Materials and Design 114 (2017) 102–110

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Materials and Design

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

Effects of high-temperature deformation and cooling process on the

microstructure and mechanical properties of an ultrahigh-strength
pearlite steel
Mingming Wang a, Fucheng Zhang a,b,⁎, Zhinan Yang b
a
State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
b
National Engineering Research Center for Equipment and Technology of Cold Strip Rolling, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China

H I G H L I G H T S G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

• The effects of high-temperature defor-

mation and cooling process on the mi-
crostructures and mechanical properties
of a pearlite steel were researched.
• A new pearlite steel containing high Cr
and high Si was obtained.
• A fully pearlite microstructure with an
interlamellar spacing of approximately
100 nm was obtained.
• A full pearlite steel with a hardness of
HRC50, a tensile strength of 1715 MPa
and an elongation of 18% can be obtained.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, a new type of pearlite steel, 80CrSiV, is designed and the effects of the cooling rate, final cooling tem-
Received 5 September 2016 perature, deformation temperature and level of deformation on the microstructures and mechanical properties
Received in revised form 10 October 2016 of the steel are determined through thermal simulation, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron mi-
Accepted 23 October 2016
croscopy, hardness and tensile tests. Results show that the microstructures and mechanical properties of the steel
Available online 27 October 2016
are significantly affected by the cooling rate after deformation and the final cooling temperature but are only
Keywords:
slightly affected by the deformation temperature and level of deformation. A full pearlite microstructure with a
Nanostructure hardness of HRC50.3, a tensile strength of 1715 MPa and an elongation not less than 17.9% can be obtained
Pearlite under the condition of a cooling rate of 120 °C·min−1 and a final cooling temperature of 550 °C.
High-temperature deformation © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Cooling process
Ultra-high strength

1. Introduction the microstructures, especially the pearlite interlamellar spacing and

Pearlite steels with high strength, excellent wear resistance and fa-
tigue failure resistance are used in high-strength steel wires, rails and
so on [1–3]. The mechanical properties of pearlite are controlled by
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: zfc@ysu.edu.cn (F. Zhang).
pearlite colony size [4–7]. Hyzak et al. [4] studied the relationships be-
tween the microstructures and the mechanical properties of pearlite
and found that refining the interlamellar spacing and austenite grain
size effectively enhanced the strength and fracture toughness of the
steel. Refining the pearlite interlamellar spacing from 0.35 μm to
0.10 μm increases the pearlite rail rolling contact fatigue life and wear
resistance by 29% and 30%, respectively; and also, increasing the volume
of cementite from 41% to 50% can improve the above properties by 6.5%

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2016.10.049
0264-1275/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 114 (2017) 102–110 103

Fig. 1. Sketches: (a) deformation test principle for the Gleeble3800 equipment; (b) hot deformation and the subsequent cooling process for the steel.

Fig. 2. SEM images of 80CrSiV steel cooled at different cooling rates: (a) 30 °C·min−1; (b) 80 °C·min−1; (c) 120 °C·min−1.

