• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.123-130
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• 2020

In this study, two types of thick steel plates are prepared by controlling carbon equivalent and nickel content, and their microstructures are analyzed. Tensile tests, Vickers hardness tests, and Charpy impact tests are conducted to investigate the correlation between microstructure and mechanical properties of the steels. The H steel, which has high carbon equivalent and nickel content, has lower volume fraction of granular bainite (GB) and smaller GB packet size than those of L steel, which has low carbon equivalent and nickel content. However, the volume fraction of secondary phases is higher in the H steel than in the L steel. As a result, the strength of the L steel is higher than that of the H steel, while the Charpy absorbed energy at -40 ℃ is higher than that of the L steel. The heat affected zone (HAZ) simulated H-H specimen has higher volume fraction of acicular ferrite (AF) and lower volume fraction of GB than the HAZ simulated L-H specimen. In addition, the grain size of AF and the packet sizes of GB and BF are smaller in the H-H specimen than in the L-H specimen. For this reason, the Charpy absorbed energy at -20 ℃ is higher for the H-H specimen than for the L-H specimen.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.96-106
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• 2013

In this study, the effect of laser source($CO_2$ and Nd:YAG) on the microstructure and tensile properties of laser welded Al-Si coated boron steel(1.2mmt) was investigated with before and after hot-stamping. In case of as welds condition, fracture occurred in base metal unrelated to the laser source. It could be explained that tensile strength of fusion zone composed of martensite and bainite is higher than that of base metal that contains a lot of ferrite despite dilution of Al and Si from coating layer to fusion zone. In case of hot-stamping condition, the fracture occurred in fusion zone irrelevant to laser source and the tensile strength was lower than hot stamped base metal. In the $CO_2$ laser welds, $Fe_3$(Al,Si) formed near the bond line was transformed into ferrite during hot-stamping. Therefore tensile strength of bond line is lower than that of base metal and center of fusion zone and the fracture occurred in the bond line. On the other hand, in the Nd:YAG laser welds, the higher concentration of Al formed the ferrite in the fusion zone during hot-stamping treatment. Also, the thickness of centerline was thinner than that of base metal. Therefore, it is considered that fracture occurred in centerline of fusion zone due to effect of concentration stress, and it leaded to a lower tensile strength and elongation.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.293-299
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• 2009

The microstructures and mechanical properties of Dual Phase (DP), Transformation-Induced Plasticity (TRIP), and Quenching & Partitioning (Q&P) steels were investigated in order to define the strengthening mechanism of 0.2 C steel. An intercritical annealing between Ac1 and Ac3 was conducted to produce DP and TRIP steel, followed by quenching the DP and TRIP steel being quenched at to room temperature and by the TRIP steel being austemperingaustempered-air cooling cooled the steel toat room temperature, respectively. The Q&P steel was produced from full austenization, followed by quenching to the temperature between $M_s$ and $M_f$, and then enriching the carbon to stabilize the austenite throughout the heat treatment. For the DP and TRIP steels, as the intercritical annealing temperature increased, the tensile strength increased and the elongation decreased. The strength variation was due to the amount of hard phases, i.e., martensite and bainite, respectively in the DP and TRIP steels. It was also found that the elongation also decreased with the amount of soft ferrite in the DP and TRIP steels and with the amount of the that was retained in the austenite phasein the TRIP steel, respectively for the DP and TRIP steels. For the Q&P steel, as the partitioning time increased, the elongation and the tensile strength increased slightly. This was due to the stabilized austenite that was enriched with carbon, even when the amount of retained austenite decreased as the partitioning time increased from 30 seconds to 100 seconds.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.305-312
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• 2009

