Study on Strain Hardening Behavior of As-Cast Fe-24Mn-7Al-1C Wear-resistant Steel for Lining Plate

Wear-resistant steel is an important material used in many industries and applications. It is widely used as lining plates in heavy industrial equipment such as blast furnaces, presses and rolling mills, as they are resistant to wear and abrasion thus providing a longer service life. It is also used in other extreme wear applications such as dredging equipment, heavily laden conveyor belts and earthmoving machinery. Fe-24Mn-7Al-1C steel is a ferritic steel wear-resistant material with high chromium and manganese as wear-resistance elements. Wear-resistant steel can be produced as casting or hot rolled, depending on the final application. In this study, the strain hardening of wear-resistant steel plate as-cast from Fe-24Mn-7Al-1C composition will be analyzed to determine its suitability for use in lining plate applications.
    
Experiment
The strain hardening behavior of the Fe-24Mn-7Al-1C wear-resistant steel as-cast was examined using an Instron dynamometer. Samples of the as-cast steel with a thickness of 8mm containing a 2mm diameter pin-loaded test specimen were cut out of the casting. After properly polishing the sample surface, the plastic strain rate was measured by applying a set load to the specimen with the Instron dynamometer. The stress-strain diagram of the test sample was obtained from the tensile test.
    
The stress-strain diagram of the Fe-24Mn-7Al-1C wear-resistant steel as-cast is shown in Figure 1. The graph shows that the sample exhibits significant deformation even at stresses below its yield strength. The sample achieved a yield strength of 685.2 MPa with a total strain of 0.95 and a total elongation of 11.25%. The total elongation and total strain values are higher than the ones obtained from the hot rolled samples of the same composition indicating that the as-cast sample exhibited greater strain hardening behavior.
    
From it can be seen that the wear-resistant steel as-cast sample exhibits strain hardening with increasing strain, as indicated by its increasing slope. This indicates that the material is able to harden and acquire higher strength even at greater deformations. This indicates the material’s good workability in applications such as lining plates where large deformation is required for installation.
    
The strain hardening behavior of Fe-24Mn-7Al-1C wear-resistant steel as-cast was examined and it was observed that the sample exhibits significant deformation at stresses below yield strength with a total elongation of 11.25% and a total strain of 0.95. The material also exhibits strain hardening behavior with increasing strain further indicating its good workability. This indicates that the material is suitable for use as a wear-resistant lining plate material in heavy industrial applications.

---