and 4.3%, respectively [8]. The refinement of pearlite interlamellar spac-
ing and the increase in carbon content can improve the hardness and
work hardening behaviour of rolling wear, thereby prolonging the ser-
vice life of pearlite rails [9]. However, when the carbon content in-
creases and exceeds that of eutectoid steel, pre-eutectoid cementite
networks precipitate at the prior austenite grain boundaries, which sig-
nificantly decrease the ductility and toughness, even though increases
the strength of pearlite steel [10].
Aside from the refinement of pearlite interlamellar spacing, solu-
tion strengthening and precipitation strengthening can also effec-
tively enhance the strength of pearlite steels. Alloying elements
such as Si, Mn and Cr not only exhibit a strong solution strengthening
effect but also refine pearlite interlamellar spacing. Si does not solute
in cementite, thus, the formation of cementite is controlled by the
diffusion of Si into ferrite. Therefore, the addition of Si can effectively
inhibit the formation of pro-eutectoid cementite [11–13]. At present,
the pearlite steels mainly containing Mn and Si are studied, while the
alloy of Cr is small or without added [14,15]. However, Tashiro et al.
[16] indicated that Cr shows a stronger effect on the refinement of
pearlite interlamellar spacing than that of Mn and Si. V precipitates
in ferrite in a form of V (C, N), which improves the strength and hard-
ness of pearlite steels [17]. In addition, V (C, N) can precipitate at the
prior austenite grain boundaries of hypereutectoid steels inhibiting
the precipitation of the continuous cementite networks at the grain
boundaries [18,19]. Moreover, the precipitation of V (C, N) can be
regulated via controlling the cooling rate after hot deformation to
reach an aim of high hardness. Besides, the addition of N also can in-
crease the amount of V (C, N) and further increase the hardness of V
containing steel [20].
A lot of researches have demonstrated that hot deformation refined
the austenite grain size, and the acceleration of cooling rate after hot de-
formation obviously refined pearlite interlamellar spacing, thereby im-
proved the mechanical properties of steels [17]. During deformation in
the recrystallization region, coarse austenite is refined by recrystalliza-
tion, which consequently increases the area of grain boundaries; in
the non-recrystallization region, austenite grains are elongated and
form deformation bands. During cooling, pearlite nucleates at austenite
grain boundaries and deformation bands, which promote the transfor-
mation from austenite to pearlite [21]. Increasing the cooling rate can
improve the degree of undercooling and thus enhance the driving
force of the phase transformation. Decreasing in pearlite transformation
temperature slows down the diffusion of carbon atoms and decreases
the growth rate of pearlite. Therefore, the combination of hot deforma-
tion, accelerating the cooling rate and decreasing the pearlite transfor-
mation temperature can effectively refine pearlite interlamellar
spacing [21,22].
In this study, a novel type of hypereutectoid pearlite steel, 80CrSiV,
containing high Cr, high Si and trace V is designed, and the effects of

Table 1
Mechanical properties and pearlite interlamellar spacing of the steel at different cooling rates.

CR (°C·min−1) FCT (°C) H (HRC) UTS (MPa) EL (%) AR (%) λ (nm)

30 550 43.8 ± 0.4 1413 ± 8 24.3 ± 2.8 24.1 ± 1.2 157 ± 6

60 46.2 ± 0.5 1560 ± 4 23.7 ± 0.8 28.5 ± 1.8 125 ± 6
80 47.0 ± 0.4 1575 ± 8 25.5 ± 0.6 29.7 ± 2.2 115 ± 5
100 49.3 ± 0.3 1686 ± 7 18.2 ± 1.5 22.1 ± 3.2 99 ± 3
120 50.3 ± 0.3 1715 ± 3 17.9 ± 2.2 16.6 ± 4.5 97 ± 3

