• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.87-92
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• 2020

This study deals with the effects of austempering time on the microstructure and mechanical properties of ultra-high strength nanostructured bainitic steels with high carbon and silicon contents. The steels are composed of bainite, martensite and retained austenite by austempering and quenching. As the duration of austempering increases, the thickness of bainitic ferrite increases, but the thickness of retained austenite decreases. Some retained austenites with lower stability are more easily transformed to martensite during tensile testing, which has a detrimental effect on the elongation due to the brittleness of transformed martensite. With increasing austempering time, the hardness decreased and then remained stable because the transformation to nanostructured bainite compensates for the decrease in the volume fraction of martensite. Charpy impact test results indicated that increasing austempering time improved the impact toughness because the formation of brittle martensite was prevented by the decreased fraction and increased stability of retained austenite.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 1992

The effects of Si and austempering temperature on the fracture characteristics and the microstructures of austempered ductile irons were investigated. As Si content increased from 2.28% to 3.0%, the precipitation of carbides during bainitic transformation and was suppressed the amount of retained austenite increased resulting in the increase in the fracture toughness. It is believed that the high Si limited the formation of martensite in the microstructure and minimized the segregation of the other elements at cell boundaries. But in samples with too high Si content as 3.3%, the formation of islands of free ferrite in the bainitic structures was observed and the fracture toughness was measured to have degraded.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.636-642
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• 2017

In the present study the microstructure of low-carbon steels fabricated by controlled rolling and accelerated cooling processes was characterized and identified based on various microstructure analysis methods including optical and scanning electron microscopy, and electron backscatter diffraction(EBSD). Although low-carbon steels are usually composed of ${\alpha}-ferrite$ and cementite($Fe_3C$) phases, they can have complex microstructures consisting of ferrites with different size, morphology, and dislocation density, and secondary phases dependent on rolling and accelerated cooling conditions. The microstructure of low-carbon steels investigated in this study was basically classified into polygonal ferrite, acicular ferrite, granular bainite, and bainitic ferrite based on the inverse pole figure, image quality, grain boundary, kernel average misorientation(KAM), and grain orientation spread(GOS) maps, obtained from EBSD analysis. From these results, it can be said that the EBSD analysis provides a valuable tool to identify and quantify the complex microstructure of low-carbon steels fabricated by controlled rolling and accelerated cooling processes.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.471-475
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• 2009

The effect of prior microstructures on mechanical properties in low carbon steels were examined by comparing the behavior of cementite and mechanical properties of cryo-rolled and subsequently annealed steels. Prior microstructures consisted of ferrite + pearlite, banite or martensite. Steels, consisting of bainitic microstructure, exhibited the better combination of strength - ductility than steels with other prior microstructures, such as ferrite + pearlite and martensite.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.52
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• pp.10.1-10.15
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• 2022

The effect of carbon doping contents on the microstructure, hardness, and corrosion properties of heat-treated AISI steel grades of plain carbon steel was investigated in this study. Various microstructures including coarse ferrite-pearlite, fine ferrite-pearlite, martensite, and bainite were developed by different heat treatments i.e. annealing, normalizing, quenching, and austempering, respectively. The developed microstructures, micro-hardness, and corrosion properties were investigated by a light optical microscope, scanning electron microscope, electromechanical (Vickers Hardness tester), and electrochemical (Gamry Potentiostat) equipment, respectively. The highest corrosion rates were observed in bainitic microstructures (2.68-12.12 mpy), whereas the lowest were found in the fine ferritic-pearlitic microstructures (1.57-6.36 mpy). A direct correlation has been observed between carbon concentration and corrosion rate, i.e. carbon content resulted in an increase in corrosion rate (2.37 mpy for AISI 1020 to 9.67 mpy for AISI 1050 in annealed condition).

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.10-19
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• 1997

This study has been conducted to investigate the effects of initial structure on the microstructure and tensile properties of high strength trip steel sheet. The initial structure before austempering remarkably influenced the second phase. The specimen with normalized initial structure showed mainly bainitic ferrite and retained austenite, while the as rolled specimen and spherodized specimen showed martensite plus retained austenite and martensite plus bainitic ferrite with small retained austenite, respectively. Two type of retained austenite, film type and granual type were observed in all specimens. The as rolled specimen appeared the highest contents of retained austenite owing to the compressive stress by cold rolling. The contents of retained austenite increased with increasing intercritical annealing temperature and austempering time. Tensile strength showed the highest in the as rolled specimen, while the highest elongation were obtained in the normalized specimen. The maximum T.S.${\times}$El. Value showed in normalized initial structure and increased with increasing intercritical annealing and austempering time. The highest Value of T.S.${\times}$El. obtained at austempering temperature of $400^{\circ}C$ and retained austenite of 12%.

