• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.44-49
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• 2020

The effect of intercritical annealing temperature on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Fe-9Mn-0.2C-3Al-0.5Si medium manganese steels containing Cu and Ni is investigated in this study. Six kinds of medium manganese steels are fabricated by varying the chemical composition and intercritical annealing temperature. Hardness and tensile tests are performed to examine the correlation of microstructure and mechanical properties for the intercritical annealed medium manganese steels containing Cu and Ni. The microstructures of all the steels are composed mostly of lath ferrite, reverted austenite and cementite, regardless of annealing temperature. The room-temperature tensile test results show that the yield and tensile strengths decrease with increasing intercritical annealing temperature due to higher volume fraction and larger thickness of reverted austenite. On the other hand, total and uniform elongations, and strain hardening exponent increase due to higher dislocation density because transformation-induced plasticity is promoted with increasing annealing temperature by reduction in reverted austenite stability.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.279-285
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• 2023

In order to predict the mechanical properties of ductile cast iron heat treated in an intercritical temperature range, samples machined from cast iron with a tensile strength of 450 MPa were heat-treated at various intercritical temperatures and air-cooled, after which a microstructural analysis and Brinell hardness test were conducted. As the heat treatment temperature was increased in the intercritical temperature range, the ferrite fraction in the ductile cast iron decreased and the pearlite fraction increased, whereas the nodularity and nodule count did not change considerably from the corresponding values in the as-cast condition. The Brinell hardness values of the heat-treated ductile cast iron increased gradually as the heat treatment temperature was increased. Based on the measured alloy composition, the fraction of each stable phase and the hardness model from the literature, the hardness of the ductile cast iron heat treated in the intercritical temperature range was calculated, showing values very similar to the measured hardness data. In order to check whether it is possible to predict the hardness of heat-treated ductile cast iron by using the phase fraction obtained from thermodynamic calculations, the volumes of graphite, ferrite, and austenite in the alloy were calculated for each temperature condition. Those volume fractions were then converted into areas of each phase for hardness prediction of the heat-treated ductile cast iron. The hardness values of the cast iron samples based on thermodynamic calculations and on the hardness prediction model were similar within an error range up to 27 compared to the measured hardness data.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.231-239
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• 1999

Volume fraction and morphology of retained austenite, tensile properties of TRIP type high strength steel sheet with Fe-C-Si-Mn-Cu chemical composition have been investigated. The retained austenite of granular, bar and film type existing in specimen was obtained after intercritical annealing and austempering. The granular type retained austenite increased with increase of intercritical annealing and austempering temperature. With increase of intercritical annealing temperature, retained austenite and carbon contents increased. Maximum contents of retained austenite was obtained by austempering at $400^{\circ}C$. The maximum tensile strength was obtained by austempering at $450^{\circ}C$ and maximum elongation was obtained at $400^{\circ}C$. T.S${\times}$E.L value increased with increase of retained austenite contents due to the elongation strongly controlled by contents of retained austenite, but tensile strength was affected with various factors such as bainitic structure etc.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.55-65
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• 1999

Metallurgical factors influencing toughness of the Intercritically Reheated Coarse-Grained Heat Affected Zone (ICCG HAZ) of multiple welded SA508-cl.3 Reactor Pressure Vessel Steel were evaluated. The recrystallized austenite formed along the prior austenite grain boundaries and late interfaced on heating to the intercritical range was transformed to bainite and/or martensite during cooling. The newly formed martensite always included some retained austenite(M-A constituents). The characteristics(amount, hardness, density, and size) of M-A constituents were found to be strongly associated with both peak temperature and cooling time(△t8/5(2)) of last pass. Toughness in the ICCG HAZ was deteriorated with increasing amount of M-A constituents which was increased with increasing the last peak temperature within the intercritical temperature range. Meanwhile, for the same intercritical peak temperature, toughness was decreased with increasing cooling time. When cooling time was short, the dominant factor influencing toughness of the ICCG HAZ was amount of M-A constituents. However, when cooling time was lengthened, the hardness difference between M-A constituents and softened matrix(tempered martensite) was found to be the dominant factor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.77-87
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• 2000

It is reported that the toughness and safety margins of the SA106 Gr.C main steam line piping steel is reduced due to dynamic strain aging (DSA) at the reactor operating temperature for Leak-Before-Break (LBB) application. In this study, intercritical annealing in two-phase ($\alpha$+${\gamma}$）region was performed to investigate the possibility of improving the toughness and reducing DSA susceptibility. The manifestations of DSA were still observed in the tensile tests of the annealed specimens. However, the ductility loss caused by DSA was smaller than that in the as-received material. Furthermore, the intercritical annealing was able to increase the Charpy impact toughness by 1.5 times compared to as-received. With the heat treatment, we could obtain microstructural changes such as the cleaner retained ferrite, increased ferrite content and somewhat finer grain size. It is considered that the reduced DSA was induced by cleaner retained ferrite, which in turn resulted in higher impact toughness in addition to the general toughening due to finer grain sizes and increased ferrite content.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.253-258
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• 2000

The present study aimed to develop the TRIP(transformation induced plasticity) aided high strength low carbon steel sheets using reverse transformation process. The cold-rolled 0.14C-6.5Mn steel was reverse-transformed by slow heating to intercritical temperature region and air cooling to room temperature. An excellant combination of tensile strength and elongation of $98.3kgf/mm^2$ and 44.4% appears. This combination comes from TRIP phenomena of retained austenite during deformation. The stability of retained austenite Is very Important for the good ductility and it depends on diffusion of carbon and manganese during reverse transformation. The air cooling after holding at intercritical temperature retards the formation of pearlite and provides the carbon enrichment in retained austenite, resulting the increase of elongation in cold-roiled TRIP steel.

• 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 $780{\sim}370^{\circ}C$.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.141-148
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• 2000

As the steel plates used for automobile safety the TRIP-assisted multiphase steels are being introduced to automobile industry with respect to their remarkable mechanical properties for the combination of high strength and large elongation. This multiphase structure is generated by two stage heat treatment (intercritical annealing & isothermal treatment) The metastable retained austenite can be transformed to martensite when plastically deformed which results in TRIP effect. Actually the microstructure of TRIP-assisted steels consist of a fine dispersite. There present discussion deals with bainite reaction kinetics of austenite in the process o f two stage heat treatment. In relation to bainite transformation the characteristics of bainite reaction is found to be influenced by the bainite tempering temperature and also by the relative rate in which carbides precipitate within residual austenite.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.295-304
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• 1998

The effects of retained austenite and carbon content in the retained austenite on the tensile strength-elongation balance and spot weldability of TRIP high strength steel sheet have been investigated. The retained austenite of granular type increased with increasing intercritical annealing and austempering temperature, and film type was increased with the increase of austempering time. The volume fraction of retained austenite increased with decreasing intereritical annealing temperature, and the maximum value was obtained at austempering temperature of $400^{\circ}C$. The values of tensile strength-elongation balance increased with decreasing intercritical annealing temperature and maximum value was obtained at austempering temperature of $400^{\circ}C$. The maximum value of tensile strength-elongation balance was obtained at a retained austenite content of about 12%. Tensile shear strength of the specimens with retained austenite was higher than that of the normalizing specimens. With increasing welding current and time, the tensile shear strengh and nugget diameter increased, while nugget thickness showed the peak value and then decreased. The optimum range of welding condition at the given welding pressure of 350kgf was 7~11kA and 10~15 cycles.

• 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.