CR: cooling rate, FCT: final cooling temperature, H: hardness, UTS: ultimate tensile strength, EL: total elongation, AR: area reduction, λ: perlite interlamellar spacing.
104 M. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 114 (2017) 102–110
Fig. 3. Engineering stress–strain curves of the steel at different cooling rates and the
photograph of specimen at a cooling rate of 80 °C·min−1 before and after tensile test.
cooling rate, the final cooling temperature, the deformation tempera-
ture and the level of deformation on the microstructures and mechani-
cal properties of the steel are systematically studied.
2. Experimental materials and procedures
The 80CrSiV steel with a chemical composition of 0.79C-0.80Si-
0.34Mn-0.90Cr-0.06V was smelted, casted and then hot forged into a
size of 1000 mm (L) × 85 mm (W) × 30 mm (H) plate. A DIL402 thermal
dilatometer was used to determine the eutectoid transformation tem-
perature (A1). Cylindrical specimens with Φ6 mm × 25 mm were heat-
ed to 1000 °C at a heating rate of 5 °C·min−1, held for 5 min and then
cooled to room temperature at the same rate. The A1 temperature deter-
mined by the first derivative method was 738 °C.
Fig. 4. The variation of (a) hardness and (b) tensile strength and elongation versus the inverse of square root of pearlite interlamellar spacing.
Fig. 5. TEM micrographs of the uniform deformation saction of the steel at different cooling rates: (a) 30 °C·min-1; (b) 120 °C·min-1.
Cylindrical specimens with Φ15 mm × 75 mm machined from the
plate were used to simulate deformation and cooling using a
Gleeble3800 equipment. The Gleeble3800 equipment is a fully integrat-
ed thermos-mechanical testing system updated from Gleeble3500. The
maximum loading capacity and heating temperature are 20 tons and
1700 °C, respectively. The system can control deformation parameters,
such as force, temperature and stain rate et al. It is widely applied to in-
vestigate the effects of these hot working parameters on mechanical
properties via precisely control these deformation parameters. The
sketch of deformation test principle for the Gleeble3800 equipment is
shown in Fig. 1(a). The thermocouples welded onto the center of the
specimen surface were used to monitor the test temperature. Samples
were heated to 1200 °C at a heating rate of 600 °C·min−1 held for
10 min and then rapidly cooled to 1100 °C at a cooling rate of
300 °C·min− 1, followed by the first deformation of 33% and/or 43%,
and then they were rapidly cooled to 1000 °C, 950 °C and 900 °C, respec-
tively, at a cooling rate of 300 °C·min−1, followed by the second defor-
mation of 25% and/or 35%. The deformed specimens were cooled to
550 °C, 600 °C and 650 °C, which were defined as final cooling temper-
ature, with different cooling rates and then cooled to room temperature
at a rate of 7 °C·min−1, as shown in Fig. 1(b).
Microstructural features were characterised by scanning electron
microscopy (SEM, SU5000), and the samples were polished and then
etched with a solution of 4% Nital. The true pearlite interlamellar spac-
ing λ0 was calculated using Formulas (1) and (2) [23,24]:
πdc
λr ¼ ð1Þ
nM
λr
λ0 ¼ ð2Þ
2
 M. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 114 (2017) 102–110 105

Fig. 6. Tensile fracture morphologies of the steel at different cooling rates: (a) 30 °C·min−1; (b) 80 °C·min−1; (c) 120 °C·min−1.

Fig. 7. SEM images of the steel cooled at 100 °C·min−1 at different final cooling temperatures: (a) 550 °C; (b) 600 °C; (c) 650 °C.

where λr is the mean random spacing, M is the micrograph magnifica-
tion, dc is the circular test grid of diameter and n is the intersections of
cementite lamellar.
The hardness of samples was determined using an HR-150A Rock-
well hardness tester, and the measurements were repeated five times
to obtain the average value. The deformed specimens were processed
into plate tensile samples with a gauge length of 5.0 mm and a thickness
of 2.0 mm. The tension tests were performed at room temperature by
using the Shimadzu testing machine at a strain rate of 2 × 10−3 s−1.
At least three specimens were tested for each condition to ensure the
accuracy of results. The fracture morphologies of the tensile samples
were analysed by SEM. The microstructure of the uniform deformation
section were investigated by transmission election microscopy (TEM,
JEOL-2010). The TEM samples with the thickness of 40 μm were pre-
pared through double-jet electrolytic polishing (TenuPol-5) in an elec-
trolyte consisting of 93% (volume) alcohol and 7% perchloric acid at
room temperature.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effect of cooling rates on pearlite microstructures and mechanical
properties
selected as 30, 60, 80, 100 and 120 °C·min−1 when the second deforma-
tion temperature and the level of deformation are 1000 °C and 25%, re-
spectively. SEM micrographs of pearlite steel at the cooling rates of 30,
80 and 120 °C·min− 1 are showed in Fig. 2. At the cooling rate of
30 °C·min−1, proeutectoid cementite can be observed in the low-
magnification photograph, as shown in Fig. 2(a). However, at the
cooling rates of 80 and 120 °C·min−1, full pearlite microstructures are
obtained in specimens, as shown in Fig. 2(b) and (c). During the equilib-
rium phase transformation, proeutectoid ferrite and cementite first pre-
cipitate from austenite; when the temperature decreases to A1
temperature, the untransformed austenite transforms to pearlite. How-
ever, the A3 and Acm lines could extend into the two-phase α and θ re-
gion, and the supercooled austenite can transform into full pearlite at
high cooling rates in the form of pseudo eutectoid transformation [25].
Therefore, proeutectoid cementite cannot be observed in Fig. 2(b) and
(c). Comparing the values of pearlite interlamellar spacing listed in
Table 1 indicates that the pearlite interlamellar spacing gradually de-
creases as the cooling rate increasing. Increasing the cooling rate from
30 to 120 °C·min−1 after deformation, the interlamellar spacing de-
creases from 157 to 97 nm and the ratio of the variation is 38.2%. How-
ever, the interlamellar spacing shows slight difference at the cooling

