Parallel between steels alloyed with chrome-nickel and Fe-Mn-Al-C steels, in their response to fracture and wear (Review)

The big worldwide demand for chrome-nickel alloy steels ('conventional steel') leads to the need for advanced materials for applications in different engineering systems that operate at high temperatures and in aggressive environmental conditions, favoring research and development in alternate alloys. In this technological race in search of these new materials, the FeMnAlC alloys ('new steels') have attracted attention for their excellent mechanical and tribological properties as well as for their good performance in corrosive-oxide environments, which make them similar to conventional steel. There are two important similarities between these two steels. First, an agent that causes the passive film to become stainless appears in both steels: chrome in the conventional steel, and aluminum in the FeMnAl alloy. The second similarity is that a stabilizing agent of the austenitic phase (FCC) appears in both, so that excellent mechanical properties can be obtained: nickel in the conventional steel, and manganese in the FeMnAl alloy. In certain sectors, such as aeronautics, conventional steel is rarely used because it is a very heavy material. This conventional steel is almost three times heavier that aluminum (7.85/2.7). Two advantages that the new FeMnAIC steels have compared to the conventional steels are that they are about 13% lighter in weight and they are less expensive. The FeMnAl also have excellent mechanical properties and good corrosion-oxidation resistance, which generates big expectations for their application in a broad scientific spectrum. This work reports the state of the information currently available about FeMnAlC alloys, comparing the mechanical and tribological behaviors of conventional alloy steels with chrome and nickel alloys, specifying the scopes of their application. A condition that favors the steels' fragility is the high speed of deformation and impact, where the FCC crystalline structure materials do not have a fragile ductile transition so they can withstand big impacts at low temperatures. The use of BCC crystalline structure materials are limited in the high tenacity region. Under suitable thermal conditions of preparation, optimum microstructural properties are obtained with the FeMnAlC alloys, so that their mechanical and wear responses make excellent alternatives for industrial applications