Materials Science and Engineering A 553 (2012) 96104

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Materials Science and Engineering A
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ msea
Microstructural characteristics and impact fracture behavior of a high-strength
low-alloy steel treated by intercritical heat treatment
J. Kang

, C. Wang, G.D. Wang

State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, PR China
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 24 November 2011
Received in revised form10 May 2012
Accepted 24 May 2012
Available online 7 June 2012
Keywords:
High-strength low-alloy steel
Microstructure
Crack propagation
Intercritical heat treatment
a b s t r a c t
Effects of the intercritical heat treatment (IHT) on microstructural evolution and Charpy impact fracture
behavior of a high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steel were investigated. The toughening mechanism was
claried by analyzing microstructural characteristics and crack propagation paths. Results showed that
a composite microstructure of ferrite phase separated by globular, rod and irregular shape martensite
was obtained by adding the intercritical quenching to the conventional heat treatment of quenching and
tempering. And 3.6% retained austenite was detectable in the microstructure. The percentage content
of high-angle (15

or more) boundaries reached 78.5%. It was also found that the steel had a high ratio
of propagation energy (average: 152 J) to the total absorbed energy (average: 212 J) during impacting at
40

C. Two crack propagation path models were observed: along the long axis direction of banded fer-
rite, and across the grains and corresponding interfaces. The improvement of impact toughness was
attributed mainly to the retained austenite, the interlocking arrangement of banded ferrite and the
ferritemartensite interfaces with high-angle misorientation, which exhibited effective resistance to the
crack propagation.
2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
High-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steel plates are widely used
throughout the world for various structural applications because
of the signicant mechanical properties of high strength and good
toughness [15]. Duetopossibleapplications insevereserviceenvi-
ronments, the low-temperature impact toughness has been given
more attentions and becomes signicant to the application of HSLA
steels. However, it becomes more difcult to achieve excellent
toughness whenthestrengthis veryhigh, especiallyat acertainlow
temperature, due tothe conict of the commonlyusedmechanisms
for improving strength and toughness.
The most common heat treatment that is applied to improve
mechanical properties of HSLA steels consists of quenching and
tempering. The intercritical heat treatment (IHT) is a newapproach
toenhanceHSLAsteels todual phase microstructurewithcombina-
tion of high strength, excellent toughness, lowyield ratio and good
uniformelongation [58]. The IHT is performed by quenching from
a suitable temperature between the lower transformation temper-
ature (Ac
1
) andthe upper transformationtemperature (Ac
3
). Inthis
intercritical quenching the austenite transforms to martensite, and

Corresponding author at: No. 11, Lane 3, WenHua Road, HePing District,
Shenyang 110819, PR China. Tel.: +86 24 83686415; fax: +86 24 23906472.
E-mail address: wwwkangjian@126.com(J. Kang).
nally a ferritemartensite structure can be obtained [912]. Pre-
vious investigations [3,13] have shown that the impact toughness
of dual phase steel is obviously inuenced by martensite charac-
teristics. It is not yet, however, clear exactly how ferrite phase
affects the impact fracture behavior of dual phase steel, in spite
of its well-known importance in improving the impact toughness.
The aim of this work is to obtain high toughness microstruc-
ture in HSLA steels through adding the IHT to the conventional
quenching and tempering treatment. The effects of the IHT on
microstructural evolution and Charpy impact fracture behavior
were investigated. And the mechanismof improving toughness by
IHT was elucidatedthroughthe microstructural considerations and
the observation of microcracks in the fractured specimen.
2. Experimental procedure
The steel used in this work was manufactured in a 150kg vac-
uuminduction furnace, then forged and cut into square ingot with
120mm thickness, 130mmwidth and 200mmlength. The chemi-
cal composition of the steel is shown in Table 1.
The rolling conditions and heat treatments used in this work
are shown in Fig. 1. The steel was austenitized at 1200