The effects of Quenching and Partitioning (Q&P) and Annealed Martensite (AM) heat treatment on the microstructure and tensile properties were investigated for 0.24C-0.5Si-1.5Mn-1Al steels. The Q&P steels were annealed at a single phase ($\gamma$) or a dual phase (${\gamma}+{\alpha}$), followed by quenching to a temperature between $M_s$ and $M_f$. Then, enriching carbon was conducted to stabilize the austenite through the partitioning, followed by water quenching. The AM steels were intercritically annealed at a dual phase (${\gamma}+{\alpha}$) temperature and austempered at $M_s$ and $M_s{\pm}50^{\circ}C$, followed by cooling in oil quenching. The dual phase Q&P steels showed lower tensile strength and yieldyield strength than those of the single phase Q&P steels, and tThe elongation for the dual phase Q&P steel was partitioning 100s higher than that of that for the single phase Q&P steels as the partitioning time was less than 100s up to partitioning 100s. For AM steels, the tensile/yield strength decreased and the total elongation increased as the austempering temperature increased. The stability of the retained austenite controlled the elongation for Q&P steels and the volume fraction of the retained austenite controlled the elongation for AM steels.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.247-255
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• 2005

Although heat treatment is a process of great technological importance in order to obtain desired mechanical properties such as hardness, the process was required a tedious and expensive experimentation to specify the process parameters. Consequently, the availability of reliable and efficient numerical simulation program would enable easy specification of process parameters to achieve desired microstructure and mechanical properties without defects like crack and distortion. In present work, the developed numerical simulation program could predict distributions of microstructure and thermal stress in steels under different cooling conditions. The computer program is based on the finite difference method for temperature analysis and microstructural changes and the finite element method for thermal stress analysis. Multi-phase decomposition model was used for description of diffusional austenite decompositions in low alloy steels during cooling after austenitization. The model predicts the progress of ferrite, pearlite, and bainite transformations simultaneously during quenching and estimates the amount of martensite also by using Koistinen and Marburger equation. To verify the developed program, the calculated results are compared with experimental ones of casting product. Based on these results, newly designed heat treatment process is proposed and it was proved to be effective for industry.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 1997

The variation of the mechanical properties and the formation of retained austenite with heat treatment conditions in austempered Si bearing carbon steels has been investigated. In the case of a steel containing 0.35C-1.48Si-0.95Mn, it has been found that a feather shape bainite structure of lath are obtained under a isothermal treated condition at just below the Ms temperature, and the martensite, bainitic ferrite and retained austenite of second phase particles on the ferrite matrix for a isothermal treated steels after intercritical annealing are precipitated in a linked shape. The retained austenite with $2{\mu}m$ size induced as TRIP is found to increase with increasing the formation rate of retained austenite for the intercritical annealing and high Si containing steels. The tensile strength is increased as austempering temperature increases in all isothermal treatment temperature, whereas the elongation is shown to roughly decrease as the tensile strength increases. The values of tensile strength-elongation balance have showed a marked dependence upon the elongation rather than the tensile stregth, and their values are increased for high Si containing steels and intercritical annealing condition. The most optimum result has been shown to be the tensile stregth-elongation balance of $2882.4kgf/mm^2.%$ and the elongation of 33.3% for a "B" steel in the heat treating temperature range of $780{\sim}370^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.455-462
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• 2012

Al-Si coated boron steel and Zn coated DP steel plates were laser-welded to manufacture a Tailor Welded Blank (TWB) for a car body frame. Hot-stamping heat treatment ($900^{\circ}C$, 5 min) was applied to the TWB weld, and the microstructural change and transformation mechanism were investigated in the Al-rich area near the bond line of the Al-Si coated steel side. There was Al-rich area with a single phase, $Fe_3(Al,Si)$, which was transformed to ${\alpha}-Fe$ (Ferrite) after the heat treatment. It could be explained that the $Fe_3(Al,Si)$ phase was transformed to ${\alpha}-Fe$ during heat treatment at $900^{\circ}C$ for 5 min and the resultant ${\alpha}-Fe$ phase was not transformed by rapid cooling. Before the heat treatment, the microstructures around the $Fe_3(Al,Si)$ phase consisted of martensite, bainite and ${\alpha}-Fe$ while they were transformed to martensite and ${\delta}-Fe$ after the heat treatment. Due to the heat treatment, Al was diffused to the $Fe_3(Al,Si)$ and this resulted in an increase of Al content to 0.7 wt% around the Al-rich area. If the weld was held at $900^{\circ}C$ for 5 min it was transformed to a mixture of austenite (${\gamma}$) and ${\delta}-Fe$, and only ${\gamma}$ was transformed to the martensite by water cooling while the ${\delta}-Fe$ was remained unchanged.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.702-708
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• 2018

