DOI 10.

1007/s11041-020-00467-7
Metal Science and Heat Treatment, Vol. 61, Nos. 9 – 10, January, 2020 (Russian Original Nos. 9 – 10, September – October, 2019)

UDC 669.14.018.298:536.485:621.73

COLD RESISTANCE OF STRUCTURAL STEEL SUBJECTED

TO COLD RADIAL FORGING

M. Yu. Simonov,1, 2 A. S. Pertsev,1, 3 G. S. Shaimanov,1 and Yu. N. Simonov1

Translated from Metallovedenie i Termicheskaya Obrabotka Metallov, No. 10, pp. 15 – 25, October, 2019.

The structure, the strength characteristics and the impact toughness at different temperatures up to –100°C of
tubular billets from steel 35 are studied after a thermal deformation treatment involving initial heat hardening,
cold plastic deformation by radial forging and subsequent annealing. The regular features of structure forma-
tion in steel 35 after the thermal deformation treatment based on cold radial forging are determined. It is
shown that formation of macroscopic elements (splits) on the fracture surface affects positively the level of the
cold resistance.

Key words: radial forging, massive plastic deformation, cold resistance, tubular billets, thermal
deformation treatment, structural steel, structure, fracture surface.

INTRODUCTION important that virtually all processes of severe plastic defor-

Formation of homogenous ultrafine-grained (UFG)
structures in billets from structural steels remains a topical
direction of advancement of science and production. Use of
carbon and low-alloy (sparingly alloyed) steels under low
climatic temperatures is a priority direction in the develop-
ment of science and technology in many countries. Their
strength, reliability and crack resistance are commonly pro-
vided by special thermal deformation treatments.
Development of the Russian Federation in the XXI cen-
tury will be inevitably connected with development of the re-
sources occurring in the Far North and the Arctic Shelf,
which demands development of various infrastructures from
civil to special. Today we possess not many materials suit-
able for operation at climatic temperatures up to –100°C; for
the most part these are cryogenic materials [1 – 3] the cost of
which may make mining of natural resources in regions with
low and extremely low temperatures economically inexpedient.
However, there are methods and approaches to fabrica-
tion of materials with traditional chemical compositions and
elevated cold resistance using commercial severe plastic de-
formation [3 – 9]. As a rule, cold resistance is raised due to
multistage refinement of the whole of the structural set. It is
1 sition (in wt.%): 0.36 C, 0.24 Si, 0.59 Mn, 0.20 Cr, 0.12 Ni,
Perm National Research Polytechnic University, Perm, Russia
(e-mail: Simonov@pstu.ru).
2
Institute of Continuum Mechanics of the Ural Branch of the Rus-
sian Academy of Sciences, Perm, Russia.
3
Perm Research Institute for Technology, Perm, Russia.
mation [10 – 13] and megaplastic deformation [14, 15] are in
fact laboratory technologies unsuitable for production of in-
dustrial volumes of articles. Thus, the development of indus-
trial technologies implementable on commercial scale and
giving bulk billets with UFG structure is an important task,
which can be solved at the recent level of development of
technology and engineering only with the use of processes of
radial forging (RF) [16 – 18] and forming by spinning (SF)
[19]. However, RF has a number of advantages as compared
to SF, i.e., a high speed of single deforming actions, high
strain intensity, high locality of the plastic strain spot, possi-
bility of application in different fields (mechanical engineer-
ing, aircraft industry), which make RF an advanced method.
The aim of the present work was to perform a complex
analysis of the structure, mechanical properties, special fea-
tures of the micromechanisms of crack growth and cold re-
sistance of tubular billets from steel 35 after heat treatment
(HT) and thermal deformation treatment (TDT).
METHODS OF STUDY
We studied specimens fabricated from tubular billets
from structural steel 35 with the following chemical compo-
0.018 Cu, 0.012 S, 0.01 P.
The HT and TDT were applied to commercial tubular
billets with external diameter 70 mm and wall thickness
15 mm by the following regimes.