C for 2h
and then rolled to 15mmin a series of steps between 1150

C and
820

C. The controlledrolling (CR) process was conductedwithpass

reduction ratio of 2024% in the austenite recrystallization region
and total reduction of 68% in the austenite non-recrystallization
0921-5093/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2012.05.098
J. Kang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 553 (2012) 96104 97
Table 1
Chemical composition of the investigated steel (wt.%).
C Si Mn P S Nb Ti Ni Cr Mo B Al
0.13 0.25 1.37 0.01 0.002 0.026 0.016 0.27 0.36 0.33 0.0013 0.033
region. The hot rolling process was carriedout ina two-highrevers-
ing hot-rolling mill. And then the steel plate was cooled down to
the roomtemperature in the air.
In this study, Ac
1
and Ac
3
temperatures were determined by a
Formastor-FII dilatometer. Cylinder specimens with 10mm length
and3mmdiameter were usedinthe dilatationtest. Results showed
that Ac
1
and Ac
3
were 727

C and 831

C respectively. The key

modication to the heat treatment process was the introduc-
tion of IHT between the conventional quenching and tempering
steps. Specimens were quenched after austenization at 930

C
for 25min, intercritically quenched from varying temperatures
between 740

C and 820

C holding for 30min, and then tempered

at 500

C for 50min. It was found that the austenite volume frac-

tionincreasedwithincreasing intercritical temperature, whichwas
consistent with the previous investigations [14,15]. Among the
specimens above, the one intercritically quenched from780

C was
used for further investigation in this study.
Metallographic specimens were prepared according to the stan-
dard procedure from the steel plates and etched with 4% nital
solution. Microstructural examinations were carried out by LEICA
DMIRMoptical microscope(OM). Inorder toidentifythemartensite
characteristics of the as-received steel, metallographic specimens
were also etched with LePera solution (4% picral +1% sodium
metabisulte solution). Volume fraction of martensite was deter-
mined by automatic areal analysis with the help of an image
analyzer. And the mean linear intercept method was used to cal-
culate the size of the phases. Measurements were carried out at
15 different areas of the specimen and average values were taken.
The thin foil specimens for further microstructural investigations
by TECNAI G
2
20 transmission electron microscope (TEM) were
prepared on a twin-jet electropolisher at 28V using the solution
composed of 8% perchloric acid and 92% ethanol maintained below
30

C. Electron back scattering diffraction (EBSD) analysis was

conducted on a FEI QUANTA 600 scanning electron microscope
(SEM) with the step size of 0.5m, and then the data were inter-
preted by the orientation imaging microscope (OIM) system. The
amount of retained austenite was estimated by X-ray diffraction
(XRD) analysis.
Tensile specimens with 8mm diameter and 40mm gage
length were prepared in the transverse direction and tested at
room temperature on an INSTRON universal testing machine
at a cross-head speed of 3mm/min. Instrumented impact tests
were performed on Charpy V-notch (CVN) specimens with the
Fig. 1. Diagram of the processing route of the steel under study (CR: controlled
rolling, AC: air cooling, and WQ: water quenching).
10mm10mm55mm size in the longitudinal orientation at
40

C using an INSTRON 9250HV impact tester.

The fracture surfaces of CVN specimens were subsequently
examined by SEM. And in order to determine the crack propagation
paths, a metallographic section was prepared from the fractured
CVN specimen, as shown in Fig. 2. Then the observed section was
examined by SEM.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Microstructural evolution
Fig. 3 presents the optical micrographs showing microstructural
evolution during heat treatments. The hot-rolling microstructure
(before quenching) is composed of martensiteaustenite (MA)
islands, bainite ferrite (BF) and degenerated pearlite (DP) as shown
inFig. 3(a). The microstructure after conventional quenching is typ-
ical lath martensite as shown in Fig. 3(b). Fig. 3(c) reveals that
in the specimen treated by quenching and IHT, the ferrite phase
(white) appears tobe separatedbyglobular, rodandirregular shape
martensite (gray). During reheating and isothermal holding at the
intercritical temperature, the quenched martensite dissociates into
ferrite plus carbide, then the austenite forms at grain boundaries
and martensite lath (or lath packets) boundaries, and nally the
microstructure reverts to ferrite and austenite [12,16]. In the sub-
sequent water quenching, the austenite transforms to martensite.
Fig. 3(d) shows the tempered microstructure of Fig. 3(c), which is
the composite structure of tempered martensite and ferrite.
3.2. Microstructural characteristics
The intercritical temperature and holding time are the key con-
trolling parameters for microstructural characteristics of the steel.
The volume fraction of martensite at the selected intercritical tem-
perature (780