In order to investigate the effect of cooling rate on the pearlite micro-

structures and the mechanical properties of steel, the cooling rates were
Table 2
Mechanical properties and interlamellar spacing of the steel at different final cooling
temperatures.

CR FCT H UTS EL AR λ
(°C·min−1) (°C) (HRC) (MPa) (%) (%) (nm)

60 550 46.2 ± 0.5 1560 ± 4 23.7 ± 0.8 28.5 ± 1.8 125 ± 12

100 49.3 ± 0.3 1686 ± 7 18.2 ± 0.8 22.1 ± 3.2 99 ± 6
60 600 45.3 ± 0.4 1508 ± 14 18.8 ± 1.2 25.2 ± 5.1 133 ± 9
100 47.7 ± 0.5 1602 ± 6 18.6 ± 0.7 26.0 ± 4.8 111 ± 13
60 650 43.7 ± 0.4 1394 ± 19 24.7 ± 0.4 30.5 ± 2.4 141 ± 11
100 45.1 ± 0.2 1455 ± 4 25.1 ± 0.4 27.9 ± 1.6 129 ± 13

CR: cooling rate, FCT: final cooling temperature, H: hardness, UTS: ultimate tensile
strength, EL: total elongation, AR: area reduction, λ: pearlite interlamellar spacing. Fig. 8. Engineering stress–strain curves of the steel at different final cooling temperatures.
106 M. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 114 (2017) 102–110
Fig. 9. The variation of tensile strength and elongation of the steel versus the final cooling
temperature.
rates of 100 and 120 °C·min−1, i.e., the lamellar spacing reaches a crit-
ical value under the test. The minimum interlamellar spacing of possible
values is derived on the basis of the thermodynamics theory, as depicted
in Formula (3) [26]. Formula (3) shows that increasing the degree of
undercooling ΔT refines the interlamellar spacing and increasing the
cooling rate can effectively improve ΔT [22]. Therefore, pearlite spacing
is significantly refined under the condition of fast cooling.
2γ αθ T E
λMIN
0 ¼ ; ð3Þ
ΔHΔT
where γαθ is the interface energy of ferrite and cementite, TE is the equi-
librium temperature A1, ΔH is the change in enthalpy and ΔT is the de-
gree of undercooling.
The engineering stress–strain curves of the steel at different cooling
rates and the photograph of specimen at a cooling rate of 80 °C·min−1
before and after fracture are shown in Fig. 3. The mechanical properties
of the steels have been summarized in Table 1. The extensometer could
not be used because the size of the sample was too small; thus, the elas-
tic range in Fig. 3 and the yield strength in Table 1 could not be provided.
The hardness of pearlite gradually increases with the increasing in
cooling rate after deformation. The main reason is that pearlite spacing
reduces from 157 nm to 97 nm with the increasing in cooling rate. It is
well known that the pearlite hardness and interlamellar spacing con-
form to Hall–Petch relationship [27]. Fig. 4(a) shows that the hardness
and the inverse of the square root of the interlamellar spacing λ−1/2 de-
viate from the Hall–Petch curve. In the present study, a low cooling rate
induces the coarsening of interlamellar spacing. However, the precipita-
tion of V(C, N) in ferrite may compensate for the decrease in hardness
caused by the coarsening of pearlite results in an increase of the interla-
mellar spacing.
Fig. 10. TEM micrographs of the uniform deformation section of the steel cooled at 100 °C·min−1 at different final cooling temperatures: (a) 550 °C; (b) 650 °C.
The variation of tensile strength and the elongation versus the in-
verse of the square root of the interlamellar spacing are shown in
Fig. 4(b). The change tendency of the tensile strength is obviously the
