• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.53-59
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• 2021

Due to high specific strength and low density, AZ series magnesium alloys have been receiving high interest as a lightweight material. However, their industrial application is limited due to the phenomenon that the strength decreases at elevated temperature by the occurrence of softening effect because of the Mg17Al12 phase decomposition. To solve this problem, many research were conducted to increase the high-temperature strength by forming a thermal stable second-phase component by adding new elements to the AZ magnesium. Especially, adding Ca to AZ magnesium has been reported that Ca forms the new second-phase. However, studies about the analysis of decomposition or precipitation temperature, formation composition, and components to understand the formation behavior of these precipitated phases are still insufficient. Therefore, the effect of Ca addition to AZ61 on the phase change and microstructure of the alloy during annealing was investigated. As a result of analysis of the initial and heat-treated specimen, AZ61 formed α-Mg matrix and precipitated phase of Mg17Al12, and AZX611 formed one more type of precipitated phase, Al2Ca. Also, Al2Ca was thermal stable at high temperatures. And after annealing, the laves phase was decomposed to under 10 ㎛ size and distributed in matrix.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.234-241
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• 2004

Cavitation erosion properties of the Cu-9Al-4.5Ni-4.5Fe alloys (Al-bronze) surface-modified by flame quenching process have been investigated. After flame quenching at above $T_{\beta}$, the surfaces of Al-bronze with $\alpha$ + $\textsc{k}$ structure have been changed into the $\alpha$ + $\beta$' martensite phases by the eutectoid reaction of $\alpha$ + $\textsc{k}$\longrightarrow$\beta$ followed by the martensite transformation of $\beta$\longrightarrow$\beta$'. As a result of cavitation test, the measured incubation time and erosion rate of the $\alpha$ + $\beta$' alloy was 1.2 times higher and 1.5 times lower, respectively, compared to those of the conventional $\alpha$ + $\textsc{k}$ alloys, showing a remarkable increase of cavitation resistance with the formation of $\beta$' martensite. This is attributed to a preferential erosion of the $\textsc{k}$ precipitates that show the lowest resistance among the $\alpha$, $\textsc{k}$, $\beta$' phases under cavitation loading.ases under cavitation loading.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.237-245
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• 1997

A study was conducted to examine the effects of In addition on the precipitation behaviors of Al-2.1Li-2.9Cu alloy by differential scanning calorimetry, transmission electron microscopy and micro-hardness tester. DSC analysis was measured over the temperature range of $25{\sim}550^{\circ}C$ at a heating rate of $2{\sim}20^{\circ}C$/min. The heat evolution peaks due to the formation of GP zone and ${\delta}$'phase shift to higher temperature and the peaks to $T_1$ and ${\theta}$'phases shift to lower temperature by In addition. From this result, it was proved that the formation of GP zone and ${\delta}$'phase is suppresed whereas that of $T_1$ and ${\theta}$'phases are accelerated by the In addition of 0.15wt%. The age hardening curve aged at $190^{\circ}C$ showed that the In bearing alloy(alloy B) has more faster age hardening response and a higher peak hardness than In-free alloy(alloy A), attributed to the fine and homogeneous distribution of $T_1$ and ${\theta}$'phases. The activation energies for the formation of ${\delta}$'phase in In-free and In-bearing alloys are 22.3kcal/mol and 18.6kcal/mol, respectively. Those for $T_1(+{\theta}^{\prime})$ phase of In-free and In-bearing alloys are 24.3 and 37.5kcal/mol, respectively. Quenched-in excess vacancies play an important role to the formation of precipitates.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.570-577
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• 2018

This study examines the effect of microstructural factors on the strength and deformability of ferrite-pearlite steels. Six kinds of ferrite-pearlite steel specimens are fabricated with the addition of different amounst of Mn and V and with varying the isothermal transformation temperature. The Mn steel specimen with a highest Mn content has the highest pearlite volume fraction because Mn addition inhibits the formation of ferrite. The V steel specimen with a highest V content has the finest ferrite grain size and lowest pearlite volume fraction because a large amount of ferrite forms in fine austenite grain boundaries that are generated by the pinning effect of many VC precipitates. On the other hand, the room-temperature tensile test results show that the V steel specimen has a longer yield point elongation than other specimens due to the highest ferrite volume fraction. The V specimen has the highest yield strength because of a larger amount of VC precipitates and grain refinement strengthening, while the Mn specimen has the highest tensile strength because the highest pearlite volume fraction largely enhances work hardening. Furthermore, the tensile strength increases with a higher transformation temperature because increasing the precipitate fraction with a higher transformation temperature improves work hardening. The results reveal that an increasing transformation temperature decreases the yield ratio. Meanwhile, the yield ratio decreases with an increasing ferrite grain size because ferrite grain size refinement largely increases the yield strength. However, the uniform elongation shows no significant changes of the microstructural factors.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.556-565
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• 1994

Effects of Ag addition to 2090 and CP 276 Al-Li alloy systems on the microstructure and mechanical properties have been investigated. The addition of silver up to 0.16wt.% reduced the grain size of the alloys, and was responsible for the formation of finer and more uniform $\delta$'($AI_{3}Li$) and $T_{1}(AI_{2}CuLi$) precipitates in 2090 alloys, even though no variation of precipitates was found in CP 276 alloys. The addition of 0.16wt.% Ag improved the tensile strength of 2090 alloys about 40MPa with the expense of small reduction of percent elongation. However, the small addition of Ag to CP 276 containing Mg did not show any variation of tensile strength and elongation. The aging treatment of these alloys at $150^{\circ}C$ for 70 or 90 hours, depending on alloy systems, showed peak hardness value of about 92 $H_rB$.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.215-219
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• 2012