C) and holding time (30min) reached 60.4%. The

microstructural parameters are presented in Table 2.
The substructure of the steel was further investigated by TEM.
TEM observations indicate that tempered lath martensite coex-
ists with banded ferrite, as shown in Fig. 4(a), and ferrite bands
with 0.311.16m width and 615m length were frequently
Fig. 2. Schematic of the observed section used in the investigations of microvoids
and microcracks.
98 J. Kang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 553 (2012) 96104
Fig. 3. Typical optical micrographs showing microstructural evolution: (a) before quenching, (b) after conventional quenching, (c) after quenching and IHT, and (d) after
quenching, IHT and tempering.
observed. Fig. 4(b) reveals that tempered martensite consists of
dislocation cells in the lath interiors as we know. The tangled
and zigzagged dislocations were found in the vicinity of tempered
martensite andwithinbandedferrite (Fig. 4(c) and(d)). Fine precip-
itates on dislocation lines produce strong pinning effect, stabilizing
dislocation structure. And the interaction of dislocations and pre-
cipitates remarkably increases the resistance tocross slipandclimb
of dislocation, which delays the recovery process and strengthens
ferrite phase.
The retained austenite was found in the microstructure of the
steel. Fig. 5(a) and (b) shows the retained austenite in matrix,
which was examined respectively by bright eld and dark eld of
TEMmicrograph. The lm-like retained austenite with 70150nm
width is mainly distributed between the martensite laths and
along the grain boundaries. Fig. 5(c) is selected area diffraction
(SAD) patterns of the retained austenite and the matrix and their
corresponding analyzing results. It is seen that the retained austen-
ite has the coherent orientation relationship with the matrix:
[111]
M
// [ 1 0 1]

. Apparently, the result is in agreement with

KS relationship. And 3.6% retained austenite was quantitatively
detected by means of X-ray. The retained austenite consists of two
parts. One part is that remaining directly fromintercritical quench-
ing process. And the other part is the reversed austenite formed
during tempering, which nucleates and grows in the fresh marten-
site laths obtained fromintercritical quenching process [17,18].
Table 2
Microstructural parameters of the steel processed by quenching and IHT.
Volume
fraction of
martensite
(%)
Average size of
martensite
(m)
Width range of
banded ferrite
(m)
60.4 2.14 0.311.16
The misorientation map of grain boundaries is shown in Fig. 6.
Grain boundaries showing misorientations of 25

and 515

are
colored in red and green respectively. The percentage content of
high-angle (15

or more) boundaries colored in blue reaches 78.5%.

It is found that boundaries of neighboring ferrite bands are mostly
low-angle ones of 215

. The temperedmartensite phases are high-

angled each other, and boundaries between tempered martensite
and ferrite are also mostly high-angle ones.
3.3. Mechanical properties
Yield and tensile strengths of the specimens were found to
be in the range of 688702MPa and 807820MPa, respectively.
The average values of mechanical properties are listed in Table 3.
The low yield ratio (approximate 0.85) was obtained. This is
closely related to the composite microstructure constituted by
soft ferrite and hard martensite, where the soft phase ensures
good deformability and the hard phase provides high tensile
strength [8].
Continuous yielding behavior in the tensile test is usually con-
sidered to be one of the characteristics of dual phase steels [1921].
However, this phenomenon was not observed for as-received spec-
imens. As can be seen from Fig. 7, tensile stressstrain curves of
specimens exhibit well-dened yield point phenomenon, which
can be related to the followings:
Table 3
Mechanical properties of the specimens.
Yield
strength
(MPa)
Tensile
strength
(MPa)
Yield ratio
(%)
Elongation
in 40mm
(%)
Impact
energy (J)
693 813 85.2 21.8 212
J. Kang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 553 (2012) 96104 99
Fig. 4. TEMmicrographs of the steel processed by quenching, IHT and tempering: (a) banded ferrite (F) and tempered martensite (M), (b) tempered martensite, (c) tangled
dislocations around phase boundaries, and (d) high-density zigzagged dislocations in banded ferrite.
(1) Although high-density dislocations were created in ferrite via
plastic deformationduringtheaustenitetomartensitetransfor-
mation, many of themwith enough thermal activation energy
would interact with each other and annihilate during temper-
ing at 500