same as that of the hardness. The elongations of the first three cooling
rates are similar. While, the elongations at the cooling rates of 100 and
120 °C·min−1 are significantly lower than those at lower cooling rates.
The typical TEM micrographs of the uniform deformation section at
the cooling rates of 30 and 100 °C·min− 1 are presented in Fig. 5.
Fig. 5(a) and (b) shows that the fracture of cementite (white arrow) is
caused by deformation and that the cementite slips along the direction
of the shear band. In addition, the fragments of cementite are observed
in Fig. 5(a). As a soft phase, plastic deformation initially occurs in ferrite
associated with the dislocation multiplication and slip [28]. Hence, dis-
locations move freely in the ferrite zone and aggregate along the inter-
face of ferrite and cementite when the interlamellar spacing is large,
resulting in greater deformation until fracture [29]. Conversely, the dis-
location distribution is uniform and partial dislocation does not easily
form when the interlamellar spacing of pearlite is fine. The maximum
stress concentration only form in the local large interlamellar spacing;
therefore, the tensile strength is larger.
In addition, the elastic strain and residual stress form during the
transformation of pearlite, because of the different expansion coeffi-
cients of ferrite and cementite [30,31]. The reduction in pearlite interla-
mellar spacing increases the residual stress and induces the microstrain.
Two strain areas exist at the interfaces between the ferrite and two ad-
jacent cementite. When the pearlite interlamellar spacing is large, the
overlap region between the two strain areas is small, and then the fer-
rite hardening is unsaturated. When the pearlite interlamellar spacing
is relatively small, the two strain areas overlap each other, and then
the ferrite hardening reaches saturation, which leading to the formation
of micro cracks between the interface of ferrite and cementite easily.
Therefore, when the cooling rate is increased from 100 °C·min− 1 to
120 °C·min−1, the hardness does not significantly increase, whereas
the elongation is significantly reduced. Pickering et al. [32] suggested
that the simple refinement of interlamellar spacing reduces the pearlite
plasticity, while refining ferrite and cementite at the same time can in-
creases the plasticity.
The tensile fracture morphologies of the steel at the cooling rates of
30, 80 and 120 °C·min−1 are shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 6(a) shows that dim-
ples are predominant in the fracture when the cooling rate is
30 °C·min−1, indicating that the tension crack propagation occurs in a
ductile fracture mode for the steel. Increasing the cooling rate to 80
and 120 °C·min− 1, the amount of dimple decreases and there are
some cleavage fractures in fracture. And for the specimen cooled at a
rate of 120 °C·min−1, the river pattern dominates the fracture and
there are several secondary cracks, indicating a changed fracture
mode from ductile to brittle. Once a cementite lamella fractures, the
 M. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 114 (2017) 102–110 107

Fig. 11. Tensile fracture morphologies of the steel cooled at 100 °C·min−1 at different final cooling temperatures: (a) 550 °C; (b) 600 °C; (c) 650 °C.

