• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.154-157
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• 2007

The austenite phase observed in low carbon HSLA steels is well known to be decomposed to various bainitic microstructures, such as granular bainite, acicular ferrite and bainitic ferrite during continuous cooling process. These bainitic microstructures have been usually identified by using either scanning electron microscope (SEM) or transmission electron microscope (TEM). However, SEM and TEM images do no exactly coincide, because of the quite different sample preparation method in SEM and TEM observations. These conventional analysis method is, thus, not suitable for characterization of the complex bainitic microstructure. In this study, focused ion beam (FIB) technique was applied to make site-specific TEM specimens and to identify the 3-dimensional grain morphologies of the bainitic microstructure. The morphological feature and grain boundary characteristics of each bainitic microstructure were exactly identified.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.139-149
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• 2021

In this study, three kinds of bainitic steels are fabricated by controlling the contents of vanadium and boron. High vanadium steel has a lot of carbides and nitrides, and so, during the cooling process, acicular ferrite is well formed. Carbides and nitrides develop fine grains by inhibiting grain growth. As a result, the low temperature Charpy absorbed energy of high vanadium steel is higher than that of low vanadium steel. In boron added steel, boron segregates at the prior austenite grain boundary, so that acicular ferrite formation occurs well during the cooling process. However, the granular bainite packet size of the boron added steel is larger than that of high vanadium steel because boron cannot effectively suppress grain growth. Therefore, the low temperature Charpy absorbed energy of the boron added steel is lower than that of the low vanadium steel. HAZ (heat affected zone) microstructure formation affects not only vanadium and boron but also the prior austenite grain size. In the HAZ specimen having large prior austenite grain size, acicular ferrite is formed inside the austenite, and granular bainite, bainitic ferrite, and martensite are also formed in a complex, resulting in a mixed acicular ferrite region with a high volume fraction. On the other hand, in the HAZ specimen having small prior austenite grain size, the volume fraction of the mixed acicular ferrite region is low because granular bainite and bainitic ferrite are coarse due to the large number of prior austenite grain boundaries.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.9
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• pp.798-806
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• 2010

The effects of alloying elements and the cooling condition on the microstructure, tensile properties, and Charpy impact properties of high-strength bainitic steel plates fabricated by a controlled rolling process were investigated in the present study. Eight kinds of steel plates were fabricated by varying C, Cr, and Nb additions under two different cooling rates, and their microstructures and tensile and Charpy impact properties were evaluated. The microstructures present in the steels increased in the order of granular bainite, acicular ferrite, bainitic ferrite, and martensite as the carbon equivalent or cooling rate increased, which resulted in a decrease in the ductility and Charpy absorbed energy. The steels containing a considerable amount of bainitic ferrite or martensite showed very high strengths, together with good ductility and Charpy absorbed energy. In order to achieve the best combination of strength, ductility, and Charpy absorbed energy, granular bainite and acicular ferrite were properly included in the high-strength bainitic steels by controlling the carbon equivalent and cooling rate, while about 50 vol.% of bainitic ferrite or martensite was maintained to maintain the high strength.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.522-527
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• 2018

This study investigates the effects of isothermal holding temperature and time on the microstructure, hardness and Charpy impact properties of medium-carbon bainitic steel specimens. Medium-carbon steel specimens with different bainitic microstructures are fabricated by varying the isothermal conditions and their microstructures are characterized using OM, SEM and EBSD analysis. Hardness and Charpy impact tests are also performed to examine the correlation of microstructure and mechanical properties. The microstructural analysis results reveal that granular bainite, bainitic ferrite, lath martensite and retained austenite form differently in the specimens. The volume fraction of granular bainite and bainitic ferrite increases as the isothermal holding temperature increases, which decreases the hardness of specimens isothermally heat-treated at $300^{\circ}C$ or higher. The specimens isothermally heat-treated at $250^{\circ}C$ exhibit the highest hardness due to the formation of lath martensite, irrespective of isothermal holding time. The Charpy impact test results indicate that increasing isothermal holding time improves the impact toughness because of the increase in volume fraction of granular bainite and bainitic ferrite, which have a relatively soft microstructure compared to lath martensite for specimens isothermally heat-treated at $250^{\circ}C$ and $300^{\circ}C$.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.29 no.4
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• pp.211-220
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• 2019

In this study, three kinds of bainitic steel plates are manufactured by varying the chemical compositions and their microstructures are analyzed. Tensile and Charpy impact tests are performed at room and low temperature to investigate the correlation between microstructure and mechanical properties. In addition, heat affected zone (HAZ) specimens are fabricated by a simulation of welding processes, and the HAZ microstructure is analyzed. The base steel that has the lowest carbon equivalent has the highest volume fraction of acicular ferrite and the lowest volume fraction of secondary phases, so the strength is the lowest and the elongation is the highest. The Mo steel has a higher volume fraction of granular bainite and more secondary phases than the base steel, so the strength is high and the elongation is low. The CrNi steel has the highest volume fraction of the secondary phases, so the strength is the highest and elongation is the lowest. The tensile properties of the steels, namely, strength and elongation, have a linear correlation with the volume fraction of secondary phases. The Mo steel has the lowest Charpy impact energy at $-80^{\circ}C$ because of coarse granular bainite. In the Base-HAZ and Mo-HAZ specimens, the hardness increases as the volume fraction of martensite-austenite constituents increases. In the CrNi-HAZ specimen, however, hardness increases as the volume fraction of martensite and bainitic ferrite increases.