C[22]. Simultaneously, ne ironcarbide precipitates

produced strong pinning effects on dislocation movement (as
shown in Fig. 4(c)). Consequently, the mobile dislocations were
strongly reduced.
(2) Even if the dislocations breaking away from the pinning pre-
cipitates could move, other immobile dislocations and banded
ferrite boundaries would block them immediately (Fig. 4(d)).
Thus, the mean free path (MFP) of slipping dislocations was
restricted.
3.4. Charpy impact energy
The average Charpy impact energy of specimens reached 212J
at 40

C, as seen in Table 3. Curves of load and impact energy

versus displacement obtained by instrumented impact test are
shown in Fig. 8. The loaddisplacement curve indicates that the
impact process of this steel is characterized by initial elastic defor-
mation, the occurrence of the general yield, the initiationof fracture
crack at the peak load and crack propagation till the occurrence
of fracture. It is worth mentioning, however, that crack initia-
tion generally occurs somewhere between the general yield point
and the peak load point. And it is a common practice to consider
that cracks roughly initiate at peak load [23,24]. Thus, the same
assumption was used in this investigation to calculate the crack
initiation energy.
The total absorbed energy (the area under the
loaddisplacement curve) is composed of crack initiation energy
(E
i
) and crack propagation energy (E
p
). The energy absorbed up to
the peak load can be regarded as the energy for crack initiation
E
i
, which includes elastic bending and plastic deformation energy.
The total absorbed energy values and their contributions (E
i
and
E
p
) determined by the test data for three specimens are listed in
Table 4.
As alreadyobservedinFig. 8, the stable crackpropagationoccurs
after crack nucleation (the peak load) and before the onset of
unstable crack propagation (the sharp decrease in load carrying
capacity). Thus, the energy for crack propagation (E
p
) consists of
the stable and unstable crack propagation energy. And the ratio
of propagation energy to the total absorbed energy is between
Table 4
Impact fracture energies of three specimens determined by instrumented impact
test.
Specimen Total absorbed
energy (J)
Initiation
energy E
i
(J)
Propagation
energy Ep (J)
Propagation to
total absorbed
energy (%)
1 210 58.2 151.8 72.3
2 218 64.1 153.9 70.6
3 208 57.8 150.2 72.2
100 J. Kang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 553 (2012) 96104
Fig. 5. TEMmicrographs of retained austenite in the steel processed by quenching, IHT and tempering: (a) bright eld image, (b) dark eld image, and (c) SAD patterns of
retained austenite and the matrix as indicated by the circle in (a).
70.6 and 72.3% for tested specimens (Table 4). Obviously, it can be
appreciated that the crack initiation energy is a small contri-
bution to the total absorbed energy and the energy for crack
propagation plays a major role for this steel. This can be
attributed mainly to the dual phase microstructure, which exhibits
effective resistance to the crack propagation once the crack is
nucleated.
Fig. 6. EBSDanalysis of the microstructure of the steel processed by quenching, IHT
and tempering (F: ferrite and M: tempered martensite).
3.5. Microfracture mechanism
Fig. 9(a) and (b) shows the fracture surface near the notch root
of a fractured CVNspecimen. The morphology exhibits typical dim-
ple rupture. During impact deformation, ferrite (the soft phase)
deforms rst, and the specimen begins yielding on the tensile side
(at the notch root). Then plasticity spreads and the plastic strain
subsequently reaches the critical point at which ductile fracture is
initiated [25]. Moreover, this steel exhibits good ductility at even
Fig. 7. Stressstrain curves obtained fromthe room-temperature tensile test of the
specimens.
J. Kang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 553 (2012) 96104 101
Fig. 8. Load and impact energy versus displacement curves of one specimen
obtained by instrumented impact test at 40

C.
40

C and can produce enough plastic deformation to release the

stress in front of the main crack. Therefore, deep dimples with
tearing ridges were formed on fracture surface near the notch root.
Subsequently, thefracturecrackpropagates bythedimpledduc-
tile mode. An example of this type of fracture is shown in Fig. 9(c),
which shows the fracture surface in crack propagation area. It can
be clearly seen that the fracture morphology is characterized by
the dimple depression in the surface. As a matter of fact, uneven
dimples were frequently observed in crack propagation area. This
is most likely associated with the unstable crack propagation dur-
ing impacting. Furthermore, the size and depth of dimples mainly
depend on the ductility of microstructure, the inclusion dimension
and the stress condition in front of crack [26]. The existence of dim-
ples surrounded by tearing ridges implies that plastic deformation
occurs even at 40

