From heterogeneous to homogeneous nucleation for precipitation in austenite of microalloyed steels

This paper studies the influence of strain on precipitate nucleation in austenite for three microalloyed steels with different microalloying element (Nb, V) contents. Precipitation start–time–temperature diagrams were determined by means of hot torsion tests and nucleation periods were measured at strains of 0.20 and 0.35. The increase in the dislocation density caused by the strain was calculated for both strains, and the driving forces for...