CCT diagrams for advanced ultra-high strength steels

Nowadays, reducing the weight of vehicles has been one of the priorities of the automotive industry as it seeks to increase fuel efficiency, improve user safety and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. For this reason, the steel industry has developed different types of Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS) that offer an excellent balance of low cost, light weight and good mechanical properties. In the practical situation, continuous quench transformation (CCT) diagrams represent the most important tool in the development of advanced steels. However, most CCT diagrams have been developed for idealised situations that do not allow to correctly simulate the actual processing routes that these high strength DP steels are subjected to. Therefore, the aim of this research is the experimental determination of CCT diagrams for advanced steels in annealing heat treatments in austenitic and intercritical temperature ranges, making use of the experimental technique of quench dilatometry.