Kinetics of strain aging in bake hardening ultra low carbon steel—a comparison with low carbon steel

The kinetics of the static strain aging process have been analyzed in a vacuum-degassed ultra low carbon bake hardenable (ULC BH) steel with a total carbon content of 20 wt.ppm through measurement of the strength properties. The influence of prestrain and free interstitial carbon content has been studied. The kinetic results were compared with those of a BH low carbon (LC) steel. In the derivation of the time exponent and the activation energy, only the first stage of aging was considered. It was observed that, at all prestrain levels and matrix solute carbon contents, the initial aging process in the ULC steel obeyed the t2/3 kinetic law and the kinetics were not influenced by the changes in dislocation structure due to prestrain and the dissolved carbon content. In comparison, the aging process and the kinetics in the LC steel were found to be significantly influenced by the amount of prestrain. The presence of carbide particles in LC steels can modify the aging kinetics.