This study deals with the effect of microstructure factors on the strain aging properties of API X70 pipeline steels with different microstructure fractions and grain sizes. The grain size and microstructure fraction of the API pipeline steels are analyzed by optical and scanning electron microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction analysis. Tensile tests before and after 1 % pre-strain and thermal aging treatment are conducted to simulate pipe forming and coating processes. All the steels are composed mostly of polygonal ferrite, acicular ferrite, granular bainite, and bainitic ferrite. After 1 % pre-strain and thermal aging treatment, the tensile test results reveal that yield strength, tensile strength and yield ratio increase, while uniform elongation decreases with an increasing thermal aging temperature. The increment of yield and tensile strengths are affected by the fraction of bainitic ferrite with high dislocation density because the mobility of dislocations is inhibited by interaction between interstitial atoms and dislocations in bainitic ferrite. On the other hand, the variation of yield ratio and uniform elongation is the smallest in the steel with the largest grain size because of the decrease in the grain boundary area for dislocation pile-ups and the presence of many dislocations inside large grains after 1 % pre-strain.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.9
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• pp.523-532
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• 2009

In this study, four API X80 linepipe steel specimens were fabricated with varying cooling rates and finish cooling temperatures, and their microstructures and crystallographic orientations were analyzed to investigate the effects of cooling conditions on their tensile and Charpy impact properties. All the specimens consisted of acicular ferrite, granular bainite, and secondary phases such as martensite and martensiteaustenite constituent. The volume fraction of secondary phases increased with increasing cooling rate, and the higher finish cooling temperature resulted in the reduction in volume fraction and grain size of secondary phases. According to the crystallographic orientation analysis data, the effective grain size and unit crack path decreased as fine acicular ferrites having a large amount of high-angle grain boundaries were homogeneously formed, thereby leading to the improvement of Charpy impact properties. The specimen fabricated with the higher cooling rate and lower finish cooling temperature had the highest upper shelf energy and the lowest energy transition temperature because it contained a large amount of fine secondary phases homogeneously distributed inside fine acicular ferrites, while its tensile properties well maintained.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.401-417
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• 2021

This study experimentally reveals the influence of welding on grade S690Q high strength steel (HSS) butt joints from both micro and macro levels. Total eight butt joints, taking plate thickness and welding heat input as principal factors, were welded by shielded metal arc welding. In micro level, the microstructure transformations of the coarse grain heat affected zone (CGHAZ), the fine grain heat affected zone (FGHAZ) and the tempering zone occurred during welding were observed under light optical microscopy, and the corresponding mechanical performance of those areas were explored by micro-hardness tests. In macro level, standard tensile tests were conducted to investigate the impacts of welding on tensile behaviour of S690Q HSS butt joints. The test results showed that the main microstructure of S690Q HSS before welding was tempered martensite. After welding, the original microstructure was transformed to granular bainite in the CGHAZ, and to ferrite and cementite in the FGHAZ. For the tempering zone, some temper martensite decomposed to ferrite. The performed micro-hardness tests revealed that an obvious "soft layer" occurred in HAZ, and the HAZ size increased as the heat input increased. However, under the same level of heat input, the HAZ size decreased as the plate thickness increased. Subsequent coupon tensile tests found that all joints eventually failed within the HAZ with reduced tensile strength when compared with the base material. Similar to the size of the HAZ, the reduction of tensile strength increased as the welding heat input increased but decreased as the thickness of the plate increased.