Strengthening of 0.25%C Low Carbon Structural Steels by Vanadium Addition

As a basic research for developing 600 MPa yield strength reinforcing steel bars, the strengthening of 0.25 wt.% carbon steel by vanadium addition was studied. The changes of microstructure and mechanical properties were investigated for the specimen V0 (0.00 wt.% V), V1 (0.03 wt.% V) and V2 (0.06 wt.% V) processed by various heat treatments. To set the heat treatment conditions, the continuous cooling transformation (CCT) curves were drawn for austenitizing temperatures of $900^{\circ}C$ and $1100^{\circ}C$. For specimens tempered at $600^{\circ}C$ after quenching from $900^{\circ}C$ and $1100^{\circ}C$, yield strength was increased by 19 MPa and 21 MPa for 0.01 wt % V addition, and tensile strength was increased by 25 MPa and 28 MPa for 0.01 wt % V addition, respectively. Also, for 0.06 wt.% V added specimens tempered after quenching and normalized, tensile strength was increased by 50 MPa and 30 MPa for increasing austenitizing temperature of $100^{\circ}C$, respectively.

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