Structural characterization of ultrafine-grained interstitial-free steel prepared by severe plastic deformation

Abstract Interstitial free steel with ultrafine-grained (UFG) structure was prepared by high-pressure torsion (HPT). The development of the microstructure as a function of the number of HPT turns was studied at the centre, half-radius and periphery of the HPT-processed disks by X-ray line profile analysis (XLPA), positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) and electron microscopy. The dislocation densities and the dislocation cell sizes determined by XLPA were found to be in good agreement with those obtained by PAS. The evolution of the dislocation density, the dislocation cell and grain sizes, the vacancy cluster size, as well as the high-angle grain boundary (HAGB) fraction was determined as a function of the equivalent strain. It was found that first the dislocation density saturated, then the dislocation cell size reached its minimum value and finally the grain size got saturated. For very high strains after the saturation of grain size the HAGB fraction further increased. The PAS investigations revealed that vacancies introduced by severe plastic deformation agglomerated into small clusters consisting of 9–14 vacancies. The evolution of the yield strength calculated from the microhardness as a function of strain was explained by the development of the defect structure.