• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.364-369
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• 2003

Non-heat treated steels are attractive in the steel-wire industry since the spheroidization and quenching-tempering treatment are not involved during the processing. However, non-heat treated steels should satisfy high strength and good formability without performing heat treatment. Therefore, it is important to investigate optimum materials showing a good combination of strength and formability after the drawing process. In this study, three different steels such as dual phase steel, low-Si steel, and ultra low carbon bainitic steel were used to study their mechanical properties and the cold formability. The cold formability of three steels was investigated by estimating the deformation resistance and the forming limit. The deformation resistance was estimated by calculating the deformation energy, and the forming limit was evaluated by measuring the critical strain revealing crack initiation at the notch tip of the specimens. The results showed that deformation resistance was the lowest in the low-Si steel, and the forming limit strains of ultra low carbon bainitic steel and low-Si steel were higher than that of commercial SWRCH45F steel.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.478-488
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• 2018

In this study, three kinds of steels are manufactured by varying the rolling conditions, and their microstructures are analyzed. Tensile and Charpy impact tests are performed at room temperature to investigate the correlation between microstructure and mechanical properties. In addition, heat affected zone(HAZ) specimens are fabricated through the simulation of the welding process, and the HAZ microstructure is analyzed. The Charpy impact test of the HAZ specimens is performed at $-40^{\circ}C$ to investigate the low temperature HAZ toughness. The main microstructures of steels are quasi-polygonal ferrite and pearlite with fine grains. Because coarse granular bainite forms with an increasing finish rolling temperature, the strength decreases and elongation increases. In the steel with the lowest reduction ratio, coarse granular bainite forms. In the HAZ specimens, fine acicular ferrites are the main features of the microstructure. The volume fraction of coarse bainitic ferrite and granular bainite increases with an increasing finish rolling temperature. The Charpy impact energy at $-40^{\circ}C$ decreases with an increasing volume fraction of bainitic ferrite and granular bainite. In the HAZ specimen with the lowest reduction ratio, coarse bainitic ferrite and granular bainite forms and the Charpy impact energy at $-40^{\circ}C$ is the lowest.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.231-237
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• 2002

The structure and properties of HSLA steel obtained by Osprey forming process were investigated. The porosities were generated at the bottom of specimen due to the quenching effect of cold substrate during forming. The steel had a bainitic structure. The grain size were different among positions due to the cooling rates. The elements such as Mn, S, Si, Cr, Mo and etc. were contained in inclusions. They were formed at grain boundries. The size of them was $1{\sim}2{\mu}m$ and has nothing to do with the chemical composition. MnS and NbC were precipitated during rolling and aging.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 1999.03b
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• pp.116-119
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• 1999

The effects of secondary phase morphology and carbon content on the plastic deformation of 0.2C-1.5Si-1.5mn TRIP(TRansformed Induced Plasticity) steel have been investigated at various annealing and bainitic transformation temperatures. The morphology of ferrite and secondary phases was controlled by the annealing temperature and the distribution of secondary phase was controlled by the bainitic transformation temperature. The secondary phase contributed to elongation and/or UTS depending on the ferrite morphology which determined deformation mode simple elongation or rotation of secondary phase along the tensile direction In case of the sample containing the granular type retained austenite the elongation was improved as carbon stabilized the austenite phase. If the film-shape retained austenite in acicular ferrite was dominant however UTS was enhanced as the transformed martensite was hardened by carbon.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.56 no.11
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• pp.796-804
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• 2018

The Charpy impact toughness of the heat affected zone (HAZ) of electro gas welded 390 MPa yield strength grade steel, manufactured by a thermo mechanically controlled process, was investigated. The effects of added Nb on the toughness of the steel and the factors influencing scatter in toughness are discussed in the present work. It was observed that adding Nb to the steel led to the deterioration of HAZ toughness. The presence of soluble Nb in the HAZ increased its hardenability and resulted in a larger amount of low toughness bainitic microstructure. Microstructural observations in the notch root area revealed the significant role of different microstructures in the area. In the presence of a larger amount of bainitic microstructures, the HAZ exhibited a lower Charpy toughness with a larger scatter in toughness. A softened zone with a lower hardness than the base metal was formed in the HAZ. However, theoretical analysis revealed that the presence of the zone might not be a problem in a real welded joint because of the plastic restraint effect enforced by surrounding materials.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.511-518
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• 2019