601
0026-0673/20/0910-0601 © 2020 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
602
1. Base regime of heat refining (HR), i.e., heating to
860°C, a hold for 40 min, water cooling + tempering at
570°C, a hold for 1 h; the treatment was conducted in a
SShTsM 6.2/9 shaft furnace; the tempering was followed by
forced cooling in water.
2. The initial heat refining (treatment 1 ) followed by
cold radial forging (CRF) in a radial-forging machine
(SXP-16, GFM, Austria) in three successive passes. The ini-
tial billet (a tube Æ70 ´ 15 mm in size) was deformed in the
first pass to a size of Æ64 ´ 12.5 mm with strain e1 ~ 21%.
In the second pass the billet was deformed to a size of
Æ59 ´ 10.5 mm with total strain e1 + e2 ~ 39%. In the final
third pass, the billet was deformed to a final size of
Æ54 ´ 8 mm with total strain e1 + e2 + e3 ~ 55%. During the
CRF the billet was subjected to forced water cooling.
3. Treatment 2 followed by annealing of templates cut
from cold-deformed tubular billets in a SNOL-1.6, 2.5.1/11-I2
laboratory chamber furnace for 1 h at 300°C with subsequent
forced cooling in water.
4. Treatment 2 followed by annealing of templates cut
from cold-deformed tubular billets in a SNOL-1.6, 2.5.1/11-I2
laboratory chamber furnace for 1 h at 600°C with subsequent
forced cooling in water.
The metallographic analysis was conducted for micro-
sections prepared in cross sections of impact specimens. The
etchant was a 4% solution of nitric acid in ethyl alcohol. The
etched microsections were studied under an Olympus GX-51
optical microscope at a magnification of ´ 500 and under a
FEI Quanta 200 scanning electron microscope at a magnifi-
cation from ´ 500 to ´ 25,000 at an accelerating voltage of
25 kV. An additional study was conducted under a FEI
PHENOM G2 ProX electron microscope at an accelerating
voltage of 15 kV and working magnifications ´ 8000 –
´ 15,000. The fraction of carbide particles after treatment 4
was determined using the Siams 700 software processing the
micrographs at a magnification of ´ 8000 – ´ 25,000. The
number of the fields analyzed was at least 20.
The strength and ductility characteristics were determined
for short cylindrical specimens of type 3 with initial diameter
5 mm in accordance with the GOST 1497–73 Standard using
an INSTRON-SATEC 300 LX universal hydraulic machine
for static tests. The results were processed and the diagrams
plotted with the help of the “Bluehill” program product for at
least 4 specimens for each heat treatment variant.
The tests for impact bending were conducted in accor-
dance with GOST 9454–78 for specimens of type 17 with
preliminary induced fatigue crack with relative length
l = 0.27 – 0.30. To grow cracks of different lengths we used
a Drozdovsky device. The coolant for the tests conducted at a
temperature from –20 to –100°C was a mixture of liquid ni-
trogen with ethyl alcohol. The specimens were held in the
thermostat for 15 min before testing. To measure the tempe-
rature of the specimens we used a chromel-alumel thermo-
couple. The specimens were supercooled by 3 – 5°C to pro-
M. Yu. Simonov et al.
vide the required temperature at the moment of the test. The
specimens were tested no later than 3 – 5 sec after withdraw-
ing them from the thermostat.
The impact tests at from +20 to –100°C were conducted
in a KM-30 pendulum impact machine. The geometrical pa-
rameters of the specimens were determined with the help of
an Olympus SZX-16 stereo microscope accurate to ± 0.05 mm.
The impact toughness was calculated by the formula
KCT = Af /F,
where Af is the fracture energy read from the scale of the im-
pact machine accurate to ± 0.05 kgf × m and F is the area of
the effective cross section of the specimen in cm2.
The images of the fractures were obtained with the help
of an Olympus SZX-16 stereo microscope and an Olympus
DP72 high-resolution camera at a magnification of ´ 7. The
images were first processed using the Olympus Stream Mo-
tion v.1.8 software and then using the Photoshop 7.0 soft-
ware. The surface area taken by splits was evaluated with the
help of the same software on plane images obtained under
the Olympus SZX-16 stereo microscope using the technique
of evaluation of the area over a closed contour.
The micromechanisms of crack growth and the special
features of the cracks were determined using a FEI Phenom
G2 ProX scanning electron microscope (SEM) at an acceler-
ating voltage of 15 kV.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The metallographic analysis of the tube billets from steel
35 after treatment 1 showed that their structure consisted of a
set of microvolumes of formed martensite where primary
and secondary recrystallization had occurred to this or that
degree (Fig. 1a ). In the regions of active development of
secondary recrystallization, we observed carbides oriented in
three mutually perpendicular directions (Fig. 1b ). In addi-
tion, the initial structure contained regions of thin-plate
eutectoid, the presence of which indicated low stability of the
supercooled austenite of steel 35 during the quenching cooling.
Cold radial forging (treatment 2 ) caused substantial re-
finement of the structure (Fig. 1c ). In some microvolumes,
we observed fragmentation of cementite plates in the
thin-plate eutectoid (Fig. 1d ).
Analyzing the structure of steel 35 after treatment 3 we
did not detect substantial differences from the structure
formed after treatment 2 (Fig. 1e ); the shape of the carbide
particles became more equiaxed as compared to treatment 1
(Fig. 1f ).
After treatment 4, the steel acquired a quite homogenous
and ultrafine grain/subgrain structure with a mean grain size
of 1.0 – 1.2 mm (Fig. 2a and c). Coarse carbide particles
were located on grain and subgrain boundaries, whereas
much finer carbide particles occurred inside the structural
components having morphological features of the former
Cold Resistance of Structural Steel Subjected to Cold Radial Forging 603

