Characterization of Damage Evolution on Hot Flat Rolled Mild Steel Sheets by Means of Micromagnetic Parameters and Fatigue Strength Determination

In continuous casting processes, inevitable voids (damage) are generated inside the material. The subsequent forming process of hot flat rolling offers the potential of healing these defects by closing the voids and bonding the internal surfaces. In this paper, different forming conditions from hot flat rolling process were characterized with micromagnetic measurement techniques and the influence of the damage evolution on the fatigue behavior was investigated. To characterize the reduction of voids through hot flat rolling processes, nondestructive testing techniques are required. Therefore, micromagnetic measurements such as Barkhausen noise, incremental permeability, and harmonic analysis were carried out, correlated with the number of voids, and compared with each other. The influence of damage evolution of different forming conditions on the fatigue behavior was characterized based on instrumented constant amplitude and multiple amplitude (load increase) tests. A significant increase in fatigue strength due to the hot flat rolling process, which leads to a reduction in the number of voids, was observed. In addition, the fracture surfaces of the specimens were analyzed in the scanning electron microscope.