An attempt was made to evaluate creep reliability of two commercial Ni-based superalloys by using ultrasonic wave. The materials include fine-grained PM alloy fabricated by mechanical alloying and subsequent hot isostatic pressing, and IN738LC cast alloy with a grain size of a few cm. Microstructural parameters (fraction of creep cavity and size of ${\gamma}^{\prime}$ precipitates) and ultrasonic parameters (velocity, attenuation) were measured to try to find relationships between them. Ultrasonic velocity decreased with creep cavity formation in PM alloy. On the other hand, no distinct changing trend of ultrasonic velocity was observed for IN738LC alloy. Ultrasonic attenuation was found to have a linear correlation with the size of ${\gamma}^{\prime}$ precipitates and was suggested as a potential parameter for monitoring creep reliability of IN738LC alloy.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.15-23
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• 2016

The effects of austenitizing temperature and cooling rate on precipitation behavior and tensile properties were investigated in an Mn-Mo-Nb-V pressure vessel steel. During austenitizing, it was shown that the austenite coarsening was somewhat suppressed by undissolved NbC. After cooling from austenitizing, the microstructure of all the steels mainly consisted of upper bainite. However, the steel comprised a little lower bainite and martensite in the case of aqua oil quenching from $1000^{\circ}C$, which would be due to increased hardenability by partly dissolved Nb and comparatively large austenite grains. The average size of NbC in austenite at higher temperature was analyzed to be smaller than that at lower temperature because of the more dissolution. It was found that the NbC did not grow much during fast cooling from austenitizing. Meanwhile, the NbC grew much during slow cooling, probably due to wide temperature range of cooling and sufficiently long time for NbC to grow. It was conjectured the V precipitates newly formed and/or grew during cooling from austenitizing and during tempering. On the other hand, the formation of NbC was almost completed before tempering and little more precipitated during tempering. Among the tempered steels, the steel which was fast cooled from $1000^{\circ}C$ showed the highest tensile strength, which seemed to come from the microstructure of fine upper bainite and some low temperature phases as well as the comparatively fine NbC precipitates.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.11
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• pp.716-721
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• 2009

The major drive for the application of low-temperature plasma treatment in nitrocarburizing of austenitic stainless steels lies in improved surface hardness without degraded corrosion resistance. The low-temperature plasma nitrocarburizing was performed in a gas mixture of $N_{2}$, $H_{2}$, and carbon-containing gas such as $CH_{4}$ at $450^{\circ}C$. The influence of the processing time (5~30 h) and $N_{2}$ gas composition (15~35%) on the surface properties of the nitrocarburized layer was investigated. The resultant nitrocarburized layer was a dual-layer structure, which was comprised of a N-enriched layer (${\gamma}_N$) with a high nitrogen content on top of a C-enriched layer (${\gamma}_C$) with a high carbon content, leading to a significant increase in surface hardness. The surface hardness reached up to about $1050HV_{0.01}$, which is about 4 times higher than that of the untreated sample ($250HV_{0.01}$). The thickness of the hardened layer increased with increasing treatment time and $N_{2}$ gas level in the atmosphere and reached up to about $25{\mu}m$. In addition, the corrosion resistance of the treated samples without containing $Cr_{2}N$ precipitates was enhanced than that of the untreated samples due to a high concentration of N on the surface. However, longer treatment time (25% $N_{2}$, 30 h) and higher $N_{2}$ gas composition (35% $N_{2}$, 20 h) resulted in the formation of $Cr_{2}N$ precipitates in the N-enriched layer, which caused the degradation of corrosion resistance.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.329-337
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• 2008

During the continuous casting of boron-bearing steel, the corner cracks on the slab are formed by deformation with low strain rate and rapid cooling at the unbending temperature within the range of 800- $1000^{\circ}C$. Especially, the rapid cooling in the corner of slab during the continuous casting leads to as corner cracking. Therefore, in this study, the hot tensile tests applied to the different cooling rates were taken into account in order to study the effect of cooling rate on the hot ductility of boron-bearing steel. The results revealed that increasing cooling rate deteriorate the hot ductility of boron- bearing steel. Rapid decreasing of the hot ductility is caused by formation of a film-like ferrite and precipitate at the austenite grain boundaries. The morphology of the precipitates in the boron-bearing steel was monitored by PTA (Particle Tracking Autoradiography) and TEM, we observed MnS and BN compound and their morphology was quite different depending on the cooling rates. When the cooling rate is increased, rodshape MnS and BN precipitates can be formed along the austenite grain boundaries. It can cause that weakening the boundary region and decreasing the hot ductility of boron-bearing steel.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.385-391
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• 2010

Twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steels have attracted great attention due to their excellent mechanical properties of high tensile strength (over 800MPa) and high ductility (over 50%), which result from the high strain hardening due to the mechanical twin formation during plastic deformation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of annealing temperature and alloying elements on the mechanical properties of Fe-18Mn-0.6C TWIP steel. In 1.5%Al TWIP steel with 0.123%Ti content, the average recrystallized grain size was reduced to 2.5 ${\mu}m$ by cold rolling and annealing at $800^{\circ}C$ for 5 min, because of the pinning effect of the fine TiC carbides on grain coarsening. The tensile strength was decreased and the ductility was improved with the increase of the annealing temperature. However, a reversion of hardness and yield strength happened between $750^{\circ}C$ and $800^{\circ}C$ due to TiC and $M_3C$ type precipitation. 0.56% Ni added TWIP steel exhibited relatively lower yield strength, because Ni precipitates were not formed during the annealing process. When this specimen was annealed at $800^{\circ}C$ for 5min, the tensile strength and elongation were revealed at 1096MPa and 61.8%, respectively.