à b

15 mm 3 mm

c d

15 mm 3 mm

e f

Fig. 1. Microstructure of steel 35 after

heat the thermal deformation treat-
ments: a, b ) treatment 1; c, d ) treat-
ment 2; e, f ) treatment 3; a, c, e) ´ 5000; 15 mm 3 mm
b, d, f ) ´ 20,000.

structure of high-tempered martensite (Fig. 2a ). In most
structural components bearing features of refinement we ob-
served formation of boundaries of substructural components
in the form of web-like ridges (marked with the arrows in
Fig. 2c ). The histogram of the size distribution of the carbide
particles has a unimodal nature with positive asymmetry
(Fig. 2b ). The total fraction of carbide particles after treat-
ment 4 of steel 35 amounts to 4.8% with an average size of
about 0.18 mm. Treatment 4 results in virtually total disap-
pearance of the thin-plate eutectoid.
Figure 3 presents the diagrams of uniaxial tension for
steel 35 after treatments 1 – 4.
The form of the diagram of steel 35 in the initial condi-
tion (treatment 1 ) is traditional, i.e. consists of a yield pla-
teau and long enough regions of strain hardening (uniform
plastic strain) and lumped plastic strain. The strength level is
the lowest.
The diagram of steel 35 after CRF (treatment 2 ) looks
quite traditionally too, i.e., has no yield plateau; the yield
strength is close to the ultimate strength, the total elongation
is minimum as compared to the other treatments, and the
strength level is close to the maximum one.
The stress-strain diagram after treatment 3 differs from
the previous case by presence of a small yield drop. The duc-
tility is somewhat higher than after treatment 2, and the
strength is almost the same or even a bit higher.
The stress-strain diagram after treatment 4 presents the
greatest interest. It has a yield drop, which is so high that the
upper yield limit is somewhat higher than the ultimate
strength. After the yield drop, the diagram exhibits a quite
604 M. Yu. Simonov et al.

à
n, %

20

10

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 d, mm

3 mm

Fig. 2. Microstructure (a, c) and histogram of size distribution

of carbide particles (b ) in steel 35 after treatment 4: a) ´ 20000;
500 nm
c) 100,000.

s, ÌPà extended yield plateau (7 – 8%), which is followed by a

900
3
2 small region of strain hardening.
800 The characteristics of the strength and ductility of steel
700 35 after treatments 1 – 4 are presented in Table 1. The results
1
600
of the evaluation of the strength and ductility show that treat-
500
400 4 ment 2 raises the strength and lowers the ductility as com-
300 pared to treatment 1. After treatment 3, the strength charac-
200 teristics grow further. It should be noted that after treatment 3
100 the growth in the strength parameters with respect to treat-
ment 2 is accompanied by some increase in the ductility, i.e.,
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
d, % d = 22 and 19% respectively. Treatment 4 raises the strength
characteristics considerably as compared to treatment 1 at
Fig. 3. Stress-strain diagrams of specimens of steel 35 after heat re-
fining (1 ), after cold radial forging with total strain e » 55% (2 ) and close ductility characteristics.
after post-deformation annealing at 300°C (3 ) and 600°C (4 ). The Table 1 also presents the impact toughness of specimens
treatments are numbered at the curves. tested at different temperatures.

TABLE 1. Characteristics of Mechanical Properties of Steel 35 after Different Treatments

s0.2 (sy ), MPa sr , MPa KCT + 20°C, KCT – 20°C, KCT – 60°C, KCT – 100°C,
Treatment d, % y, %
MJ/m2 MJ/m2 MJ/m2 MJ/m2
1 465 665 30.5 72.5 1.35 0.40 0.09 0.08
2 785 865 19 64.5 0.97 0.68 0.56 0.36
3 885 900 22 64.0 1.02 0.77 0.55 0.32
4 730 (680) 730 28.5 68.5 1.25 1.22 0.57 0.15
Cold Resistance of Structural Steel Subjected to Cold Radial Forging 605

à b c d

e f g h

i j k l

Fig. 4. Fractures of specimens of steel

35 after different heat and thermal defor-
mation treatments and impact tests at
different temperatures (´ 7): a, e, i, m )
at +20°C; b, f, j, n ) at –20°C; c, g, k, o )
at –60°C; d, h, l, p ) at –-100°C; a – d )
treatment 1; e – h ) treatment 2; i – l )
m n o ð
treatment 3; m – p ) treatment 4.