Fig. 12. SEM images of the steel cooled at 100 °C·min−1 at different deformation temperatures: (a) 1000 °C; (b) 950 °C; (c) 900 °C.

stress applied to the other cementite lamellas increases dramatically,
leading to rapid fracture. Besides, ferrite and the cementite lamellas
within a pearlite colony share a common orientation, and then the
pearlite colony can be considered as a single fracture cell [1,7,33]. More-
over, as discussed above, the stress in fine pearlite formed during phase
transformation and tensile test is higher than that in coarse pearlite,
which accelerates the propagation of cracks.
In summary, pearlite interlamellar spacing is refined and hardness is
significantly increased with the increase in cooling rate. When the
cooling rate exceed 100 °C·min−1, the hardness slowly increases and
the elongation significantly reduces.
3.2. Effect of final cooling temperature on pearlite microstructures and me-
chanical properties
At the second deformation temperature and deformation level of
1000 °C and 25%, the specimens were cooled to 550, 600 and 650 °C at
the cooling rates of 60 and 100 °C·min−1 and then the pearlite micro-
structures and properties of the steel were studied. SEM micrographs
of pearlite at different transformation temperatures are shown in
Fig. 7, and the values of pearlite interlamellar spacing are presented in
Table 2. At the same cooling rate, the interlamellar spacing of pearlite in-
creases with the increase in final cooling temperature, as listed in
Table 2. Increasing the final cooling temperature from 550 to 650 °C,
the interlamellar spacing increases from 125 to 141 nm at the cooling
rate of 60 °C·min− 1 and from 99 to 129 nm at the cooling rate of
100 °C·min− 1, the increase ratios are 12.8% and 30.3%, respectively.
The decrease in the final cooling temperature can increase the degree
of undercooling (ΔT). Therefore, the increased degree of undercooling,
caused by the decrease in final cooling temperature, can improve the
driving force of the phase transformation and increase the amount of
nucleation, which finally refines the interlamellar spacing of pearlite.
Moreover, a lower final cooling temperature decreases the atomic diffu-
sion capacity and the diffusion distance, which refines the interlamellar
spacing of pearlite [4].
The engineering stress–strain curves of the steel under different final
cooling temperatures are shown in Fig. 8. The properties of the steel
have been summarized in Table 2. At the same cooling rate, the pearlite
hardness and strength reduces with the increase in final cooling tem-
perature. When the final cooling temperature is 550 °C, the hardness
is 46.2 HRC and 49.3 HRC at the cooling rate of 60 and 100 °C·min−1, re-
spectively. By contrast, the hardness is decreased to 43.7 HRC and 45.1
HRC when the final cooling temperature is increased to 650 °C. Fig. 9
displays the variation of tensile strength and elongation of the steel ver-
sus the final cooling temperature. At the final cooling temperature of
650 °C, the tensile strengths are 1394 and 1455 MPa at the cooling
rates of 60 and 100 °C·min− 1, respectively, which are significantly
lower than that at the final cooling temperature of 550 °C. As mentioned
above, the interlamellar spacing coarsens with the increase in final

Table 3
Mechanical properties and interlamellar spacing of the steel at different deformation
temperatures.

FDT CR H UTS EL AR λ
(°C) (°C·min−1) (HRC) (MPa) (%) (%) (nm)

1000 100 49.3 ± 0.3 1686 ± 7 18.2 ± 1.5 22.1 ± 3.2 99 ± 3

950 48.7 ± 0.3 1632 ± 6 20.1 ± 2.3 27.2 ± 1.6 105 ± 7
900 48.6 ± 0.5 1623 ± 7 20.2 ± 1.6 17.5 ± 2.3 107 ± 5

FDT: final deformation temperature, CR: cooling rate, H: hardness, UTS: ultimate tensile Fig. 13. The variation of tensile strength and elongation of the steel versus the deformation
strength, EL: total elongation, AR: area reduction, λ: pearlite interlamellar spacing. temperature.
108 M. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 114 (2017) 102–110

Fig. 14. SEM images of the steel cooled at 100 °C·min−1 at different levels of deformation: (a) 50.0%; (b) 56.7%; (c) 57.5%.

indicating a changed fracture mode from brittle to ductile, gradually.

While the adjacent pearlite colony boundaries share the similar orienta-
tion [7] and one cleavage plane includes several pearlite colonies, there-
fore the fracture morphologies exhibit a long length of river pattern, as
shown in Fig. 11.
In conclusion, the interlamellar spacing of pearlite gradually in-
creases and the strength and hardness gradually decline with the in-
crease in final cooling temperature at the same cooling rate.

