Le procédé de galvanisation en continu consiste à recouvrir les tôles d’aciers d’un revêtement de zinc en les immergeant dans un bain métallique fondu. Lors du recuit continu à 800°C sous atmosphère N2‐H2 qui précède l’immersion de la tôle dans le bain, la structure de l’acier est recristallisée et les oxydes de fer sont réduits. Il se produit en même temps la ségrégation et l’oxydation des éléments d’alliages moins nobles que le fer, les oxydes formés pouvant être à l’origine de défauts de revêtement. Afin de mieux comprendre les réactions d’oxydation sélective qui se produisent à la surface et en profondeur de l’acier, nous avons étudié la germination et la croissance d’oxydes sélectifs sur un acier ferritique. Des alliages binaires de FeMn ont été étudiés dans ce travail. Les particules d'oxyde sont composées de l'oxyde de manganèse MnO. L'oxydation externe dépend de l'orientation cristallographique du substrat. Des particules de différentes formes sont observées sur des grains de ferrite d'orientations différentes : des particules cubiques se trouvent sur la surface (100), des particules triangulaires sur la surface (110) et des particules hexagonales sur la surface (111). Une étude théorique plus approfondie a été réalisée à l'aide de simulation numérique par la méthode DFT et le code SIESTA. Aucune influence significative de la présence de manganèse n’a été trouvée sur l'énergie d'adsorption dissociative du dioxygène à l'échelle atomique. Cependant, la barrière de diffusion des atomes de Fe, Mn, et O est beaucoup plus faible sur la surface (110) que sur la surface (001). Ceci peut être une explication de la raison pour laquelle la taille des particules est plus grande sur la surface (110) que sur la surface (100). / Continuous galvanizing process involving immersion in a molten zinc bath is commonly used to form zinc coatings on steel sheets. Before hot‐dip galvanizing, the steel sheets are annealed at a temperature of 800°C in a N2 atmosphere containing 5 vol.% of H2, with only traces of water. This heat treatment is used to recrystallize the steel substrate and to reduce the iron oxides in order to improve the wettability by liquid zinc. At the same time, the less‐noble alloying elements of the steel preferentially oxidize and diffuse towards the surface. The aim of this study is a better understanding of selective oxidation of ferritic steels. The binary alloys of FeMn are studied in this work. The oxide particles are found to be composed of manganese oxide MnO. External oxidation is found to be dependent on the crystallographic orientation of the substrate. Particles of different shapes are observed on ferrite grains of different orientations: square particles are found on the (100) surface, triangle particles on the (110) surface and hexagon particles are found on the (111) surface. Further theoretical study was carried out using numerical simulation with DFT method and SIESTA code. No significant influence of manganese presence has been found on the dissociative adsorption energy of dioxygen at the atomic scale. However, the diffusion barrier of the Fe, Mn, and O atoms are much less on the (110) surface than on the (001) surface. This can be an explanation for why the particles are bigger on the (110) surface than on the (100) surface.

The key to the understanding of the mechanical behavior of dual phase (DP) steels is to a large extent to be found in the microstructure. The microstructure is in its turn a result of the chemical composition and the process parameters during its production. In this thesis the connection between microstructure and mechanical properties is studied, with focus on the microstructure development during annealing in a continuous annealing line. In-line trials as well as the lab simulations have been carried out in order to investigate the impact of alloying elements and process parameters on the microstructure. Further, a dislocation model has been developed in order to analyze the work hardening behavior of DP steels during plastic deformation. From the in-line trials it was concluded that there is an inheritance from the hot rolling process both on the microstructure and properties of the cold rolled and annealed product. Despite large cold rolling reductions, recrystallization and phase transformations, the final dual phase steel is still effected by process parameters far back in the production chain, such as the coiling temperature following the hot rolling. Lab simulations showed that the microstructure and consequently the mechanical properties are impacted not only by the chemical composition of the steel but also by a large number of process parameters such as soaking temperature, cooling rate prior to quenching, quench and temper annealing temperature. / QC 20101004