Improvement of Strength–Ductility Balance by the Simultaneous Increase in Ferrite and Martensite Strength in Dual-Phase Steels

This work investigates the effect of increasing both martensite phase and ferrite phase strength on tensile properties and fracture behavior of dual-phase (DP) steels. The martensite phase strength is varied by changing its carbon contents and tempering process, whereas the ferrite phase strength is varied by dispersion of nano-sized vanadium carbides (VC) precipitates in the ferrite phase and also by changing its total fraction in DP samples....