• Metals and materials international
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.1202-1212
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• 2018

The effects of Nickle (Ni) addition on bainitic transformation and property of ultrahigh strength bainitic steels are investigated by three austempering processes. The results indicate that Ni addition hinders the isothermal bainite transformation kinetics, and decreases the volume fraction of bainite due to the decrease of chemical driving force for nucleation and growth of bainite transformation. Moreover, the product of tensile strength and total elongation (PSE) of high carbon bainitic steels decreases with Ni addition at higher austempering temperatures (220 and $250^{\circ}C$), while it shows no significant difference at lower austempering temperature ($200^{\circ}C$). For the same steel (Ni-free or Ni-added steel), the amounts of bainite and RA firstly increase and then decrease with the increase of the austempering temperature, resulting in the highest PSE in the sample austempered at temperature of $220^{\circ}C$. In addition, the effects of austempering time on bainite amount and property of high carbon bainitic steels are also analyzed. It indicates that in a given transformation time range of 30 h, more volume of bainite and better mechanical property in high carbon bainitic steels can be obtained by increasing the isothermal transformation time.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.78-86
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• 2004

Effects of the annealing parameters on the formation of ferrites transformed at low temperatures were studied in cold-rolled ultra low carbon steels with niobium and/or chromium. Niobium and chromium were found to be effective in the formation of the low temperature transformation ferrites. The low temperature transformation ferrites more easily formed when both higher annealing temperature and longer annealing time, allowing substitutional alloying elements to distribute between phases, are in combination with faster cooling rate. It was found from EBSD study that the additions of niobium or chromium resulted in the increase in the numbers of high angle grain boundaries and the decrease in those of the low angle grain boundaries in the microstructures. Both granular bainitic ferrite and bainitic ferrite were characterized by the not clearly etched grain boundaries in light microscopy because of the low angle grain boundaries.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.403-411
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• 1992

The growth characteristics of bainite at early stage in the fast quenched spheroidal graphite cast irons containing 0.06%Mn and 0.45%Mn during austempering process, was investigated with optical and scanning electron microscope. The following results regarding the effects of Mn and isothermal heat treatment on the morphological variation of bainitic ferrite were obtained. The morphology of bainite varies from acicular below 350$^{\circ}C$ to feather shape above 350$^{\circ}C$. The period of isothermal treatment also affects the shape of bainite at the fixed temperature. At 350$^{\circ}C$, bainite is bamboo leaf-like up to 200 secs of isothermal holding time and with further increasing time up to 300 secs, changes to a mixed structure consisting of both feather and bamboo leaf and, finally becomes all feather shape at 900 secs. The morphology of bainitic ferrite formed at early stage of 300$^{\circ}C$ isothermal treatment is similar to that of bainitic ferrite formed at 250$^{\circ}C$ or 350$^{\circ}C$ with unbranched, linear ferrite. However, bainitic ferrite divides into branches with increasing isothermal treatment, which occurs more fast at 400$^{\circ}C$ than at 350$^{\circ}C$. The difference in adding amount of Mn influences the morphology of bainitic ferrite in upper bainite. The bainitic ferrite with 0.45%Mn is observed to be more stable than that with 0.06%Mn, remaining unbranched for a longer period at the same temperature.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.456-459
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• 2005

Continuous cooling transformation behaviors were studied fur low carbon HSLA steels containing three different level $(1\~3\;wt\%)$ of Ni addition. Thermo-mechanical processing (TMP) simulations to construct continuous cooling (CCT) diagram were conducted by using Gleeble system. As cooling rate increased, pearlite, granular bainite, acicular ferrite, bainitic ferrite and lath martensite were transformed from deformed austenite. Fully bainitic microstructure were developed at all cooling rate condition in high Ni containing steel due to hardenability increasing effects of Ni. Ni also influenced the transformation kinetics. At the slowest cooling rate of $0.3^{\circ}C/s$, transformation delayed with decreasing Ni contents because of the diffusion of substitutional alloy elements. However, cooling rate slightly increased to $1^{\circ}C/s$, transformation kinetics accelerated with decreasing Ni contents because nucleation of bainite was sluggish due to hardening of residual austenite.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.103-108
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• 2016

