Impact of Dislocation Density and Mobility on Yielding Behavior in Quenched Medium-carbon Martensitic Steel Tempered at Low Temperature

Middle-carbon martensite steels are vital materials for mechanical components and their mechanical properties have attracted significant interest. However, the decrease in the elastic limit of the as-quenched materials is one of the remaining puzzles. Herein, we quantitatively characterized the dislocation density and its structure in the as-quenched and tempered martensite steel by neutron diffraction line profile analysis and discussed their impact on the yield stress. The dislocation density in the as-quenched specimen was the highest at 9.7 x 10(15) m(-2), while it decreased with an increase in the tempering temperature. In addition, the component ratios of edge and screw dislocations decreased and increased, respectively, depending on the increase in the tempering temperature. The dislocation arrangement parameter (M) varied between the tempering temperatures of 220 and 290 degrees C. Although there was a large difference between the yield stress obtained from the tensile test and that estimated from the dislocation density, the experimental results could be explained by correcting them with the inverse of M value as an index showing the effective dislocation density ratio.