• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.336-341
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• 2021

In this study, a nanocrystalline FeNiCrMoMnSiC alloy was fabricated, and its austenite stability, microstructure, and mechanical properties were investigated. A sintered FeNiCrMoMnSiC alloy sample with nanosized crystal was obtained by high-energy ball milling and spark plasma sintering. The sintering behavior was investigated by measuring the displacement according to the temperature of the sintered body. Through microstructural analysis, it was confirmed that a compact sintered body with few pores was produced, and cementite was formed. The stability of the austenite phase in the sintered samples was evaluated by X-ray diffraction analysis and electron backscatter diffraction. Results revealed a measured value of 51.6% and that the alloy had seven times more austenite stability than AISI 4340 wrought steel. The hardness of the sintered alloy was 60.4 HRC, which was up to 2.4 times higher than that of wrought steel.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.246-252
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• 2021

The effect of sintering conditions on the austenite stability and strain-induced martensitic transformation of nanocrystalline FeCrC alloy is investigated. Nanocrystalline FeCrC alloys are successfully fabricated by spark plasma sintering with an extremely short densification time to obtain the theoretical density value and prevent grain growth. The nanocrystallite size in the sintered alloys contributes to increased austenite stability. The phase fraction of the FeCrC sintered alloy before and after deformation according to the sintering holding time is measured using X-ray diffraction and electron backscatter diffraction analysis. During compressive deformation, the volume fraction of strain-induced martensite resulting from austenite decomposition is increased. The transformation kinetics of the strain-induced martensite is evaluated using an empirical equation considering the austenite stability factor. The hardness of the S0W and S10W samples increase to 62.4-67.5 and 58.9-63.4 HRC before and after deformation. The hardness results confirmed that the mechanical properties are improved owing to the effects of grain refinement and strain-induced martensitic transformation in the nanocrystalline FeCrC alloy.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.212-223
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• 2019

This study is to investigate the relationship between microstructural factors and tensile properties after aging heat treatment of the 15-5PH stainless steel at the temperature range of $450^{\circ}C$, $500^{\circ}C$ and $550^{\circ}C$ for various time. For the aging time of 2 hours, hardness showed maximum at $450^{\circ}C$ and then decreased with increasing aging temperature. While, hardness decreased gradually during aging $450^{\circ}C$, $500^{\circ}C$ and $550^{\circ}C$ from 1 hour to 5 hours but the hardness nearly unchanged until the 100 hours after 5 hours aging. When aging at $450^{\circ}C$, Cu atoms preferentially aggregated at the prior austenite grain boundaries and martensite lath boundaries, and Cu concentration at those boundaries was nearly unchanged even after aging for 100 hours. Therefore it was suggested that the coherency is still maintained after 100 hours aging at $450^{\circ}C$. Aging at $500^{\circ}C$ and $550^{\circ}C$ results in an increase in the concentration of Ni at the martensite lath boundaries and prior austenite grain boundaries, resulting in the formation of reversed austenite. Especially, when aged at $550^{\circ}C$ for 100 hours, the concentration of Ni remarkably increased at those boundaries, and thus the microstructure of herring bone shape was appeared. Considering the migration of Ni atom to the lath boundaries and prior austenite grain boundaries, Ni atoms contributed greatly to the formation of reversed austenite. On the other hand, it was found that Cu atoms hardly moving to those boundaries may not be contributed to the formation of reversed austenite. When aging at $450^{\circ}C$, the coarsening of the precipitated Cu atoms proceeded very slowly with increasing aging time, therefore the decrease in strengths were small but the reduction area was considerably increased due to the softening of the matrix. At the aging temperature of $500^{\circ}C$ and $550^{\circ}C$, the strengths decreased and the elongation and reduction area increased due to the appearance of the reversed austenite. Especially, the increase of reduction area was remarkable.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.481-487
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• 2014

The effect of alpha phase on the fatigue properties of Fe-29%Ni-17%Co low thermal expansion alloy was investigated. Two kinds of alloys (Base alloy and Alpha alloy) were prepared by controlling the minimal alloy composition. Microstructure observation, tensile, high-cycle fatigue, and low-cycle fatigue results were measured in this study. The Base alloy microstructure showed typical austenite ${\gamma}$ phase. Alpha alloy represented the dispersed phase in the austenite ${\gamma}$ matrix. As a result of tensile testing, Alpha alloy was found to have higher strengths (Y.S. & T.S.) and lower elongation compared to those of the Base alloy. High cycle fatigue results showed that Alpha alloy had a higher fatigue limit (360MPa) than that (330MPa) of the Base alloy. The Alpha alloy exhibited the superior high cycle fatigue property in all of the fatigue stress conditions. SEM fractography results showed that the alpha phase could act to effectively retard both fatigue crack initiation and crack propagation. In the case of low-cycle fatigue, the Base alloy had longer fatigue life in the high plastic strain amplitude region and the Alpha alloy showed better fatigue property only in the low plastic strain amplitude region. The fatigue deformation behavior of the Fe-29%Ni-17%Co alloy was also discussed as related with its microstructure.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.248-259
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• 2021

This study examined the influence of post weld heat treatment (PWHT) conditions on corrosion behaviors of laser-welded super duplex stainless steel tube. Due to the high cooling rate of laser welding, the phase fraction of ferrite and austenite in the weld metal became unbalanced significantly. In addition, the Cr₂N particles were precipitated adjacent to the fusion line, which can be susceptible to the localized corrosion. On the other hand, the phase fraction in the weld metal was restored at a ratio of 5:5 when exposed to temperatures above 1060 ℃ during the post weld heat treatment. Nevertheless, the high beltline speed during the PWHT, leading to the insufficient cooling rate, caused a precipitation of σ phase at the interface between ferrite/austenite in both weld metal and base metal. This resulted in the severe corrosion damages and significant decrease in critical pitting temperature (CPT), which was even lower than that measured in as-welded condition. Moreover, the fraction of σ phase in the center region of post weld heat treated steel tube was obtained to be higher than in the surface region. These results suggest that the PWHT conditions for the steel tube should be optimized to ensure the high corrosion resistance by excluding the precipitation of σ phase even in center region.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.286-291
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• 2001

