Static Softening Behaviour of Hot-worked Austenite in Microalloyed Structural Steel StE460

Double-hit compression tests were performed on StE460 steel containing microalloying elements niobium and vanadium over a range of temperatures and strain rates penment to hot rolling. The fractional softening was evaluated by use of the offset method, which was confirmed to be a very reasonable method. Appropriate expressions are given for the static recrystallization kinetics as a function of temperature and strain rate. Particular attention is paid to the effect of strain rate on static recrystallization. It can be shown that the static softening is apparently accelerated by strain rate. Recrystallization in low temperature austenitic region is stopped due to precipitation of carbonitrides of microalloying elements, which is reflected in the form of a plateau in the curves of static softening.