In recent years, TRIP steels which are composed of ferrite, bainite, and retained austenite have drawn much attention for automotive sheets due to excellent combination of strength and ductility. The effect of two-step isothermal heat treatment of bainitic transformation on microstructures, especially retained austenites and tensile properties in the conventional TRIP steel was investigated. A two-step isothermal heat treatment, in which 50% bainitic transformation occurred at high temperature, followed by bainitic transformation at low temperature, improves tensile properties, resulting from enhanced mechanical stability of retained austenite against external plastic deformation due to refinement of retained austenites, compared to single-step isothermal heat treatment.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.423-429
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• 2013

Recently, steel structures have increasingly been required to have sufficient deformability because they are subjected to progressive or abrupt displacement arising from structure loading itself, earthquake, and ground movement in their service environment. In this study, high-strength low-carbon bainitic steel specimens with enhanced deformability were fabricated by varying thermo-mechanical control process conditions consisting of controlled rolling and accelerated cooling, and then tensile and Charpy V-notch impact tests were conducted to investigate the correlation between microstructure and mechanical properties such as strength, deformability, and low-temperature toughness. Low-temperature transformation phases, i.e. granular bainite (GB), degenerate upper bainite(DUB), lower bainite(LB) and lath martensite(LM), together with fine polygonal ferrite(PF) were well developed, and the microstructural evolution was more critically affected by start and finish cooling temperatures than by finish rolling temperature. The steel specimens start-cooled at higher temperature had the best combination of strength and deformability because of the appropriate mixture of fine PF and low-temperature transformation phases such as GB, DUB, and LB/LM. On the other hand, the steel specimens start-cooled at lower temperature and finish-cooled at higher temperature exhibited a good low-temperature toughness because the interphase boundaries between the low-temperature transformation phases and/or PF act as beneficial barriers to cleavage crack propagation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.431-434
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• 2008

Effects of microstructure on the toughness of low carbon HSLA steels were investigated. Nickel decreased the ferrite-austenite transformation temperature, resulted in increase of the fraction of bainitic ferrite. However, it was decreased with increasing deformation amount at austenite region. Since fine austenite grains formed by dynamic recrystallization under large strain transformed to acicular ferrite or granular bainite rather than bainitic ferrite. The effective grain size, thus, was decreased by deformation and it resulted in lower ductile-brittle transition temperature (DBTT). The bainitic ferrite was thought to inhibit the fracture crack initiation and to delay the crack propagation by its high dislocation density and hard interlath $2^{nd}$ phase constituents, respectively. Thus, DBTT was also decreased by Ni addition in low carbon HSLA steels.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2024

A Fe-Ni Bainitic steel as a weathering steel application was developed by combining its excellent mechanical properties and corrosion resistance in maritime environments. Nickel concentration (0.4-3 wt%) and inverted austempering multi-step (IAM) process were primary determinants of the microstructure of the Fe-Ni Bainitic steel. The initial austempering steel was performed at 300 ℃ for 600 seconds to obtain a partly bainitic transformation. The steel was heated again for 1800 s at 450 ℃. The microstructure was comprised of ferrite, a blocky martensite/austenite island, and a homogeneous lath-shape bainite structure with widths ranging from 4.67 to 6.89 ㎛. The maximum strength, 1480 MPa, was obtained with 3 wt% nickel. In this study, corrosion behavior was investigated utilizing potentiodynamic and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) tests. A higher nickel content in Fe-Ni Bainitic steel refined the grain size, improved the bainite fraction, lowered the corrosion rate to 0.0257 mmpy, and increased the charge transfer of film resistance to 1369 Ω.

• 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 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.