Influence of Iron Carbide on Mechanical Properties in High Silicon-added Medium-carbon Martensitic Steels

Using a medium-carbon steel containing 2 mass% Si, we investigated the effect of its tempered martensite microstructure on its mechanical properties. We found that the tensile strength of tempered martensite continuously decreases with increasing tempering temperature and that its yield strength markedly decreases in a tempering temperature range of 673 K to 723 K. To investigate the correlation with the microstructure, we examined the effect of tempering temperature on the microstructure by SEM and TEM and identified Fe carbide phases by TEM nanobeam diffraction pattern analysis and X-ray diffractometry. In the tempering temperature range where the yield strength significantly decreases, the morphology of the epsilon carbide precipitated in martensite blocks changed from platelike to granular and the chi carbide was precipitated in a small amount in the samples tempered at 723 K. SAXS quantitative evaluation of the epsilon carbide revealed that the decrease in the size and volume fraction of the epsilon carbide with the increase in the tempering temperature was far greater than with the samples tempered at 673 K and below. The sharp decrease in the yield strength was suggested to be correlated with the increase in the mobility of dislocations with the decrease in the precipitate volume fraction resulting from the dissolution of epsilon carbide in the transformation process of the Fe carbides.