This study was carried out to investigate the influence of ${\sigma}$ phase on the microstructure and mechanical properties in super duplex stainless steel. The precipitation of ${\sigma}$ phase during isothermal heat treatment showed the type S curves with a certain incubation period. The precipitation of ${\sigma}$ phase was precipitated at ferrite phase and interface of ferrite and austenite. Under the state of isothermal transformation, the precipitation of ${\sigma}$ phase was stimulated by applied stress. With increasing of volume fraction of precipitated ${\sigma}$ phase, tensile strength was increased and elongation was decreased with linear relationship, while in case of precipitated ${\sigma}$ phase was 5% over, impact value was rapidly decreased.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.40-49
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• 2010

Objective: The aim of this research was to evaluate the mechanical properties (MP) and degree of the phase transformation (PT) of martensitic (M-NiTi), austenitic (A-NiTi) and thermodynamic nickel-titanium wire (T-NiTi). Methods: The samples consisted of $0.016\;{\times}\;0.022$ inch M-NiTi (Nitinol Classic, NC), A-NiTi (Optimalloy, OPTI) and T-NiTi (Neo-Sentalloy, NEO). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), three-point bending test, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and microstructure examination were used. Statistical evaluation was undertaken using ANOVA test. Results: In DSC analysis, OPTI and NEO showed two peaks in the heating curves and one peak in the cooling curves. However, NC revealed one single broad and weak peak in the heating and cooling curves. Austenite finishing ($A_f$) temperatures were $19.7^{\circ}C$ for OPTI, $24.6^{\circ}C$ for NEO and $52.4^{\circ}C$ for NC. In the three-point bending test, residual deflection was observed for NC, OPTI and NEO. The load ranges of NC and OPTI were broader and higher than NEO. XRD and microstructure analyses showed that OPTI and NEO had a mixture of martensite and austenite at temperatures below Martensite finishing ($M_f$). NEO and OPTI showed improved MP and PT behavior than NC. Conclusions: The mechanical and thermal behaviors of NiTi wire cannot be completely explained by the expected degree of PT because of complicated martensite variants and independent PT induced by heat and stress.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.238-244
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• 2017

Plasma ion nitriding has been widely used in various industries to improve the mechanical properties of materials, especially stainless steels by increasing the surface hardness. It has the particular advantages of less distortion compared to that in the case of hardening of steel, gas nitriding, and carburizing; in addition, it allows treatment at low-temperatures, and results in a high surface hardness and improved corrosion resistance. Many researchers have demonstrated that the plasma ion nitriding process should be carried out at temperatures of below $450^{\circ}C$ to improve corrosion resistance via the formation of the expanded austenite phase(S-phase). Most experimentals studied to date have been carried out in chloride solutions like HCl or NaCl. However, the electrochemical characteristics for the chloride solutions and natural seawater differ. Hence, in this work, plasma ion nitriding of 304 stainless steels was performed at various temperatures, and the electrochemical characteristics corresponding to the different process temperatures were analyzed for the samples in natural seawater. Finally the optimum plasma ion nitriding temperature that resulted in the highest corrosion resistance was determined.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.10-15
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• 2003

In Nb, V and Ti added steels, carbo-nitrides are formed due to their strong interaction with C and N. The formation of carbo-nitrides has an important role to control the microstructure as well as mechanical properties by grain size refinement and precipitation hardening. However, the quantitative analysis of distribution of precipitates and the effect of precipitates on the phase transformation and mechanical properties are still far from satisfactory. In this study, the quantitative analysis of precipitates in austenite was investigated using the fact that the formation of precipitates in Nb, V and Ti added steels accelerates austenite/ferrite transformation. The formation of precipitates was controlled by adjusting holding temperature and time in austenite region, transformed Volume fractions were measured by dilatometer during slow cooling, Iso-precipitation kinetics were determined by comparing 5% and 50% volumes transformed at various conditions respectively. The result was compared with the calculated.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.577-582
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• 2015

The present study is concerned with the influence of niobium(Nb) addition and austenitizing temperature on the hardenability of low-carbon boron steels. The steel specimens were austenitized at different temperatures and cooled with different cooling rates using dilatometry; their microstructures and hardness were analyzed to estimate the hardenability. The addition of Nb hardly affected the transformation start and finish temperatures at lower austenitizing temperatures, whereas it significantly decreased the transformation finish temperature at higher austenitizing temperatures. This could be explained by the non-equilibrium segregation mechanism of boron atoms. When the Nb-added boron steel specimens were austenitized at higher temperatures, it is possible that Nb and carbon atoms present in the austenite phase retarded the diffusion of carbon towards the austenite grain boundaries during cooling due to the formation of NbC precipitate and Nb-C clusters, thus preventing the precipitation of $M_{23}(C,B)_6$ along the austenite grain boundaries and thereby improving the hardenability of the boron steels. As a result, because it considerably decreases the transformation finish temperature and prohibits the nucleation of proeutectoid ferrite even at the slow cooling rate of $3^{\circ}C/s$, irrespective of the austenitizing temperature, the addition of 0.05 wt.% Nb had nearly the same hardenability-enhancing effect as did the addition of 0.2 wt.% Mo.