3.3. Effect of deformation temperature on pearlite microstructures and me-

chanical properties

Fig. 15. Engineering stress–strain curves of the steel at different levels of deformation.
cooling temperature; therefore, the strength and hardness significantly
decrease with the increase in final cooling temperature. In addition, the
contribution of V precipitation to strength also varies under the differ-
ent final cooling temperature. At low transformation temperatures,
pearlite can be strengthened by the mechanism of V clusters; while
the traditional precipitation strengthening mechanism, namely, the for-
mation of V (C, N) particles, occurs during the transition of the relatively
high temperature [15,17].
The TEM micrographs of the uniform deformation section of the
steel cooled at 100 °C·min− 1 at the final cooling temperature of
550 °C and 650 °C are presented in Fig. 10. At different final cooling
temperature, dislocations and the fracture of cementite are observed
in Fig. 10. The dark field image under the final cooling temperature of
550 °C is also presented in Fig. 10(a). The broken cementite are rela-
tively flat and not obviously bent, which are in accordance with the
fracture morphology and mechanism in Fig. 5(b). By contrast, Fig.
10(b) not only shows the existing fracture of cementite but also con-
tains the kink of cementite and ferrite. During tensile deformation,
the coordination of deformation mechanism for cementite and fer-
rite effectively improve its elongation.
The tensile fracture morphologies of the steel cooled at 100 °C·min−1
at different final cooling temperature are shown in Fig. 11. The fracture
morphologies at different final cooling temperatures show predominant
cleavage river pattern with numbers of secondary cracks. However, in-
creasing the final cooling temperature, the amounts of dimples increase,
Specimens with the second deformation 25% at 1000 °C, 950 °C and
900 °C and cooled to 550 °C at the cooling rate of 100 °C·min−1 were
compared to study the effect of deformation temperature on the micro-
structure and the mechanical properties of pearlite. The full pearlite mi-
crostructures without proeutectoid cementite at different deformation
temperatures are shown in Fig. 12. The values of the interlamellar spac-
ing at different deformation temperatures are at the same level with
100 nm listed in Table 3. Compared the effects of the cooling rate, trans-
formation temperature and deformation temperature on the interla-
mellar spacing of pearlite, it can be seen that the effect of deformation
temperature on interlamellar spacing is the weakest when the deforma-
tion temperature is not less than 900 °C.
The mechanical properties of pearlite steels at different deformation
temperatures are shown in Fig. 13 and the properties have been sum-
marized in Table 3. With the decrease in deformation temperature,
the hardness and strength are gradually reduced, whereas the variation
of elongation shows the opposite trend. When the deformation temper-
atures decrease from 1000 °C and 900 °C, the tensile strengths of pearl-
ite steel decrease from 1686 and 1623 MPa, respectively, while the
elongation increases from 18.2% to 20.2%. The driving force of recrystal-
lization and the growth rate of the recrystallized grain decrease with the
decrease in deformation temperature, and then the grain size of austen-
ite will decrease with decreasing the deformation temperature [17].
Therefore the nucleate rate of pearlite colonies increases with increas-
ing in the area of grain boundaries, which refines the pearlite colonies
and further improve the elongation of the steel [21]. As one can see,
the performance under different deformation temperatures are similar.
During deformation, the V (C, N) precipitation rate in the austenite

Table 4
Mechanical properties and interlamellar spacing of the steel at different levels of deformation.

