Mn steel.
Conclusions
Besides the overall chemical composition, the HT
parameters have a dominating effect on the microstruc-
ture and mechanical properties of 3rd Generation
AHSS medium-Mn-steels. Thereby, it has to be distin-
guished whether a two-step HT cycle or a one-step HT
regime is applied.
• The quenching after full austenitisation, in order
to obtain fully martensitic microstructure, needs to
be in the range of 10 K/s or higher in case of lean
medium-Mn-steels (e.g. 3.5% Mn). On the contrary,
much lower quenching rates are required for the
steels containing a higher Mn-content.
• Longer holding periods (typically in the range of
10 h) in the intercritical annealing range are nec-
essary in order to achieve full partitioning of both
carbon and mainly manganese between ferrite and
austenite, making this process step particularly suit-
able for industrial batch annealing.
• Starting from a cold-rolled condition, one-step HT
leads to rather globular morphology for all phases
present in the microstructure and two-step HT
results in a fine lath-shape structure of ferrite (tem-
pered martensite) along with thin-lamellar austenite
layers. Such a treatment ensures a better combina-
tion of material properties (higher UTS*TE) and
less pronounced YPE compared to the one-step HT
regime.
• While the application of low-intercritical anneal-
ing temperatures results in the formation of over-
stabilised retained austenite, high-YS, low-UTS,
low-TE and a large YPE, high-intercritical annealing
temperatures lead to a low-retained austenite stabil-
ity, characterised by low-YS, a pronounced TRIP-
effect with high-UTS and low-TE without YPE.
• The Mn-content has a strong effect on the com-
bination of UTS*TE. Therefore, the use of higher
Mn-contents (typically ≥ 6.5 wt-%) combined with
optimised HT parameters can yield the products of
UTS*TE significantly higher than 30,000 MPa%.
Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely acknowledge the support of the Aus-
trian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) related to the fron-
trunner project No. 841377 ‘Medium Mn steels with superior
strength-ductility performance’.
The authors would like to thank ASM International for
the permission to publish the paper adapted from R. Schnei-
der et al. ‘Effect of the heat treatment on the microstructure
and mechanical properties of medium-Mn-steels’, in 2018:
Conf. Proc. of Thermal Processing in Motion, June 5-7, 2018,
Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Christof Sommitsch http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6854-4851
References
[1] Matlock DK, Speer JG, De Moor E, et al. Recent
developments in advanced high strength sheet steels
for automotive. Applications: An Overview Jestech.
2012;15(1):1–12.
[2] Rashid MS. Dual phase steels. Annu Rev Mater Sci.
1981;11:245–266.
[3] Matsumura O, Sakuma Y, Takechi H. Trip and its
kinetic aspects in austempered 0.4C-1.5Si-0.8Mn steel.
Scr Metall. 1987;21(10):1301–1306.
[4] Pichler A, Traint S, Hebesberger T, et al. Processing
of thin sheet multiphase steel grades. Steel Res Int.
2007;78(3):216–223.
[5] De Cooman BC, Kwon O, Chin KG. State-of-the-
knowledge on TWIP steel. Mater Sci Technol. 2012;28
(5):513–527.
[6] Matlock D, Speer J. Third generation of AHSS:
microstructure design concepts. In: Haldar A, Suwas S,
Bhattacharjee D, editor. Microstructure and texture in
steels. London, UK: Springer; 2009. p. 185–205.

[7] Liu L, He B, Huang M. The role of transformation-
induced plasticity in the development of advanced
high strength steels. Adv Eng Mater. 2018;1701083:
1–17.
[8] Edmonds D V, He K, Rizzo F C, et al. Quenching and
partitioning martensite — A novel steel heat treatment.
Mater. Sci. Eng. A. 2006;438-440:25–34.
[9] Santofimia M J, Zhao L, Petrov R, et al. Microstruc-
tural development during the quenching and partition-
ing process in a newly designed low-carbon steel. Acta
Mater. 2011;59(15):6059–6068.
[10] Arlazarov A, Ollat M, Masse JP, et al. Influence of par-
titioning on mechanical behavior of Q&P steels. Mater.
Sci. Eng. A. 2016;661:79–86.
[11] Hausmann K, Krizan D, Spiradek-Hahn K, et al.
The influence of Nb on transformation behavior and
mechanical properties of TRIP-assisted bainitic-ferritic
sheet steels. Mater. Sci. Eng. A. 2013;588:142–150.
[12] Hofer C, Winkelhofer F, Clemens H, et al. Morphol-
ogy change of retained austenite during austemper-
ing of carbide-free bainitic steel. Mater. Sci. Eng. A.
2016;664:236–246.
[13] Ebner S, Suppan C, Schnitzer R, et al. Microstructure
and mechanical properties of a low C steel subjected to
bainitic or quenching and partitioning heat treatments.
Mater. Sci. Eng. A. 2018;735:1–9.
[14] Grajcar A, Kuzia R, Zalecki W. Third generation
of AHSS with increased fraction of retained austen-
ite for the automotive industry. ACME. 2012;12(3):
334–341.
[15] Steineder K, Schneider R, Krizan D, et al. Investigation
on the microstructural evolution in a medium-Mn steel
(X10Mn5) after intercritical annealing. HTM J Heat
Treatm Mat. 2015;70(1):19–25.
[16] Steineder K, Schneider R, Krizan D, et al. Compar-
ative investigation of phase transformation behavior
as a function of annealing temperature and cool-
ing rate of two medium-Mn steels. Steel Res Int.
