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AISI 4340 steel bars were heated at 900 °C for one hour, annealed at 738 °C for different durations and oil-quenched in order to obtain dual phase steels with different ferrite volume fractions. A 3% prestrain at the temperature range of 150-450 °C was then imposed to the samples, and room temperature tensile tests were carried out, afterwards. Results indicate that the maximum values for both yield and ultimate tensile strength would exist for the samples pre-strained at the temperature range of 250-300 °C. Also, a sudden drop of the ductility was observed at the mentioned temperature range. The observed behavior might be attributed to the occurrence of dynamic strain aging taken place at... 

The strain hardening behavior of AISI 4340 steel with dual phase (DP) and triple phase (TP) microstructures with constant ferrite volume fractions of 34% was investigated. The microstructures of specimens were analyzed using an optical microscope. The tensile flow behavior of all the samples was explained using Holloman equation. Results showed that in both DP and TP steels, work hardening takes place in two stages. The onset strain of second stage of work hardening and Holloman equation parameters (work hardening exponent and strength coefficient) in both stages were increased with the increase of martensite volume fraction in TP steels. At first stage of work hardening, ferrite phase... 

To improve the strength and toughness of AISI 4340 steel, different microstructures, containing full bainite, bainite-ferrite, martensite-ferrite and full martensite were produced by different heat treatment cycles. Tensile, impact and hardness tests were carried out at room temperature. The ductile-brittle transition temperature was determined from impact data at different temperatures. The results showed that steel with bainite - 0.34 ferrite microstructure has the highest elongation and charpy impact energy, while its tensile strength and yield stress decreased in comparison to other microstructures. This increment was noticeable when bainite - 0.34 ferrite steel was tempered. The... 

To improve both strength and toughness of AISI 4340 steel three microstructures, full bainite, bainite-ferrite and tempered bainite-ferrite, were produced by heat treatment of this steel. Tensile, impact and hardness properties of these microstructures were compared. The results showed that with tempering of bainite-34% ferrite dual phase steel, elongation and charpy impact energy increased significantly in comparison to bainite and bainite-ferrite microstructures. Also ductile-brittle transition temperatures of bainite-ferrite and tempered bainite-ferrite steels were measured and confirmed superior toughness properties of this microstructure. Fracture surface analysis of charpy specimens... 

Individual and synergy effects of shot peening (SP) and ultrasonic nanocrystal surface modification (UNSM) on rotary bending fatigue (RBF) behavior of AISI 4340 steel were systematically investigated at various bending stress levels in the range of 275–600 MPa. The results revealed that the fatigue behavior of the as-received sample was enhanced by SP and it was further enhanced by SP and UNSM combination, while the UNSM-treated one exhibited the highest enhancement in fatigue behavior. The fatigue behavior of the SP + UNSM sample was enhanced after SP, but it was found to be detrimental after UNSM. Apart from RBF experiments, individual and synergy effects of SP and UNSM on surface... 

This study investigates the effect of cold rolling prior to inter-critical annealing on microstructure and mechanical properties of ferrite-martensite dual phase steel. Samples were heated to 850 °C for 1 h followed by oil quenching, then the steel sheet were cold rolled by 0%,10%,15% and 20% reduction in thickness. The inter-critical annealing treatment (750 °C, 120min) was performed to generate a ferrite-martensite microstructure. Microstructural studies showed that increasing the applied cold rolling, leading to increase in volume fraction of martensite and decrease in ferrite grain size. Mechanical properties of dual phase steel were measured by tensile, impact and hardness tests.... 

This paper presents the effect of martensite volume fraction (VM) on mechanical properties of AISI 4340 steel with ferrite-bainite-martensite microstructures. The steel bars were austenitized at 900°C for 1h followed by intercritical annealing at 740°C for 100min and quenching into a salt bath with temperature of 300°C and holding at different times to obtain triple phase (TP) microstructures with 34vol.% fraction ferrite and various martensite (or bainite) contents. Presence of three phases in adjacent to each other was confirmed by metallographic analysis and TEM studies. TEM observation also indicates higher density of dislocations within ferrite near martensite colonies compared to that...