Influence of cooling rate during cryogenic treatment on the hierarchical microstructure and mechanical properties of M54 secondary hardening steel

Cryogenic treatment (CT) is an essential heat treatment process in improving the mechanical properties of secondary hardening ultra-high strength steel (SH-UHSS). The present study investigated the influence of cooling rate during CT on the hierarchical microstructure and strength-toughness of M54 SH-UHSS. Increasing cooling rate can synchronously refine martensite matrix and M2C-type (M = Mo, Cr, W, V) carbides, while there are the most refined martensite blocks and highest-density precipitation of the carbides at cooling rate of 3 °C·min-1. Further increased cooling rate weakens the effect of CT on the refinement and precipitation of martensite matrix. The refinement is related to the high-level segregation of carbon atoms and favorable equilibrium concentration of vacancies during CT and pinning effect of carbides on mobile dislocation during tempering. Besides, uniform carbon clusters and high-nucleation rate by the refined martensite matrix and high-density of dislocations mostly contribute to the above beneficial precipitation of carbides. Precipitation and martensitic matrix strengthening mostly contribute to the ultra-high strength (yield strength of 1730 MPa, ultimate tensile strength of 2018 MPa) at the cooling rate of 3 °C·min-1; meanwhile, the refined blocks as "effective" controlling unit is identified to be the major toughening mechanism contributing to a desirable impact toughness (V-notched Charpy impact energy of 30 J). This study would be instructive for processing the engineering components with large cross-section.