Microstructural evolution during thermomechanical processing of microalloyed medium carbon steels

Abstract

A laboratory study was carried out to determine the characteristics of austenite grain growth and recrystallisation, strain induced precipitation, and continuous cooling transformation kinetics for two microalloyed medium carbon steels (1541 + Ti,V and 1541 + Nb). Austenite grain refinement is achieved by a combination of undissolved carbonitride precipitates at the reheat temperature, deformation recrystallisation at temperatures above T _NR and strain induced carbonitride precipitation. Deformation below T _NR promotes transformation to grain boundary ferrite (GBF), intragranular ferrite (IGF), and pearlite (P) at the expense of bainite (B) in both steels. This is attributed to increased density of nucleation sites for ferrite and pearlite at austenite grain boundaries, twin boundaries, and deformation bands. The results suggest that thermomechanical forging schedules could be designed to produce refined F + P microstructure, and hence, to realise improved strength, toughness, and machinability in the forging.     

Development of TiOx-bearing steels with superior heat-affected zone toughness

TiO_x steels with superior toughness of the heat-affected zone (HAZ) and applicable to a wide range of welding heat inputs have been developed using advance metallurgical techniques. A promising practice in industrial production is adopting a Ti-killing process in which ferro-titanium alloys are utilized as killing agents in an Al-free molten steel. This process creates Ti-oxides with various crystalline structures (referred to as TiO_x) in a steel matrix. These TiO_xinclusions improve the toughness of coarse-grained HAZ by promoting the formation of intragranular acicular ferrite (IAF), which can section an austenite grain into several colonies and refine the effective grain size to fracture resistance. The volume fraction of IAF is closely related to the number of TiO_x inclusions, inclusion diameter, austenite grain size and the hardenability of steels. The favourable conditions for the formation of IAF and the concept of process control are discussed.     

Acicular ferrite transformation in alloy-steel weld metals

In this paper, the morphology of acicular ferrite in alloy-steel weld metals has been investigated. The effect of the grain size of prior austenite on acicular ferrite transformation has also been studied. It is found that acicular ferrite can form in reheated weld metals when the austenite grain size is relatively large. On the other hand, classical sheaf-like bainite will form at the same temperature if the austenite grain size is kept small. Further results strongly suggest that acicular ferrite is in fact intragranular bainite rather than intragranular Widmanstätten ferrite.     

022Cr25Ni7Mo4N双相不锈钢等温处理中的组织演变EI北大核心CSCD

研究经1100℃等温处理2~20 h后022Cr25Ni7Mo4N双相不锈钢的显微组织演变。观察钢中奥氏体晶粒形态变化并对其尺寸进行定量表征,测量铁素体/奥氏体两相中的元素含量变化,并探讨组织演变对实验钢中铁素体相体积分数的各向异性和低温冲击韧性的影响。结果表明:随着保温时间的延长,奥氏体晶粒发生聚集、长大、粗化现象,并伴随显著的晶粒形态变化,a/b值≥4.0时细长棒状晶粒体积分数从近20%骤降至5%以下,a/b值介于1.0~1.9的等轴晶粒体积分数显著上升的同时,尺寸≥20μm的晶粒体积分数快速增加。保温时间的延长使得Mo,Cr元素进一步向铁素体相扩散、富集,并提高铁素体相抗点蚀当量(pitting resistance equivalent number,PREN)值。细长棒状奥氏体晶粒比例的显著下降,是奥氏体体积分数各向异性改善和实验钢低温冲击韧性提高的主要原因。     

Transition from bainite to acicular ferrite in reheated Fe–Cr–C weld deposits

Abstract

Factors controlling the transition from acicular ferrite to bainite in Fe–Cr–C weld metals have been investigated. It appears that the presence of allotriomorphs of ferrite at austenite grain boundaries has the effect of suppressing the formation of bainitic sheaves. This in turn allows the acicular ferrite plates to develop on intragranular nucleation sites. A theoretical analysis indicates that bainitic transformation is prevented from developing at the allotriomorphic ferrite/austenite boundaries by the carbon concentration field present in the austenite at the allotriomorphic ferrite/austenite interface. This field does not homogenise within the residual austenite during the time scale of the experiments.