• Metals and materials international
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.1221-1231
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• 2018

The effect of strain aging on tensile behavior and properties of API X60, X70, and X80 pipeline steels was investigated in this study. The API X60, X70, and X80 pipeline steels were fabricated by varying alloying elements and thermomechanical processing conditions. Although all the steels exhibited complex microstructure consisting of polygonal ferrite (PF), acicular ferrite, granular bainite (GB), bainitic ferrite (BF), and secondary phases, they had different fractions of microstructures depending on the alloying elements and thermomechanical processing conditions. The tensile test results revealed that yielding behavior steadily changed from continuous-type to discontinuous-type as aging temperature increases after 1% pre-strain. After pre-strain and thermal aging treatment in all the steels, the yield and tensile strengths, and yield ratio were increased, while the uniform elongation and work hardening exponent were decreased. In the case of the X80 steel, particularly, the decrease in uniform elongation was relatively small due to many mobile dislocations in PF, and the increase in yield ratio was the lowest because a large amount of harder microstructures such as GB, BF, and coarse secondary phases effectively enhanced work hardening.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.209-212
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• 2009

It has been widely reported that carbide-free bainitic steels or super-bainite WP (SB-TRIP) steels for the automotive industry are a new family of steels offering a unique combination of high strength and ductility. Hence, it is important to exactly evaluate the volume fraction of RA and to identify the 3-D morphology of constituent phases, because it plays a crucial role in mechanical properties. Recently, as electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) equipped with focused ion beam (FIB) has been developed, 3-D EBSD technique for materials science are used to these steels. Moreover, newly developed atom probe tomography (APT) technique can provide the exact distribution and chemical concentration of alloying elements in a sub-nm scale. The APT analysis results indicate exactly the distribution and composition of alloying elements in the austenite and bainite phases of SB-TRIP steels with the atomic-scale resolution. And thus, no partitioning of aluminum and manganese atoms was showed between the austenite containing $7.73{\pm}0.39$ at% C and the bainitic ferrite associated with $0.22{\pm}0.06$ at% C in the SB-TRIP steel.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.44-49
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• 2010

It has been widely reported that carbide-free bainitic steels or super-bainite TRIP (SB-TRIP) steels for the automotive industry are a new family of steels offering a unique combination of high strength and ductility. Hence, it is important to exactly evaluate the volume fraction of RA and to identify the 3-D morphology of constituent phases, because it plays a crucial role in mechanical properties. Recently, as electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) equipped with focused ion beam (FIB) has been developed, 3-D EBSD technique for materials science are used to these steels. Moreover, newly developed atom probe tomography (APT) technique can provide the exact distribution and chemical concentration of alloying elements in a sub-nm scale. The APT analysis results indicate exactly the distribution and composition of alloying elements in the austenite and bainite phases of SB-TRIP steels with the atomic-scale resolution. And thus, no partitioning of aluminum and manganese atoms was showed between the austenite containing $7.73{\pm}0.39$ at% C and the bainitic ferrite associated with $0.22{\pm}0.06$ at% C in SB-TRIP steel.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.229-234
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• 2002

The variation of HAZ toughness with nitrogen content and weld cooling rate was investigated and interpreted in terms of both microstructure and the amount of free nitrogen. The presence of free nitrogen in HAZ was investigated by internal friction measurement and its amount was measured by hydrogen hot extraction analysis. Both nitrogen content and weld cooling rate influenced HAZ microstructure and high toughness was obtained at a mixed microstructure of acicular ferrite, feffite sideplate and polygonal ferrite. If nitrogen content is too low or cooling rate is too fast, bainitic microstructure is obtained and toughness is low. On the other hand, if nitrogen content is too high or cooling rate is too slow, coarse polygonal ferritic microstructure is obtained and toughness is deteriorated again. ill addition to the microstructural change, high nitrogen content also resulted in a large amount of free nitrogen. Therefore, nitrogen content should be kept as low as possible even if the mixed micostructure is obtained. In this experimental condition, the maximum toughness was obtained at 0.006% nitrogen content when weld cooling time ($\Delta$t$_{8}$5/)) is 60s.TEX>5/)) is 60s.