The results obtained for the impact toughness at room
temperature (about 20°C) show that KCT + 20°C is high
enough after all the treatments. After the treatment by vari-
ants 1 and 4, the values of KCT + 20°C are the highest (1.25 –
1.35 MJ/m2 ); after treatments 2 and 3 they are somewhat
lower but still high enough (0.97 – 1.02 MJ/m2 ).
It should also be noted that at close levels of ductility and
impact toughness (KCT + 20°C ) the resistance of the steel
treated by variant 3 to plastic strain is about 100 MPa higher
than after the treatment by variant 2. Comparing the levels of
the resistance to plastic strain after treatments 1 and 4 we see
even higher differences, i.e., the yield strength of the steel af-
ter treatment 4 is about 200 – 250 MPa higher than after
treatment 1.
Visual analysis of the fracture surfaces of the specimens
after the impact tests has shown that the size contraction at
606
room temperature is preserved completely after all the treat-
ments (Fig. 4a, e, i, and m ). This means that the fracture has
developed under the conditions of a mixed stress-strain state,
i.e., plane-stress and plain-strain one). At room temperature
the maximum level of impact toughness (treatment 1 ) corre-
sponds to the minimum resistance to plastic deformation; the
fracture surface is typical for fracture of a tough material
(Fig. 4a).
The macroscopic analysis of the fractures after treat-
ments 2 and 3 has shown that the fracture surfaces acquire
macro- and meso-splits (Fig. 4e and i ). For example, the pro-
portion of splits after treatment 2 and testing at +20°C is hot
high and amounts to about 15.5 ± 2.5%. This is connected
with the fact that though a complex stress-strain state is im-
plemented during the tests at +20°C, the rigidity of the stress
state is inconsiderable. This results in side contractions
which take up to 75 – 80% of the entire fracture surface
(Fig. 4e ). It should be mentioned that growth in the resis-
tance to plastic strain after treatment 3 and testing at +20°C
reduces the area taken by side contractions and enlarges the
area of the fracture taken by splits (Fig. 4i ), the proportion of
which amounts to about 21.6 ± 2.5%. The nature of forma-
tion of splits in radially forged sparingly alloyed steels has
been described quite in detail in [17, 20]. We have not de-
tected splits on the fracture surfaces after treatment 4
(Fig. 4m ).
Testing at –20°C causes lowering of the level of fracture
toughness for all the treatments (1 – 4 ) as compared to test-
ing at +20°C. The lowering of the values of KCT – 20°C from
treatment 1 to treatment 3 is accompanied by some decrease
in the sizes of the side contractions (Fig. 4b, f, and j ). How-
ever, they do not disappear completely even in the specimens
with maximum resistance to plastic strain treated by variant 3
(Fig. 4j ). It is important that with lowering of the tempera-
ture of the tests and the corresponding growth in the rigidity
of the stress state in the treatments providing a maximum
level of resistance to plastic strain (variants 2 and 3 ) the side
contractions are replaced by splits (Fig. 4f and j ), the propor-
tion of which increases and amounts to about 31.7 and
25.9 ± 2.5% respectively. Maximum values of KCT – 20°C in
steel 35 have been detected after treatment 4 and amount to
1.22 MJ/m2. Treatment 4 did not promote formation of mac-
ro-splits; we detected only individual features of their forma-
tion; the proportion of such objects did not exceed 0.5%, and
their linear sizes were about 40 – 60 mm (Fig. 4n ).
Further decrease of the temperature of impact tests to
–60°C causes abrupt fall of the impact toughness (see Ta-
ble 1), i.e., after treatment 1 the decrease in KCT – 60°C is ac-
companied by reduction of the sizes of side contractions up
to their virtually total elimination (Fig. 4c ). It should be
noted that KCT – 60°C in steel 35 treated by variants 2 – 4 has
the same level and amounts to about 0.56 MJ/m2. The sur-
faces of the specimens treated by variants 2 and 3 bear splits
with maximally developed morphology and maximum sizes
(Fig. 4g and k ); their proportion amounts to about 37.1 and
M. Yu. Simonov et al.
Q, %
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1 2 3 4
Treatment variant
Fig. 5. Variation of the fraction of splits (Q ) at different tem-
peratures of impact tests of steel 35 and variants of heat and thermal
deformation treatment: &) ttest = +20°C; :) ttest = –20°C;
p) ttest = –60°C; =) ttest = –100°C.
3.5 ± 2.5% respectively. At the same time, the fractures of
the impact specimens treated by variant 4 contain no
macro-splits (Fig. 4m ); only microscopic forms are observ-
able in an amount of only 1%, and their linear sizes are about
80 – 120 mm. It is also interesting that the side contractions
on the specimens after impact tests at –60°C after treatment 4
are commensurable with the splits in the specimens treated
by variants 2 and 3.
The impact tests at –100°C show that the impact tough-
ness KCT-100°C of the specimens after all the four treat-
ments is lower than KCT – 60°C. Minimum values of
KCT – 100°C = 0.08 MJ/m2 were detected for the initial struc-
tural condition (treatment 1 ); the configuration of the frac-
ture was such that the side contractions and the contraction in
the bottom run of the crack were virtually absent (Fig. 4d ). It
should be noted that the values of KCT – 100°C after treatments
2 and 3 are at a level of 0.36 and 0.32 MJ/m2 respectively,
which is unusually high for such test conditions and maxi-
mum as compared to the other treatment variants. The best
values of KCT – 100°C in steel 35 were detected after treatment
2. The fracture surfaces of the specimens treated by variants
2 and 3 contain splits (Figs. 4h and l ) like in all the other
tests of specimens of the given group of TDT; their fraction
is about 41.7 and 32.9 ± 2.5% respectively. Analysis of the
fracture surfaces after treatment 4 showed presence of
macro-splits (Fig. 4p ); we observed only relatively small
side contractions even in the bottom run of the crack, which
did not make a substantial contribution into the level of resis-
tance to growth of dynamic crack. The values of KCT – 100°C
of the specimens treated by variant 4 were 0.15 MJ/m2,
which is twice lower that after treatments 2 and 3. Figure 5
presents the variation of the proportion of splits in the speci-
mens treated by variants 1 – 4 and tested at +20 ¸ –60°C.
Thus, summarizing the results of the macroscopic
fractographic analysis, we should infer that formation of
such specific objects as splits on fracture surfaces makes it
possible to raise the cold resistance of plain and low-alloy
structural steels.
Cold Resistance of Structural Steel Subjected to Cold Radial Forging
à b
10 mm 10 mm
e f
10 mm 10 mm
i j
10 mm 10 mm
m n
10 mm 10 mm
Fig. 6. Micromechanisms of crack growth in specimens of steel 35 after different variants of heat and thermal deformation treatment and im-
pact tests at different temperatures (´ 5000): a, e, i, m ) at +20°C; b, f, j, n ) at –20°C; c, g, k, o ) at –60°C; d, h, l, p ) at –100°C; a – d ) treatment
1; e – h ) treatment 2; i – l ) treatment 3; m – p ) treatment 4.
The results of the study of the cold resistance seem to be
quite unexpected, because they show that steel 35 has a high
level of resistance to plastic strain (treatments 2 and 3 ) and
maximum level of KCT – 100°C, which differs from the tradi-
tional concepts of the recent metal science. This has made us
investigate systematically the special features of fracture sur-
faces with the help of scanning electron microscopy.
The results of the study of the micromechanism of crack
growth in steel 35 at room temperature show that this mecha-
607
c d
10 mm 10 mm
g h
10 mm 10 mm
k l
10 mm 10 mm
o ð
10 mm 10 mm
nism is ductile for all the four treatment variants (Fig. 6s, e, i,
and m ), and the results are close to those obtained in [17].
The mechanism of crack growth in the specimens treated
by variant 1and tested at –20°C becomes brittle; the domi-
nant components are quasi-cleavage facets; the ridges of
microplastic strain inside the facets are developed (Fig. 6b ).
After the treatment by variants 2 – 4 and tests at –20°C, the
micromechanism of crack growth is ductile; the main com-
ponents of the fracture surfaces are dimples of different
608
types, i.e., conical dimples, tunnel dimples and microdimples
(Fig. 6f, j, and n ) [17]. It should be noted that as compared to
the specimens tested at + 20°C, the sizes of the components
of the fracture surfaces after treatments 2 – 4 become
smaller. The largest dimples after the tests at –20°C have
been observed in the specimens treated by variant 4
(Fig. 6n ).
After the impact tests at –60°C the specimens treated by
variant 1 do not exhibit qualitative changes in the microme-
chanism of crack growth; it is brittle like after the tests at
–20°C and is mainly represented by facets of quasi-cleavage
(Fig. 6c ). The ridges of microplastic strain inside the facets
become less developed as compared to the tests at –20°C.
The micromechanism of crack growth in the specimens
treated by variants 2 and 3 remains ductile after testing at
–60°C as well as after testing at –20°C (Fig. 6g and k ). How-
ever, as compared to the tests at +20°C, all the size compo-
nents of the coarse elements of the fracture surface decrease
more than twice. After the tests at –60°C the micromecha-
nism of crack growth in the specimens treated by variant 4
changes from a ductile one to a quasi-brittle one; the domi-
nant pattern is quasi-cleavage taking about 65 – 70% of the
fracture surface; the rest of the surface is taken by micro-
dimples and flattened cone dimples; deep tunnel dimples be-
come little noticeable against the total mass of microsplits
(Fig. 6o ).
After the tests at –100°C, the specimens treated by vari-
ant 1 exhibit facets of intergrain cleavage (Fig. 6d ). The
micromechanism of crack growth in the specimens treated
by variant 2 and tested at –100°C is chiefly represented by
microdimples (Fig. 6h ) located on the side surfaces of meso-
and macro-splits detectable on the fracture surface (Fig. 4h).
The tests of the specimens of steel 35 treated by variant 3
cause a change in the micromechanism of crack growth from