MST/1217     

Tensile fracture behaviour of microstructurally engineered Cu bearing high strength low alloy steel

Abstract

An attempt has been made to highlight the influence of precipitation and microstructural constituents on tensile fracture behaviour in Cu bearing HSLA 100 steel. Variations in the microconstituents have been incorporated in the steel by engineering the microstructures through thermal treatments consisting of solutionising, water quenching and aging at various temperatures. The microstructure in quenched condition consists of mainly lath martensite, bainite and acicular ferrite besides little amount of retained austenite, carbides and carbonitrides. Aging up to 500°C facilitated fine coherent ?-Cu precipitation that lost its coherency at >550°C. Simultaneously, recovery and recrystallisation of martensite and acicular ferrite occurred at higher temperatures. The formation of new martensite islands occurred on aging at >650°C. Carbides, carbonitrides and retained austenite remained essentially unchanged. Tensile tests were conducted at a slow strain rate to study the tensile fracture behaviour of the steel. Microstructural and fractographic evidences indicating that coherent Cu precipitate causes the brittleness in the material in initial stages of aging whereas loss of coherency of Cu precipitate in later stages results in the reappearance of ductility in the material.     

Overview Inclusion assisted microstructure control in C–Mn and low alloy steel welds

Abstract

Inclusion assisted microstructure control has been a key technology to improve the toughness of C–Mn and low alloy steel welds over the last two to three decades. The microstructure of weld metals and heat affected zones (HAZs) is known to be refined by different inclusions, which may act as nucleation sites for intragranular acicular ferrite and/or to pin austenite grains thereby preventing grain growth. In the present paper, the nature of acicular ferrite and the kinetics of intragranular ferrite transformations in both weld metals and the HAZ of steels are rationalised along with nucleation mechanisms. Acicular ferrite development is considered in terms of competitive nucleation and growth reactions at austenite grain boundary and intragranular inclusion nucleation sites. It is shown that compared to weld metals, it is difficult to shift the balance of ferrite nucleation from the austenite grain boundaries to the intragranular regions in the HAZ of particle dispersed steels because inclusion densities are lower and the surface area available for ferrite nucleation at the austenite grain boundaries tends to be greater than that of intragranular inclusions. The most consistent explanation of high nucleation potency in weld metals is provided by lattice matching between ferrite and the inclusion surface to reduce the interfacial energy opposing nucleation. In contrast, an increase in the thermodynamic driving force for nucleation through manganese depletion of the austenite matrix local to the inclusion tends to be the dominant nucleation mechanism in HAZs. It is demonstrated that these means of nucleation are not mutually exclusive but depend on the nature of the nucleating phase and the prevailing transformation conditions. Issues for further improvement of weldment toughness are discussed. It is argued that greater numbers of fine particles of a type that preferentially nucleate acicular ferrite are required in particle dispersed steels to oppose the austenite grain boundary ferrite transformation and promote high volume fractions of acicular ferrite and thereby toughness.     

Effect of Nb on dynamic strain induced austenite to ferrite transformation

Abstract

Dynamic strain induced transformation (DSIT) is an interesting processing route to obtain ultrafine ferrite grains. In the present work, the effect of Nb on DSIT was investigated. Samples of low C–Mn steels, with and without Nb, were intensively deformed in hot torsion, aiming at the production of ultrafine ferrite grains. After soaking at 1200°C, the samples were cooled to 1100°C, submitted to hot torsion deformation to decrease the grain size and then cooled to 900, 850 or 800°C for further hot torsion deformation. In the steel without Nb, recrystallisation took place before enough deformation could be accumulated to induce ferrite formation, so DSIT would only take place at the lowest temperature investigated, 800°C. In the Nb steel, Nb addition delayed austenite recrystallisation, allowing DSIT ferrite to form at higher temperature than in the steel without Nb, 850°C.     