In this study, the effect of carbon equivalent and cooling rate on microstructure and hardness of A516 steels for pressure vessel is investigated. Six kinds of specimens are fabricated by varying carbon equivalent and cooling rate, and their microstructures and hardness levels are analyzed. Specimens with low carbon equivalent consist of ferrite and pearlite. As the cooling rate increases, the size of pearlite decreases slightly. The specimens with high carbon equivalent and rapid cooling rates of 10 and $20^{\circ}C/s$ consist of not only ferrite and pearlite but also bainite structure, such as granular bainite, acicular ferrite, and bainite ferrite. As the cooling rate increases, the volume fractions of bainite structure increase and the effective grain size decreases. The effective grain sizes of granular bainite, acicular ferrite, and bainitic ferrite are ~20, ~5, and ${\sim}10{{\mu}m$, respectively. In the specimens with bainite structure, the volume fractions of acicular ferrite and bainitic ferrite, with small effective grains, increase as cooling rate increases, and so the hardness increases significantly.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.520-525
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• 2014

Effects of Cu and B on effective grain size and low-temperature toughness of thermo-mechanically processed high-strength bainitic steels were investigated in this study. The microstructure of the steel specimens was analyzed using optical, scanning, and transmission electron microscopy; their effective grain size was also characterized by electron back-scattered diffraction. To evaluate the strength and low-temperature toughness, tensile and Charpy impact tests were carried out. The specimens were composed of various low-temperature transformation products such as granular bainite (GB), degenerated upper bainite (DUB), lower bainite (LB), and lath marteniste (LM), dependent on the addition of Cu and B. The addition of Cu slightly increased the yield and tensile strength, but substantially deteriorated the low-temperature toughness because of the higher volume fraction of DUB with a large effective grain size. The specimen containing both Cu and B had the highest strength, but showed worse low-temperature toughness of higher ductile-brittle transition temperature (DBTT) and lower absorbed energy because it mostly consisted of LB and LM. In the B-added specimen, on the other hand, it was possible to obtain the best combination of high strength and good low-temperature toughness by decreasing the overall effective grain size via the appropriate formation of different low-temperature transformation products containing GB, DUB, and LB/LM.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.75-81
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• 2015

Effects of B and Cu additions on the microstructure and mechanical properties of high-strength bainitic steels were investigated in this study. Six kinds of high-strength bainitic steels with different B and Cu contents were fabricated by thermo-mechanical control process composed of controlled rolling and accelerated cooling. The microstructures of the steels were analyzed using optical and transmission microscopy, and the tensile and impact tests were conducted on them in order to investigate the correlation of microstructure with mechanical properties. Depending on the addition of B and Cu, various low-temperature transformation products such as GB (granular bainite), DUB (degenerated upper bainite), LB (lower bainite), and LM (lath martensite) were formed in the steels. The addition of B and Cu increased the yield and tensile strengths because of improved hardenability and solid solution strengthening, but decreased the ductility and low-temperature toughness. The steels containing both B and Cu had a very high strength above 1.0 GPa, but showed a worse low-temperature toughness of higher DBTT (ductile-to-brittle transition temperature) and lower absorbed energy. On the other hand, the steels having GB and DUB showed a good combination of tensile and impact properties in terms of strength, ductility, yield ratio, absorbed energy, and DBTT.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.10
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• pp.617-626
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• 2008

This study is concerned with the effect of Cu and B addition on microstructure and mechanical properties of high-strength bainitic steels. Six kinds of steels were fabricated by varying alloying elements and hot-rolling conditions, and their microstructures and tensile and Charpy impact properties were investigated. Their effective grain sizes were also characterized by the electron back-scatter diffraction analysis. The tensile test results indicated that the B- or Cu-containing steels had the higher yield and tensile strengths than the B- or Cu-free steels because their volume fractions of bainitic ferrite and martensite were quite high. The B- or Cu-free steels had the higher upper shelf energy than the B- or Cu-containing steels because of their higher volume fraction of granular bainite. In the steel containing 10 ppm B without Cu, the best combination of high strengths, high upper shelf energy, and low energy transition temperature could be obtained by the decrease in the overall effective grain size due to the presence of bainitic ferrite having smaller effective grain size.