a ductile one to a quasi-brittle one and appearance of quasi-
cleavage facets that form a single fractographic massif with
microdimples on the fracture surface (Fig. 6l ). Like after
treatment 2, the side surfaces of the meso- and macro-splits
bear microdimples. In the specimens treated by variant 4, the
tests at –100°C do change the micromechanism of crack
growth; like in the tests at –60°C, the main components are
quasi-cleavage and microdimples, but the proportion and the
sizes of the microdimples decrease (Fig. 6p ).
It should be noted that the presence of quasi-ductile com-
ponents on the fracture surface of steel 35 does not explain
the considerable difference in the values of KCT – 100°C for
treatments 1 and 4 and for treatments 2 and 3. It is known
that the final level of the impact toughness and dynamic
crack resistance is affected by several important factors
[21, 22].
1. The possibility of formation of zones of plastic strain
(ZPS) under the fracture surface [23, 24]; it is known that the
larger are the sizes of the ZPS the larger volume of the mate-
rial receives the dissipated energy and the higher is the level
of KCT and KCT* (dynamic crack resistance) [25].
M. Yu. Simonov et al.
2. The possibility of structural transformation (trans-
configuration) during dissipation of the energy supplied from
the outside in the impact tests. A consequence of this is for-
mation of a structure of adiabatic shear due to deviation of
individual structural volumes from the conditions of thermo-
dynamic equilibrium. As a rule, these structural volumes are
localized in the places with maximum energy concentra-
tion [26].
3. The possibility of hydrodynamic mass transfer of in-
terstitial atoms present in the solid solution, when they are
transferred to considerable distances due to the collective
motion of ensembles of mesodefects over the intercrystallite
space of the bands of adiabatic shear and then accumulated
and segregated in the form of volume fields (clouds of inter-
stitial atoms) [27]. This enhances the distortion of the lattice
of the matrix material and increases the probability of forma-
tion of dimples with great transverse sizes and depth. Their
further evolution into single macroobjects is just the cause of
formation of micro-, meso-, and macro-splits.
In our opinion, the set of the processes responsible for
the formation of splits (Fig. 4d – l ) has played the decisive
role in formation of the high level of KCT – 100°C in steel 35.
CONCLUSIONS
1. We have determined traditional laws of structure for-
mation in steel 35 after the heat and thermal deformation
treatments conducted after cold radial forging. The structure
formed after treatment 4 has a highly dispersed homoge-
neous grain/subgrain morphology. The size distribution of
the carbide particles has a unimodal nature.
2. Treatment 3 yields maximum strength characteristics
and minimum values of impact toughness KCT + 20°C, elonga-
tion d and contraction y in steel 35. Treatment 4 lowers the
strength characteristics and raises the impact toughness pa-
rameters. Radial forging affects positively the combination
of the strength and reliability of the steel as compared to the
initial condition (treatment 1 ).
3. The values of the impact toughness KCT – 60°C of steel
35 treated by variants 2, 3 and 4 are close, i.e., KCT – 60°C =
0.56, 0.55 and 0.57 MJ/m2, respectively. The highest impact
toughness at –100°C has been detected in the specimens
treated by variant 2, i.e., KCT – 100°C = 0.36 MJ/m2.
4. Presence of meso- and macro-splits has been detected
on the fracture surfaces of the impact specimens treated by
variants 2 and 3; splits occur in the whole of the temperature
range of the impact tests (from +20 to –100°C). Growth in
the fraction of splits causes increase of the values of
KCT – 100°C of steel 35 treated by variant 2.
5. We have performed a systematic study of the micro-
mechanisms of crack growth in specimens treated by vari-
ants 1 – 4 and tested at +20 ¸ –60°C. After the tests at –20°C,
the dominant mechanism of crack growth in the specimens
treated by variant 1 changes from a ductile one to a brittle
one; in the specimens treated by variant 2, the micromecha-
Cold Resistance of Structural Steel Subjected to Cold Radial Forging
nism of crack growth remains unchanged and is represented
by microdimples located on the side surfaces of meso- and
macro-splits. In the case of treatment 3, the change in the
micromechanism of crack growth from a dimple one to a
quasi-brittle one occurs after the tests at –100°C, when the
facets of quasi-cleavage form a single fractographic massif
with microdimples. In the specimens treated by variant 4, the
change in the micromechanism of crack growth from a dim-
ple one to a quasi-brittle one occurs after the tests at –60°C.
The work has been performed according to Project
No. 11.8213.2017/8.9 within the base part of the state as-
signment to higher educational organizations in the sphere of
scientific activity and with financial support of the Ministry
of Education and Science of Russia.
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