Effects of isothermal treatment parameters on the microstructure of semisolid alloys

Cold-rolled 6061 aluminium alloys are used to prepare semisolid billets by recrystallisation and partial melting. The effects of isothermal treatment parameters on the microstructures were investigated. The results indicated that the high isothermal holding temperature increases the experimental liquid fraction, average grain size and shape factor. A long isothermal holding time also increases the experimental liquid fraction and improves the spheroidisation degree of solid grains, but the average grain size also increases. Moreover, when the isothermal holding time at high temperature is increased, the size of intragranular liquid droplets increases, but their quantity decreases. The optimal isothermal holding temperature and time during semisolid isothermal treatment were 635°C and 5?–?10?min, respectively.     

Importance of deformation induced ferrite and factors which control its formation

Abstract

The influence of strain, strain rate, temperature, and grain size on the formation of deformation induced ferrite has been examined. Deformation induced ferrite forms very readily in both fine and coarse grained steels and much more rapidly than the ferrite from strain free austenite. Very small strains are sufficient to induce the production of such ferrite and the temperature range over which it appears spans from just below the Ae₃ temperature down to the undeformed Ar₃ temperature. Although it forms readily in both coarse and fine grained steels, the volume fraction produced is sensitive to the austenite grain size. In coarse grained steels, deformation at low strain rates is concentrated along the grain faces; extensive dynamic recovery occurs, which is why the ferrite remains soft, so that only thin ferrite films are able to form. At higher strain rates, work hardening takes place so that the strength of the ferrite at high strains approaches that of the austenite. Under these conditions, the deformation is propagated towards the centres of the austenite grains and larger volume fractions of deformation induced ferrite are able to form. In fine grained steels, the flow stress in the austenite grain boundary region is increased, so that when ferrite first forms, a considerable amount of work hardening takes place, which strengthens the ferrite. When combined with the increased number of triple points present in the material, the increased work hardening promotes spreading of the deformation, with the result that larger volume fractions of ferrite are produced, even at low strains and strain rates.     

Microstructural characterization of controlled forged HSLA-80 steel by transmission electron microscopy

In this study, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to evaluate the effect of controlled forging followed by cooling at various rates on microstructure of an HSLA-80 steel. The observations demonstrate that water-quenched steel has finer multiphase constituents of lath martensite, bainite and twined martensite, whereas air-cooling has resulted in a mixture of bainitic ferrite, retained austenite or MA constituents along with some Widmanstatten ferrite. When the steel is cooled in sand, the maximum volume fraction of polygonal ferrite (PF) was produced which, in turn, increased volume fraction of MA constituents. Precipitation of fine -Cu, Nb and Ti carbides and carbonitrides was observed and identified using energy dispersive spectrometric analysis (EDS) and electron diffraction.     

The effect of austenitizing time on martensite morphologies and magnetic properties of martensite in Fe–24.5%Ni–4.5%Si alloy

The effect of austenitizing time on the formation of martensite in Fe–24.5%Ni–4.5%Si alloy has been studied by means of transmission electronmicroscope (TEM), scanning electronmicroscope (SEM) and Mössbauer spectroscopy technique. TEM and SEM observations revealed that the martensite morphology was found to be closely dependent on the austenitizing time. The orientation relationship between austenite and thermally induced martensite was found as the Kurdjumov-Sachs type. The volume fraction changes of martensite and austenite phases, the hyperfine magnetic field of martensite phase and isomery shift values have been determined by Mössbauer spectroscopy. The Mössbauer study also revealed that the martensite volume fractions increased with increasing austenite grain size.     

Recrystallization behaviour and tensile properties of Al-added medium-Mn-steel at different deformation-annealing conditions

The role of recrystallisation on structure–property relationship in Al-added medium-Mn steel was investigated at different stages of thermo-mechanical processing comprising of hot forging (HF), hot rolling (HR), cold rolling (CR) and intermediate annealing. The CR-annealed specimens have exhibited faster recrystallisation kinetics than HF-annealed and HR-annealed conditions, as reflected by the higher Avrami exponent (～1.28) and requirement of minimum annealing temperature-time (1073K-50?min) for complete recrystallisation. The specimen cold rolled and annealed at 1073?K for 3?min (CR-1073K-3?min annealed) has exhibited excellent tensile properties owing to the co-existence of deformed and recrystallised grains. Further, the refinement of ferrite grains, lower austenite aspect ratio and higher volume fraction of γ-fibre of ferrite phase are responsible for better strength–ductility combination in the CR-1073K-3?min annealed specimen.

