Abstract
Effects of V on both the formation of Ti-Nb-V carbonitrides and mechanical properties of Ti-Nb bearing low carbon HSLA steels were investigated. Hot rolling process was simulated by using Gleeble 3500 system with the steels containing three different levels of V ($0{\sim}0.1wt.%$). Vanadium precipitated as Ti-Nb-V carbonitrides at austenite region but it did not precipitate as VC during austenite to acicular ferrite or bainitic ferrite phase transformation. As V content increased, the amount of Nb precipitates was decreased but the average size of Ti-Nb-V carbonitrides was increased due to larger diffusivity of V than that of Nb. Coarsened Ti-Nb-V carbonitrides could act as heterogeneous nucleation site during ${\gamma}{\rightarrow}{\alpha}$ phase transformation, thus, acicular ferrite transformation was promoted as V content increased, resulting in increase of upper shelf energy.