C during the main crack propagation. Thus,

the resistance to crack propagation is very high in this steel and
the propagation of fracture crack requires large energy, which is
consistent with the analysis of impact curves in Fig. 8.
Fig. 10 shows typical examples of microvoids and cracks under-
neath the fracture surface. The microvoids were nucleated at
interfaces betweentemperedmartensite andferrite, as shownwith
arrows in Fig. 10(a). This is consistent with previous works on frac-
tographic investigations of dual phase steels, which indicate that
microvoids arenucleatedpreferentiallyeither at ferritemartensite
interfaces or at precipitates in ferrite [7,25,27,28].
The loaddisplacement curve inFig. 8has revealedthat a certain
amount of plastic deformation is required for stress concentration
strong enough for microvoids nucleation. During plasticity spread-
ing in the soft phase (ferrite), interfaces between soft phases and
hard phases (tempered martensite) are usually the locations for
the stress concentration, which can easily cause microvoids. How-
ever, the precipitates in ferrite are nely dispersed in this steel
(as in Fig. 4(c) and (d)), and the stress concentration at the pre-
cipitates is not strong enough to tear apart the microstructure.
Consequently, microvoids are nucleated predominantly at inter-
faces between tempered martensite and ferrite during impacting,
as frequently observed in Fig. 10(a).
The excellent toughness of the as-received steel is related
partly to the presence of retained austenite. The lm-like retained
austenite is considered to weaken the stress concentration at the
crack tip through its plastic deformation [29,30], for which the
impact energy of this steel can be increased. Another point worth
Fig. 9. SEMfractographs of the CVN specimen tested at 40

C: (a) near the notch root, (b) higher magnication of the area indicated by the rectangle in (a), and (c) crack
propagation area.
102 J. Kang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 553 (2012) 96104
Fig. 10. SEMmicrographs showing the microvoids andcracks underneaththe mainfracture surface of the CVNspecimentestedat 40

C: (a) locations of microvoidnucleation

and (b), (c) and (d) various paths of crack propagation. Arrows indicate microvoids in (a).
consideringis that theenergyof crackpropagationmakes themajor
contribution to the impact energy (Fig. 8). In order to clarify the
impact fracture mechanism, the crack propagation paths in the
composite microstructure have been observed by SEM, as shown
in Fig. 10(b)(d). In the schematic in Fig. 11 the characteristic paths
of crack propagation in this steel are summarized.
Cracks nucleating at ferritemartensite interfaces were seen
to propagate in two models. One path model can be character-
ized by propagating along the specic direction of ferrite bands,
as shown in Figs. 10(b) and 11(a). In this case, it is demonstrated
that the cracks grow in soft ferrite phases and propagate prefer-
entially along the long axis direction of ferrite bands once cracks
are nucleated, and then the further crack propagation might be
arrested or deected. This path model can be attributed mainly to
the stress localization conditions in ferrite. When the stress is not
quite strong in front of the crack, it would propagate only along the
specic direction in the soft banded ferrite due to the restriction of
hard tempered martensite. Impact deformation could induce stress
localization on the planes of weakness, i.e., cleavage planes, which
make the crack cleavage propagationeasy to occur. However, nely
Fig. 11. Schematic diagrams showing crack propagation paths in the microstructure composed of banded ferrite and tempered martensite: (a) along the specic direction
of ferrite bands and (b) across grains and ferritemartensite interfaces.
J. Kang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 553 (2012) 96104 103
Fig. 12. TEMmicrograph showing the interface between tempered martensite and
ferrite.
dispersed tempered martensite and interlocking arrangement of
ferrite bands play as the main barriers to the cleavage crack propa-
gation and, as a matter of fact, contribute to the toughening in this
steel.
Fig. 11(b) shows the other path model for crack propagation.
It can be found that cracks form at ferritemartensite interfaces
and propagate across the grains and corresponding interfaces. The
direction of crack propagation seems to be changed by the inter-
faces (Fig. 10(c)), while the relatively straight crack path has also
been detected (Fig. 10(d)). This can be attributed to the fact that
once the crack-driving force is high enough cracks may propagate
in the direction of growth and across the ferritemartensite inter-
faces. Moreover, the bunch of ferrite bands is very likely to possess
the same or similar orientation, and cracks probably propagate
along their common cleavage plane.
3.6. Interface characteristics and cracking
The microstructure conguration of the experimental steel sub-
jected to IHT process is the essential factor that determines impact
energy and crack propagation behavior. Among that, the interface
or grain boundary (GB) properties play quite an important role.
The GB properties can be characterized by conguration, density,
GB energy, etc. GB energy
GB
is a signicant parameter for GBs,
and some investigations involving GB energetics and its relation-
ship with cracking have been done in following cited literatures
[3141]. The results of TEMand EBSD analysis in this investigation
havedisplayedtheimportanceof interfacecharacteristics inimpact
fracturemechanism. Sotheeffect of GBs oncrackingbehavior needs
to be discussed further here.
Fig. 12 shows the interface between tempered martensite and
ferrite. FromFig. 6 it is known that GBs of this kind are high-angled
and account for the greater proportion. The high misorientation
angleis averyimportant characteristic fromtheviewof hightough-
ness [4245]. GBs can be classied into three categories using the
coincident site lattice (CSL) model: low-angle boundary (LAB) up
to 15

