Abstract
600 MPa-grade deformed bar samples were manufactured by conventional hot rolling and subsequent Tempcore heat treatment processes. Considering the short-time water quenching step of the Tempcore process for hot-rolled steel, it is inevitable that the temperature profile of the deformed bar depends strongly on its position throughout the sample thickness. As a result, its microstructure can be easily divided into two regions, the surface and the core regions. The former is expected to have a fresh martensite microstructure under rapid cooling conditions, but self-tempering occurs due to the intense heat flow from the hot core region after the process. The latter is generally known to exhibit a mixed microstructure of ferrite and pearlite due to its slow cooling rate. In this study, detailed microstructural evolutions were examined through the thickness direction. The large variation of the microstructure through the thickness direction in the deformed bar samples is partly due to the easy carbon diffusion from the limited additions of alloying elements.