• Advances in materials Research
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2015

Low carbon steel of composition 0.05C - 0.18 Mn - 0.012 Si is intercritically annealed at temperatures $750^{\circ}C$, $775^{\circ}C$ and $800^{\circ}C$. The equilibrated alloys of different amounts of austenite with varying carbon contents are quenched in iced water. The same alloys are subcritically annealed at $675^{\circ}C$ and $700^{\circ}C$ for varying periods of times; the subcritically annealed alloy samples are quenched in iced water. Optical, scanning electron and transmission electron microscopy are carried out for all the samples. The dislocation structure, its distribution and density present in the above prepared duplex ferrite martensite steels are studied. The martensites are found to be highly dislocated due to lattice invariant deformation. At the same time ferrite adjoining the martensite areas also exhibits quite a high dislocation density. The high dislocation density is favorable for strain ageing and hence bakes hardenability. EDS analyses were carried out for both martensite and ferrite phases; it is found that the degree of supersaturation in ferrite together with carbon content in martensite varies with the process parameters. The microhardness test results show that the hardness values of different phases differ appreciably with process parameters. The microstructures and the corresponding microanalyses reveal that differently processed steels contain phases of varying compositions and different distribution.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.30-36
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• 2013

Recently the use of ultra high strength steels(UHSS) in structural and safety component is rapidly increasing in the automotive industry. Furthermore, it commonly use in tailor welded blank laser welding process before hot stamping to reduce lightweight vehicle. However TWB process is to be a problem about welded strength after hot stamping because it's welded before heat treatment. Therefore, in this study, laser welds of TWB after heat treatment were analyzed for changes in the characteristics, especially the impact on the oxidation and decarburization in order to prevent pre-coated Al-Si layer welds on the properties for intensive investigation. As a result, the degradation of the TWB weldments changes in the heat treatment conditions alone, without any pre-treatment of the coating layer has confirmed that there is a limitation on the improvement. Furthermore Al-Si elements are overall distributed on the weldment and it specially concentrated along the fusion line. Hardness value of Al-Si segregation area is less than 350Hv and tensile strength showed just 78~83% compared with substrate. Accordingly, we proved that both side Al-Si coating should be removed in order to ensure the strength of the substrate.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.55-55
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• 2009

FGB(Flexible Glasswool Backing) Submerged Arc Welding has been one of the main welding processes for one side butt welding in shipbuilding industries, which can efficiently improve the welding productivity by the addition of a supplementary filler metal into the molten weld pool. As recent ships have become larger in size, the application of high tensile and higher grade of steels has been continuously increased. Single pass FGB SA welding process accompanies such a high heat input when welding thick plates that the mechanical properties of weld metal can be dramatically degraded. This study has been performed in order to obtain high toughness and tensile properties of high heat input FGB SA welds, and to evaluate the effect of alloy elements on their mechanical properties. To complete welding 25mm-thick EH36 grade steel plate by single pass, 1.2mm diameter and 1.0mm long cut wires has been distributed in the groove before welding, and three different test coupons have been made using C-1.5%Mn, C-1.8%Mn-0.5%Mo, and C-1.4%Mn-1.7%Ni cut wires to investigate the influence of nickel(Ni) and molybdenum(Mo) on the mechanical properties of welds. Test results showed that the addition of Ni and Mo effectively promotes the formation of Acicular Ferrite(AF), while significantly reducing the amount of Grain Boundary Ferrite(GBF) in weld metal microstructures, which resulted in a beneficial effect on low temperature impact toughness and strength.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.346-354
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• 2000

Effect of Nb addition on the phase transformation behavior was studied through continuous cooling transformation tests after reheating(reheating CCT) and deforming(deforming CCT) the 0.07%C-1.3%Mn-0.015%Ti-(0~0.08)% Nb steels. Transformation temperatures for deforming CCT were lower than those for reheating CCT, and the critical cooling rate for bainite transformation during deforming CCT was lower than that during reheating CCT. These enhanced hardenability for deforming CCT was considered to come from the sufficient solid solution of Nb in austenite during high temperature reheating before deformation. With Nb addition, the phase transformation temperature decreased, the bainite formation was enhanced, and the hardness of steel increased. Furthermore, these phenomena were more remarkable for deforming CCT than for reheating CCT. From the results, Nb-Ti bearing low carbon steel was considered to be a very favorable alloy system with good strength/toughness balance by recrystallization control rolling process.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.12
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• pp.771-779
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• 2008

An effective way of increasing the strength and fracture toughness of reactor pressure vessel steels is to change the material specification from that of Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel(SA508 Gr.3) to Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steel(SA508 Gr.4N). In this study, we evaluate the effects of alloying elements on the microstructural characteristics of Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steel. The changes in the stable phase of the SA508 Gr.4N low alloy steel with alloying elements were evaluated by means of a thermodynamic calculation conducted with the software ThermoCalc. The changes were then compared with the observed microstructural results. The calculation of Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steels confirms that the ferrite formation temperature decreases as the Ni content increases because of the austenite stabilization effect. Consequently, in the microscopic observation, the lath martensitic structure becomes finer as the Ni content increases. However, Ni does not affect the carbide phases such as $M_{23}C_6 $ and $M_7C_3$. When the Cr content decreases, the carbide phases become unstable and carbide coarsening can be observed. With an increase in the Mo content, the $M_2C$ phase becomes stable instead of the $M_7C_3$ phase. This behavior is also observed in TEM. From the calculation results and the observation results of the microstructure, the thermodynamic calculation can be used to predict the precipitation behavior.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2015

