Correlation between Microstructures and Ductility Parameters of Cold Drawn Hyper-Eutectoid Steel Wires with Different Drawing Strains and Post-Deformation Annealing Conditions

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Relationship between microstructures and ductility parameters of hypereutectoid pearlite steel wire were studied. The research issue is interesting. However, there are also some points which must be addressed in the revised manuscript before further consideration.

1) In Figure 3, the time axis should be linear rather than irregular.

2) In "3.1. Tensile strength": to combination with figures or references, effects on the change of tensile strength should be further discussed.

3) The format reference should be unified, for example, " Mater. Sci. " in Reference 1 should be changed to " Prog. Mater. Sci. ".

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Although the paper deals with a topic of scientific and technical interest (relationship between microstructure and mechanical properties in cold drawn pearlitic steel wires), it contains serious scietific flaws and defects that MUST be improved before being accepted for publication.

In particular, the following issues must be addressed:

1. There is a lack of citation of sound references on the topic in the scientific literature, so that the section of references should be completed with the addition of some relevant ones such as [J. Toribio: Structural integrity of progressively cold-drawn pearlitic steels: From Raffaello Sanzio to Vincent van Gogh. Procedia Structural Integrity 3 (2017) 3–10] and references herein, such as a recent reference in Metals including a compendium of experimental resuls [J. Toribio, F.J. Ayaso, B. González, J.C. Matos, D. Vergara and M. Lorenzo, Metals 6 (2016) paper 114] or classical ones in the matter of microstructural evolution and orientation in cold drawn pearlitic steel wires regarding pearlitic colonies and lamellae [J.Toribio and E. Ovejero: Microstructure Evolution in a Pearlitic Steel Subjected to Progressive Plastic Deformation. Materials Science and Engineering A234-236 (1997) 579-582] [J.Toribio and E. Ovejero: Microstructure Orientation in a Pearlitic Steel Subjected to Progressive Plastic Deformation. Journal of Materials Science Letters 17 (1998) 1037-1040] [J.Toribio and E. Ovejero: Effect of Cumulative Cold Drawing on the Pearlite Interlamellar Spacing in Eutectoid Steel. Scripta Materialia 39 (1998) 323-328] [J.Toribio and E. Ovejero: Effect of Cold Drawing on Microstructure and Corrosion Performance of High-Strength Steel. Mechanics of Time-Dependent Materials 1 (1998) 307-319]. In the matter of fragmentation/delamination during torsion tests of cold drawn pearlitic steel wires, tge following reference should be included: [B. Goes, A. Martín-Meizoso, J. Gil-Sevillano, I. Lefeverb and E. Aernoudt: Engineering Fracture Mechanics 60 (1998) 255-272].  
2. Citing of references is too global and general, including too many papers in a single couple of brackets. More specific and detailed referencing of previous scientific work is required. As an example, the first group of references includes as many as eleven papers [1-11].
3. The experimental programme (the scientific foundation of the paper) must be properly described in detail, including apparatus and experimental devices (with proper photographs if possible), and specially the torsion tests.
4. A discussion section, with proper entity, must be included in the paper, and not "hidden" and mixed with the experimental results ("Results and discussion").
5. With regard to the previous paragraph, there is a lack of sound microstructural or micromechanical models aimed to explain the described experimental behaviour of the cold drawn pearlitic steel wires.
6. The word "dislocation" appears many, many times in the paper, but the role of dislocations in mechanical behaviour of cold drawn pearlitic steel wires is not clear and appears as very "fuzzy" in the paper.
7. In Fig. 7, the term "flow stress" is inadequate. In addition, the true stress and the true strain must be used instead of the engineering stress and strain.
8. Labels of Figures should be improved and enlarged to improve the appearance of the paper according to mdpi standards.
9. Conclusions must be improved and their scientific soundness must be emphasized (in particular the role of dislocations). Again the word "dislocation" appears many times.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf