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

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
• /
• 2010.05a
• /
• pp.70-70
• /
• 2010

In the present study, to estimate the mechanical properties of 800 MPa grade weld metal, welding was carried out using 800 and 600 MPa grade flux cored arc welding (FCAW) consumable and characteristics of the weld metals were investigated. The chemical composition of weld metals was investigated by an optical emission spectroscopy (OES) method. The microstructure of weld metals was analyzed by optical microscopy (OM) and secondary electron microscopy (SEM). The compositions and sizes of inclusions which are the dominant factors for the nuclei of acicular ferrite were analyzed by an transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In addition, mechanical properties of the weld metals were evaluated through tensile tests and charpy impact tests. Mostly the acicular ferrite phase which has high strength and toughness was observed. The 600 MPa grade weld metal was consisted of 75% acicular ferrite and 25% ferrite which was formed at high temperature (grain boundary ferrite, widmanstatten ferrite, polygonal ferrite). However, the 800 MPa grade weld metal was composed of about 73% acicular ferrite and 27% low temperature phase (bainite, martensite). Toughness was considerably decreased due to the increase of tensile strength (from 600 MPa to 800 MPa). The sizes of inclusions which were observed in both weld metal were $0.4{\sim}0.8\;{\mu}m$, it is effective size to form acicular ferrite.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.65-73
• /
• 2011

Microstructural characteristics of two high strength (600 MPa & 800 MPa) weld metals produced by flux-cored arc welding process (FCAW) were evaluated. The 600 MPa grade weld metal was consisted of 75% acicular ferrite and 25% ferrite which was formed at relatively high temperature (grain boundary ferrite, widmanstatten ferrite, polygonal ferrite). However, the 800 MPa grade weld metal was composed of about 85% acicular ferrite and 15% low temperature forming phases (bainite, martensite). The prior austenite grain size of 800 MPa grade weld metal was decreased by solute drag force. The compositions and sizes of inclusions which are the dominant factors for the formation of acicular ferrite were analyzed by a transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In both 600 MPa and 800MPa grade weld metals, the inclusions were mainly consisted of Ti-oxide and Mn-oxide, and the average size of inclusions was $0.7{\mu}m$. The 800 MPa grade weld metal exhibited higher tensile strength and similar toughness compared with the 600 MPa grade weld metal. This result is mainly due to a higher fraction of low temperature products and a lower fraction of grain boundary ferrite in the 800 MPa grade weld metal.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.9 no.12
• /
• pp.1252-1262
• /
• 1999

The effect of microstructures on the strength-flangeability of Nb bearing hot-rolled high strength steel was investigated in order to improve the strength-flangeability of conventional TS 580MPa grades HSLA steel for the automotive wheel disc. The low temperature coiling method using 3-step controlled cooling pattern after hot rolling was effective to produce the Nb-bearing high strength steel with the polygonal ferrite and bainite duplex microstructures. It was suggested that the suppressed precipitation of grain boundary cementites and the decreased hardness difference between ferrite matrix and bainite cause the excellent stretch-flangeability of ferrite-bainite duplex microstructure steel. Therefore, the formation and propagation of microcracks were suppressed relative to the conventional HSLA steel with ferrite and pearlite microstructure. In addition, the elongation was improved as compared with that of hot-rolled steel sheets using conventional early cooling pattern because the volume fraction of polygonal ferrite was increased.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.68-74
• /
• 2017

Characteristics of dissimilar metal welds between alloy steel ASTM A387 Gr. 91 and carbon steel ASTM A516 Gr.70 made with Flux cored arc welding(FCAW) have been evaluated in terms of microstructure, mechanical strength, chemical analysis by EDS as well as corrosion test. Three heat inputs of 15.0, 22.5, 30.0kJ/cm were employed to make joints of dissimilar metals with E71T-1C wire. Post-weld heat treatment was carried out at $750^{\circ}C$ for 2.5 h. Based on microstructural examination, Intragranular polygonal ferrite and grainboundary ferrite were formed only in first layer of weld metal. Another layers consisted of acicular ferrite and $Widmannst{\ddot{a}}tten$ ferrite. The amount of acicular ferrite was increased with decreasing heat input and layer. Heat affected zone of alloy steel showed the highest hardness due to the formation of tempered martensite and lower bainite. Lower and upper bainite were formed in heat affected zone of carbon steel. Tensile strengths of dissimilar metal welds decreased with increasing heat inputs. Dissimilar metal welds showed a good hot cracking resistance due to the low HCS index below 4. The salt spray test of dissimilar metals welds showed that the weight loss rate by corrosion below 170 hours was decreased with increasing heat inputs due to the increase of the amount of acicular ferrite.

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

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.44-54
• /
• 1989

This study was undertaken to evaluate the allowable welding heat input range for high strength steels manufactured by various processes and to compare the weldability of TMCP steel for high heat input welding with that of conventional Ti-added normalized steel. The allowable welding heat input ranges for conventional 50kg/$mm^2$ steel to guarantee D or E grade of ship structural steel were below 150 and 80kJ/cm respectively. Such a limit in welding heat input was closely related with the formation of undesirable microstructures, such as grain boundary ferrite and ferrite side plate in the coarse grain HAZ. In case of 60 and 80kg/$mm^2$ quenched and tempered steels, for securing toughness in weldments over toughness requirements for base metal, each welding heat input had to be restricted below 60 and 40kJ/cm, that was mainly due to coarsened polygonal ferrite in weld metal and lower temperature transformation products in coarse grain HAZ. The TMCP steel could be appropriate as a grade E ship hull steel up to 200kJ/cm, but the Ti-added normalized steel could be applied only below 130kJ/cm under the same rule. This difference was partly owing to whether uniform and fine intragranular ferrite microstructure was well developed in HAZ or not.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
• /
• 2003.05a
• /
• pp.53-56
• /
• 2003

The disappearance of continuous yielding and the formation of an extended region in engineering stress-strain curves at tempering temperatures of 673-873K is closely related to the reduction of mobile dislocations during tempering and dynamic recovery during tensile deformation. In addition, the occurrence of discontinuous yielding at tempering temperature above 923K would be attributed to the formation of new strain-free polygonal ferrite grain.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
• /
• v.12 no.8
• /
• pp.744-749
• /
• 2003

The effect of tempering temperatures on microstructures and mechanical properties was studied in a low carbon steel. The disappearance of continuous yielding and the formation of an extended region in engineering stress-strain curves at tempering temperatures ranging from 673 to 873K was caused by the reduction of mobile dislocations during tempering and dynamic recovery during tensile deformation. In addition, the occurrence of discontinuous yielding in the sample treated at the tempering temperatures above 923K was attributed to the formation of new strain-free polygonal ferrite grain.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.525-530
• /
• 2021

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of spherodizing heat treatment holding time on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the accelerated cooling-treated API X70 steel, which is mainly used as a structural material for line pipe steel for natural gas pipes. The accelerated cooling-treated API X70 steel was spherodizing treated at 700℃ for 12~48 h. The microstructure was observed using an OM and a FEG-SEM, and mechanical properties were obtained by tensile test. The microstructure of the API X70 steel was banded in the hot rolling direction, and the polygonal ferrite(PF) adjacent to pearlite(P) has mainly a fine size, and coarse PF and fine acicular ferrite were formed in the middle of P and P. As the spherodizing treatment time increased, the number of carbide particles decreased and its distribution interval increased, and the ferrite grain size was coarsened. The tensile strength decreased and the ductility increased with spherodizing treatment time, and the yield point elongation was disappeared in a stress-strain curve after the spherodizing treatment.