FPD SPD TD CR H UTS EL AR λ

(%) (%) (%) (°C·min−1) (HRC) (MPa) (%) (%) (nm)

33 25 50.0 100 49.3 ± 0.3 1686 ± 7 18.2 ± 1.5 22.1 ± 3.2 99 ± 3

33 35 56.7 49.1 ± 0.7 1666 ± 6 28.7 ± 2.5 23.6 ± 3.0 86 ± 5
43 25 57.5 49.0 ± 0.4 1647 ± 9 25.6 ± 1.9 24.1 ± 2.3 92 ± 9

FPD: first deformation, SPD: second deformation, TD: total deformation, CR: cooling rate, H: hardness, UTS: ultimate tensile strength, EL: total elongation, AR: area reduction, λ: pearlite
interlamellar spacing.
 M. Wang et al. / Materials and Design 114 (2017) 102–110
increases with the increase in deformation, and the nasal tip tempera-
ture and incubation period of precipitation decrease [34]. Therefore,
the precipitation amount of V (C, N) increases with the decrease in de-
formation temperature, which may reducing the amount of precipita-
tion in the ferrite phase and decreasing the hardness and strength.
Therefore, the hardness and strength of the pearlite steel only slight-
ly decrease with the decrease in deformation temperature, while the
elongation show a reverse trend. Besides, the pearlite steel is less sensi-
tive to the deformation temperature compared with the cooling rate
and the transformation temperature.
3.4. Effect of level of deformation on pearlite microstructures and mechan-
ical properties
The microstructures and the mechanical properties under the three
levels of deformation are compared to study the effect of high-
temperature deformation on the microstructures and the mechanical
properties of pearlite. The microstructures at the different levels of de-
formation with the cooling rate of 100 °C·min−1 are shown in Fig. 14.
The full pearlite microstructures without proeutectoid cementite is ob-
tained under different levels of deformation.
The engineering stress–strain curves of the steel at different levels of
deformation are shown in Fig. 15 and the mechanical properties of the
steel have been summarized in Table 4. It can be seen that the micro-
structure parameter of pearlite interlamellar spacing, and the mechani-
cal properties of hardness and strength of the steel are similar at
different levels of total deformation. However, the elongation for higher
level of total deformation of steel, 28.7% and 25.6%, is notably higher
than that of lower level of total deformation of steel, 18.2%. Then first
of all, it reveals that the elongation is notably effected by the level of
total deformation of steel. Moreover, it can be seen that individual in-
creasing the second deformation from 25% to 35% results in higher elon-
gation increment as compared with individual increasing the first
deformation from 33% to 43%, indicating a stronger effect of second de-
formation. It is well known that increasing the level of total deformation
at high temperature can efficiently refine the grain size of prior austen-
ite, which further provide more nucleation site of pearlite transforma-
tion, and then improve the mechanical properties [7]. Separately,
increasing the level of deformation at a higher deformation temperature
inevitably accelerate the recrystallization rate of deformed austenite
grain and increase the growth rate of recrystallized grain. And then it re-
sults in a smaller grain size of austenite for the steel that increasing the
level of second deformation, and then a finer interlamellar and a rela-
tively higher elongation [1,7,35].
In conclusion, the levels of high-temperature deformation have little
effect on the interlamellar spacing of pearlite, the hardness and the
strength of steel. While, increasing the level of deformation inevitably
improves the elongation.
4. Conclusions
1. The microstructures and mechanical properties of 80CrSiV steel can
be controlled by controlling the deformation and its subsequent
cooling process. A full pearlite microstructure with a hardness of
HRC50, a tensile strength of 1715 MPa and an elongation not less
than 18% can be obtained under the condition of a deformation tem-
perature of 1000 °C, a final cooling temperature of 550 °C and a
cooling rate of 120 °C·min−1.
2. With the increase in cooling rate, the spacing of pearlite steel is re-
fined and its hardness and strength gradually increase. When the
cooling rate reaches 100 °C·min−1, the interlamellar spacing reaches
a limit value of the steel, the strength slowly increases and the elon-
gation is significantly reduced. With the increase in final cooling tem-
perature, the interlamellar spacing gradually coarsens at the same
cooling rate, thereby leading to the gradual reduction in hardness
and strength. Meanwhile, the deformation temperature and the
109
level of high-temperature deformation exhibit weaker effects on
pearlite steel microstructure and mechanical properties compared
with the other parameters.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China
(no. 51471146).
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