This paper is part of a Thematic Issue on Medium Manganese Steels.     

Processing of steel for ultrafine ferrite grain structures

Abstract

The attainment of ultrafine ferrite grain structures in low carbon, low alloy steels is of interest because of the improvement in yield strength and Charpy impact transition temperature predicted by extrapolation of known data to very fine grain sizes. This paper presents a summary of research aimed at producing ultrafine ferrite in a niobium microalloyed, low carbon steel by three processing routes. Transformational grain refinement (TGR), in which extrafine austenite is hot rolled and cooled rapidly, has been shown to be capable of producing grain sizes of <1 µm in a surface layer, and 1.5 µm in the centre of 3 mm thick plate. Dynamic recrystallisation of ferrite during multipass warm rolling was shown to be neither complete nor uniform within the cross-section of the plate. Nevertheless, a partly recrystallised, partly recovered grain structure with an average grain size of 1.5 µm was obtained in the centre of 3 mm thick plate. Cold rolling and recrystallisation of ferrite that had been previously refined by TGR to an intermediate grain size was shown to produce an ultrafine grain microstructure (<1 µm grain size) throughout the section of 1 mm thick strip. The hardness of ultrafine ferrite was shown to obey a linear relationship with the inverse square root of grain size, but with a lower slope than expected from the Petch relationship for yield strength.     

Microstructure and mechanical properties of C–Si–Mn(–Nb) TRIP steels after simulated thermomechanical processing

Abstract

Continuous and discontinuous cooling tests were performed using a quench deformation dilatometer to develop a comprehensive understanding of the structural and kinetic aspects of the bainite transformation in low carbon TRIP (transformation induced plasticity) steels as a function of thermomechanical processing and composition. Deformation in the unrecrystallised austenite region refined the ferrite grain size and increased the ferrite and bainite transformation temperatures for cooling rates from 10 to 90 K s^-1. The influence of niobium on the transformation kinetics was also investigated. Niobium increases the ferrite start transformation temperature, refines the ferrite microstructure, and stimulates the formation of acicular ferrite. The effect of the bainite isothermal transformation temperature on the final microstructure of steels with and without a small addition of niobium was studied. Niobium promotes the formation of stable retained austenite, which influences the mechanical properties of TRIP steels. The optimum mechanical properties were obtained after isothermal holding at 400°C in the niobium steel containing the maximum volume fraction of retained austenite with acicular ferrite as the predominant second phase.     

Improvement of mechanical properties in a dual-phase ferrite–martensite AISI4140 steel under tough-strong ferrite formation

This paper has been concerned to investigate in details the mechanical properties of AISI4140 heat treatable steel under ferrite–martensite dual-phase (DP) microstructures in conjunction with that of conventional quench-tempered (CQT) full martensitic condition. For this purpose, a wide variety of ferrite–martensite DP samples containing different volume fractions of ferrite and martensite microphases have been developed using step quenching heat treatment processes at 600 °C for 20–55 s holding times with the subsequent hot oil quenching after being austenitized at 860 °C for 60 min in the same situation as to the CQT condition. The finalized tempering heat treatment has been carried out at 600 °C for 30 min for both of direct quenched full martensitic and DP samples in order to optimize the strength–ductility combination. Light and electron microscopes have been used in conjunction with mechanical tests to assess the structure–property relationships in the DP and CQT heat treated samples. The experimental results indicate that the DP microstructures consisting about 7% volume fraction of fine grain boundary ferrite in the vicinity of martensite are associated with excellent mechanical properties in comparison to that of CQT condition. These observations are rationalized in terms of higher carbon concentration of the remaining metastable austenite leading to the harder martensite formation on the subsequent hot oil quenching, and so developing much harder ferrite grains as a consequence of more constraints induced in the ferrite grains during martensitic phase transformation in the remaining austenite adjacent to the ferrite area. The higher martensite volume fraction in the vicinity of thin continuous grain boundary ferrite network has been associated with the harder ferrite formation, causing higher work hardening behavior in the short time treated DP samples. Moreover, it has been found that in order to optimize the mechanical properties of ferrite–martensite DP samples, two independently parameters should be simultaneously controlled: one is the ferrite volume fraction and the other is ferrite morphology.     

