Studies on softening kinetics of niobium microalloyed steel using stress relaxation technique

Stress relaxation was studied in a series of low carbon, high Mn microalloyed steels containing 0.012 wt.%, 0.06 wt.% and 0.1 wt.% Nb. The stress-relaxation curves were modeled using a physically-based model that takes into account the time evolution of precipitation, recovery and recrystallization as well as their interactions. The results confirm that the high Mn, high Nb design can offer distinct advantage over the low Mn design for the application of near-net shape processing.