misorientation, non-special CSL high-angle boundary (HAB)

or general GBs, and special CSL GBs [31]. The GB energy of LABs
and special GBs is small, while the energy of non-CSL HABs is high
[3234]. The ferrite and martensite grains on different sides of the
interface in Fig. 12 have experienced quite different phase transfor-
mationhistories. The interface has no obvious special conguration
andis consideredtobenon-special CSLhigh-angleboundary. Hence
the GB energy of such GBs is higher than others and comes into
effect during the fracture process.
It is shown that GBs with higher energy also have higher
mobility [35,36]. Non-CSL HABs are more sensitive to intergran-
ular microcrack nucleation than LABs and special GBs [31,37],
and cracks preferentially nucleate in non-CSL HABs [38,39]. In the
present study, ferritemartensite interfaces possess higher energy
and are preferred positions for microcracks nucleation. During the
propagation of the main crack, strain concentration in front of
the crack tip will induce microvoids at ferritemartensite inter-
faces. Microvoids are easier to connect with each other in high
energy GBs [40]. The main crack will reach to the microvoids and
propagate along the high-angle boundaries. Certainly, microvoids
are also generated at interfaces of inclusions and matrix. As for
transgranular cracking, propagation rate is also slowed by high
boundary energy andthe propagationrate is inversely proportional
to boundary energy [41]. Thereby, the crack cannot keep proceed-
ing straightly forward in front of high-angle GBs and has to suffer
obstacles and turn its way (Fig. 10(a) and (c)). As a result, the pre-
vailing high-angle boundaries in this steel make the propagation
route winding and lengthened. They force the crack deections and
leave ligaments evidently, becoming effective barriers to the crack
propagation and slowing down the propagation rate in fact.
The composite structure of ferrite phase separated by ne
irregular shape martensite is considered to be advantageous for
balancing plastic deformation between hard phase (tempered
martensite) and soft phase (ferrite). Furthermore, the banded fer-
rite and dispersed martensite in this steel processed by quenching,
IHT and tempering lead to more crack deection, higher fracture
surface roughness and slower crack propagation.
4. Conclusions
(1) Dual phase steel withcomposite microstructure of ferrite phase
separated by globular, rod and irregular shape martensite was
produced by adding the IHT to the conventional heat treatment
of quenching and tempering.
(2) The lm-like retained austenite was found along the lath
boundaries. The as-received steel had a high ratio of high-angle
(15

or more) boundaries versus low-angle ones.

(3) The average Charpy impact energy of specimens reached 212J
at 40

C. And the crack propagation energy made the major

contribution to the total absorbed energy during impacting.
(4) Cracks nucleating at ferritemartensite interfaces were seen to
propagate in two models. One path model can be characterized
by propagating along the long axis direction of banded ferrite.
The other one can be characterized by propagating across the
grains and corresponding interfaces.
(5) The improvement of impact toughness for the steel treated by
intercritical heat treatment is attributed mainly to the retained
austenite, the interlocking arrangement of banded ferrite and
the ferritemartensite interfaces with high-angle misorienta-
tion of 15

or more.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by National Basic Research Program of
China (no. 2010CB630800) and Fundamental Research Funds for
the Central Universities (no. N090607001).
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