2015;86(11):1179–1186.
[17] Wang C, Shi J, Wang CY, et al. Development of
ultrafine Lamellar ferrite and austenite duplex struc-
ture in 0.2C5Mn steel during ART-annealing. ISIJ Int
2011;51(4):651–656.
[18] Arlazarov A, Hazotte A, Bouaziz O, et al. Character-
ization of microstructure formation and mechanical
behavior of an advanced medium Mn steel In: Proceed-
ings from the Materials Science & Technology Confer-
ence; 2012 Oct 7-11; Pittsburgh, PA. p. 1124-1131.
[19] Schneider R, Rahofer M, Steineder K, et al. Metal-
lographische Untersuchung von Medium-Mn-Stählen.
Special Issue Prakt Met. 2014;46:77–82.
[20] Suh DW, Park SJ, Lee TH, et al. Influence of Al on
the microstructural evolution and mechanical behav-
ior of low-carbon, manganese transformation-induced-
plasticity steel. Metall Mater Trans A. 2010;41(2):
397–408.
[21] Huang H, Matsumura O, Furukawa T. Retained austen-
ite in low carbon, manganese steel after intercritical heat
treatment. Mater Sci Technol. 1994;10:621–626.
[22] Merwin MJ. Microstructure and properties of cold
rolled and annealed low-carbon manganese TRIP steels.
Iron Steel Technol. 2008;5(10):66–84.
[23] Gibbs PJ, De Moor E, Merwin MJ, et al. Austenite stabil-
ity effects on tensile behavior of manganese-enriched-
austenite transformation-induced plasticity. Steel Met-
all Mater Trans A. 2011;42(12):3691–3702.
MATERIALS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 9
[24] Han J, Lee S, Jung JG, et al. The effects of the
initial martensite microstructure on the microstruc-
ture and tensile properties of intercritically annealed
Fe–9Mn–0.05C steel. Acta Mater 2014;78:369–377.
[25] Lee S, Lee SJ, DeCooman BC. Austenite stability
of ultrafine-grained transformation-induced plasticity
steel with Mn partitioning. Scr Mater. 2011;65:225–228.
[26] Steineder K, Krizan D, Schneider R, et al. The
effects of intercritical annealing temperature and initial
microstructure on the stability of retained austenite in a
0.1C-6Mn steel. Mater Sci Forum. 2016;879:1847–1852.
[27] Miller RL. Ultrafine-grained microstructures and
mechanical properties of alloy steels. Metall Trans.
1972;3:905–912.
[28] Jacques PJ, Furnémont Q, Lani F, et al. Multi-
scale mechanics of TRIP-assisted multiphase steels: I.
Characterization and mechanical testing. Acta Mater.
2007;55(11):3681–3693.
[29] Chiang J, Boyd JD, Pilkey AK. Effect of microstruc-
ture on retained austenite stability and tensile behavior
in an aluminum-alloyed TRIP steel. Mater Sci Eng A.
2015;638:132–142.
[30] Peissl P, Schneider R, Rahofer M, et al. The effect of Nio-
bium on the microstructure and phase transformation
kinetics in low-carbon medium manganese steels. HTM
J Heat Treatm Mat. 2015;70(6):267–275.
[31] De Moor E, Matlock DK, Speer JG, et al. Austenite sta-
bilization through manganese enrichment. Scr Mater.
2011;64(2):185–188.
[32] Lee S, De Cooman BC. On the selection of the opti-
mal intercritical annealing temperature for medium
Mn TRIP steel. Metall Mater Trans A. 2013;44(11):
5018–5024.
[33] Gomez M, Garcia I, Deardo AJ. The role of new ferrite
on retained austenite stabilization Al-TRIP steels. ISIJ
Int. 2010;50(1):139–146.
[34] Santofimia MJ, Zhao L, Sietsma J. Microstructural
evolution of a low-carbon steel during application of
quenching and partitioning heat treatment after partial
austenitization. Metall Mater Trans A. 2009;40:46–57.
[35] Steineder K, Krizan D, Schneider R, et al. On the
microstructural characteristics influencing the yielding
behavior of ultra-fine grained medium-Mn steels. Acta
Mater. 2017;139:39–50.
[36] Han J, Kang SH, Lee SJ, et al. Fabrication of bimodal-
grained Al-free medium Mn steel by double intercritical
annealing and its tensile properties. J Alloys Compd.
2016;681:580–588.
[37] Zhang Y, Ding H. Ultrafine also can be ductile: on
the essence of Lüders band elongation in ultrafine-
grained medium manganese steel. Mater Sci Eng A.
2018;733:220–223.
[38] Sarosiek AM, Owen WS. On the importance of extrin-
sic transformation accommodation hardening in Dual-
phase steel. Scr Metall. 1983;17(2):227–231.
[39] Erdogan M, Priestner R. Effect of epitaxial ferrite on
yielding and plastic flow in dual phase steel in ten-
sion and compression. Mater Sci Technol. 1999;15:
1273–1284.
[40] Davies RG. The deformation behavior of a vanadium-
strengthened dual phase steel. Metall Mater Trans A.
1978;9:41–52.
[41] Sugimoto K, Usui N, Kobayashi M, et al. Effects of vol-
ume fraction and stability of TRIP-aided of retained
austenite on ductility dual-phase steels. ISIJ Inter.
1992;32(12):1311–1318.