The role of oxygen rich inclusions in determining the microstructure of weld metal deposits

The influence of the deoxidation product size distribution in determining the prior austenite grain and the subsequent balance between inter- and intragranular nucleation has been studied in C-Mn-Nb weld metals. The growth of austenite appears to be controlled by pinning of the grain boundaries by the deoxidation inclusions, and follows the classical Zener precipitate-boundary interaction equations. Some evidence of the direct nucleation by inclusions of the acicular ferrite phase has been obtained.     

Formation of ultrafine grained microstructures in steel through strain induced transformation during single pass hot rolling

Abstract

In the present study, wedge-shape sa mples were used to study the effect of strain induced transformation on the formation of ultrafine grained structures in steel by single pass rolling. The results showed two different transition strains for bainite formation and ultrafine ferrite (UFF) formation in the surface layer of strip at reductions of 40% and 70%, respectively, in a plain carbon steel. The bainitic microstructure formed by strain induced bainitic transformation during single pass rolling was also very fine. The evolution of UFF formation in the surface layer showed that ferrite coarsening is significantly reduced through strain induced transformation combined with rapid cooling in comparison with the centre of the strip. In the surface, the ferrite coarsening mostly occurred for intragranular nucleated grains (IG) rather than grain boundary (GB) ferrite grains. The results suggest that normal grain growth occurred during overall transformation in the GB ferrite grains. In the centre of the strip, there was significantly more coarsening of ferrite grains nucleated on the prior austenite grain boundaries.     

Analytical Investigation of Prior Austenite Grain Size Dependence of Low Temperature Toughness in Steel Weld Metal

Prior austenite grain size dependence of the low temperature impact toughness has been addressed in the bainitic weld metals by in situ observations.Usually,decreasing the grain size is the only approach by which both the strength and the toughness of a steel are increased.However,low carbon bainitic steel with small grain size shows a weakening of the low temperature impact toughness in this study.By direct tracking of the morphological evolution during phase transformation,it is found that large austenite grain size dominates the nucleation of intragranular acicular ferrite,whereas small austenite grain size leads to grain boundary nucleation of bainite.This kinetics information will contribute to meet the increasing low temperature toughness requirement of weld metals for the storage tanks and offshore structures.     

低活化铁素体/马氏体钢原奥氏体晶界显示技术探讨

基于原奥氏体晶界浸蚀机理,通过评价低活化铁素体/马氏体钢原奥氏体晶界的显示效果,对浸蚀剂的配方、缓蚀剂含量及浸蚀时间进行了研究。结果表明:该钢在氯化铁+硝酸水溶液中可以浸蚀出马氏体板条及板条界面处弥散分布着的形貌与尺寸不同的细小析出相,而原奥氏体晶界显示效果不佳;饱和苦味酸水溶液+缓蚀剂能浸蚀出清晰的晶界。缓蚀剂过少,浸蚀速率过高,控制难度较大,达不到抑制晶内组织显像的效果;缓蚀剂过多,易在金属表面吸附成膜,浸蚀速率过低,晶界和晶内组织的浸蚀显像同时受到抑制。在100mL饱和苦味酸水溶液+08.g缓蚀剂中微沸热浸蚀4min,该钢的晶界清晰可辨。对比能谱分析结果可知,最优浸蚀配方的金相图能更直观地辨识出晶界和晶粒大小,对制样要求较低,图片采集过程更加简单、高效。