| Abstract: | In the Collaborative Research Centre 761's "Steel ab initio - quantum mechanics guided design of new Fe based materials," scient-ists and engineers from RWTH Aachen University and the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research conducted research on mechanism-con-trolled material development with a particular focus on high-manganese alloyed steels. From 2007 to 2019, a total of 55 partial projects and four transfer projects with industrial participation (some running until 2021) have studied material and process design as well as material char-acterization. The basic idea of the Collaborative Research Centre was to develop a new methodological approach to the design of structural ma-terials. This paper focuses on selected results with respect to the mechanical properties of high-manganese steels, their underlying physical phe-nomena, and the specific characterization and modeling tools used for this new class of materials. These steels have microstructures that re-quire characterization by the use of modern methods at the nm-scale. Along the process routes, the generation of segregations must be taken in-to account. Finally, the mechanical properties show a characteristic temperature dependence and peculiarities in their fracture behavior. The mechanical properties and especially bake hardening are affected by short-range ordering phenomena. The strain hardening can be adjusted in a never-before-possible range, which makes these steels attractive for demanding sheet-steel applications. |