In this study, we investigated the effect of carbon on mechanical properties with different austempering conditions of high carbon(0.7~1.3wt.%C)-2.0wt.%Si steels. The specimens were austenitized at 850, 925 and $1020^{\circ}C$, and austempered at 260, 320 and $380^{\circ}C$ for the various period of time from 3 min to 300 min. After heat treatment, the evolution of stage I and stage II was identified with optical microscope, XRD and hardness test. When the austempering temperature was $260^{\circ}C$, the microstructure consisted of the lower ausferrite while the upper ausferrite micro-structure was formed at $380^{\circ}C$. As the austempering temperature increases from 260 to $380^{\circ}C$, the tensile strength decreases and elongation increases. In addition, when carbon content increases, tensile strength and elongation decrease.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.53-53
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• 2010

Car industry has required light-weight steels, but still with strong mechanical strength. To meet this requirement, a variety of researches on Fe-Al alloys have been performed. As Al is being added in a disordered manner, alloys become more ductile and show higher yield stress. At a certain concentration of Al, however, the Fe-Al alloy system falls in a second phase whose mechanical strength is worsened. To understand the microscopic role of Al, we investigate the stability and the elastic properties of various Fe-Al alloys using ab initio density functional theory. At agiven Al concentration, the equilibrium geometry is obtained among several disordered Fe-Al alloy structures by performing the geometry relaxation. The formation energies and elastic properties such as bulk moduli of the equilibrium structures are also computed as a function of Al concentration. We also investigate the effects of different elements such as Si and Mn. Fe-Si alloy systems exhibit unusual mechanical behaviors requiring further investigation to understand their physical origin. Especially, the microscopic role of Mn is investigated to find its physical origin of preventing the Fe-Al alloy system from forming an unfavorable second phase. The effect of manganese on mechanical properties of Fe-based alloys is also explored.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.356-363
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• 2010

For this paper, we investigated the area specific resistance (ASR) of commercially available ferritic stainless steels with different chemical compositions for use as solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) interconnect. After 430h of oxidation, the STS446M alloy demonstrated excellent oxidation resistance and low ASR, of approximately 40 $m{\Omega}cm^2$, of the thermally grown oxide scale, compared to those of other stainless steels. The reason for the low ASR is that the contact resistance between the Pt paste and the oxide scale is reduced due to the plate-like shape of the $Cr_2O_3$(s). However, the acceptable ASR level is considered to be below 100 $m{\Omega}cm^2$ after 40,000 h of use. To further improve the electrical conductivity of the thermally grown oxide on stainless steels, the Co layer was deposited on the stainless steel by means of an electroless deposition method; it was then thermally oxidized to obtain the $Co_3O_4$ layer, which is a highly conductive layer. With the increase of the Co coating thickness, the ASR value decreased. For Co deposited STS444 with 2 ${\mu}m$hickness, the measured ASR at $800^{\circ}$ after 300 h oxidation is around 10 $m{\Omega}cm^2$, which is lower than that of the STS446M, which alloy has a lower ASR value than that of the non-coated STS. The reason for this improved high temperature conductivity seems to be that the Mn is efficiently diffused into the coating layer, which diffusion formed the highly conductive (Mn,Co)$_3O_4$ spinel phases and the thickness of the $Cr_2O_3$(S), which is the rate controlling layer of the electrical conductivity in the SOFC environment and is very thin

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.423-432
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• 2009

In the galvanizing coating process, the effects of the silicon content on the coatability and wettability of molten zinc were investigated on Dual-Phase High Strength Steels (DP-HSS) with various Si contents using the galvanizing simulator and dynamic reactive wetting systems. DP-HSS showed good coatability and a well-developed inhibition layer in the range of Si content below 0.5 wt%. Good coatability was the results of the mixed oxide $Mn_{2}SiO_{4}$, being formed by the selective oxidation on the surface, with a low contact angle in molten zinc and a large fraction of oxide free surface that provided a sufficient site for the molten zinc to wet and react with the substrate. On the other hand, with more than 0.5 wt%, DP-HSS exhibited poor coatability and an irregularly developed inhibition layer. The poor coatability was due to the poor wettability that resulted from the development of network-type layers of amorphous ${SiO}_{2}$, leading to a high contact angle in molten zinc, on the surface.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.16-23
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• 2012

Research into the development of high strength (1 GPa) and superior formability, such as total elongation (10%), and stretch-flangeability (50%) in hot-rolled steel was conducted with a thermomechanically controlled hot-rolling process. To improve the overall mechanical properties simultaneously, low-carbon steel using precipitation hardening of Ti-Nb-V multimicroalloying elements was employed. And, ideal microstructural characteristics for the realization of balanced mechanical properties were determined using SEM, EBSD, and TEM analyses. The developed steel, 0.06C-2.0Mn-0.5Cr-0.2(Ti + Nb + V), consisted of ferrite as the matrix phase and second phase of granular bainite with fine carbides (20-50 nm) in both phases. The significant factor of the microstructural characteristics that affect stretch-flangeability was found to be the microstructural homogeneity. The microstructural homogeneity, manifest in such characteristics as low localization of plastic strain and internally stored energy, was identified by grain average misorientation method, analyzed by electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) and hardness deviation between the phases. In summar, a hot-rolled steel having a composition 0.06C-2.0Mn-0.5Cr-0.2(Ti + Nb + V) demonstrated a tensile strength of 998 MPa, a total elongation of 19%, and a hole expansion ratio of 65%. The most important factors to satisfy the mechanical property were the presence of fine carbides and the microstructural homogeneity, which provided low hardness deviation between the phases.