Effect of Ti Addition on Yield Strength of Low-Mo Fire-Resistant Steel at Elevated Temperatures

Herein, a series of low-Mo (0.2 wt%) fire-resistant steels with varying amounts of Ti (0.008–0.13 wt%) are investigated to study the effects of Ti on yield strength at elevated temperatures. At room temperature (RT), precipitation strengthening by nanoscale TiC precipitates is found to be the major factor for the enhanced strength. The amount of TiC precipitates and both the yield and tensile strengths increase monotonically with the Ti content. However, the yield strength ratio (YS at 600 °C divided by YS at RT) of the steel with the highest Ti content (0.13 wt%) is significantly reduced to 0.6. In contrast, the YS ratio of the steels with Ti content in the range of 0.008–0.087 wt% remains above 0.7 and increases with Ti content. The difference between the steels lies in the B content and the resultant bainite volume fraction. The steel with 0.13 wt% Ti does not contain B and has only 4% bainite, whereas the other steels contain 20 ppm B and approximately 60% bainite. Hence, a microstructure with a sufficient fraction of bainite is required to ensure strength at elevated temperatures. The properties can be further improved by Ti precipitation strengthening.