• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.478-488
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• 2018

In this study, three kinds of steels are manufactured by varying the rolling conditions, and their microstructures are analyzed. Tensile and Charpy impact tests are performed at room temperature to investigate the correlation between microstructure and mechanical properties. In addition, heat affected zone(HAZ) specimens are fabricated through the simulation of the welding process, and the HAZ microstructure is analyzed. The Charpy impact test of the HAZ specimens is performed at $-40^{\circ}C$ to investigate the low temperature HAZ toughness. The main microstructures of steels are quasi-polygonal ferrite and pearlite with fine grains. Because coarse granular bainite forms with an increasing finish rolling temperature, the strength decreases and elongation increases. In the steel with the lowest reduction ratio, coarse granular bainite forms. In the HAZ specimens, fine acicular ferrites are the main features of the microstructure. The volume fraction of coarse bainitic ferrite and granular bainite increases with an increasing finish rolling temperature. The Charpy impact energy at $-40^{\circ}C$ decreases with an increasing volume fraction of bainitic ferrite and granular bainite. In the HAZ specimen with the lowest reduction ratio, coarse bainitic ferrite and granular bainite forms and the Charpy impact energy at $-40^{\circ}C$ is the lowest.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2016

With the recent increase in size of ships and offshore structures, there are more demand for thicker plates. As the thickness increases, it is known that fatigue life of the structures decrease. To improve the fatigue life, post weld treatments techniques, such as toe grinding, TIG dressing and hammer peening, are typically employed. However, these techniques require additional construction time and production cost. Therefore, it is of crucial interest steels with longer fatigue crack growth life compared to conventional steels. This study investigates fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) behaviours of conventional EH36 steel and Ferrite-Bainite dual phase EH36 steel (F-B steel). F-B steel is known to have improved fatigue performance associated with the existence of two different phases. Ferrite-Bainite dual phase microstructures are obtained by special thermo mechanical control process (TMCP). FCGR behaviours are investigated by a series of constant stress-controlled FCGR tests. Considering all test conditions (ambient, low temperature, high stress ratio), it is shown that FCGR of F-B steel is slower than that of conventional EH36 steel. From the tensile tests and impact tests, F-B steel exhibits higher values of strength and impact energy leading to slower FCGR.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.10
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• pp.617-626
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• 2008

This study is concerned with the effect of Cu and B addition on microstructure and mechanical properties of high-strength bainitic steels. Six kinds of steels were fabricated by varying alloying elements and hot-rolling conditions, and their microstructures and tensile and Charpy impact properties were investigated. Their effective grain sizes were also characterized by the electron back-scatter diffraction analysis. The tensile test results indicated that the B- or Cu-containing steels had the higher yield and tensile strengths than the B- or Cu-free steels because their volume fractions of bainitic ferrite and martensite were quite high. The B- or Cu-free steels had the higher upper shelf energy than the B- or Cu-containing steels because of their higher volume fraction of granular bainite. In the steel containing 10 ppm B without Cu, the best combination of high strengths, high upper shelf energy, and low energy transition temperature could be obtained by the decrease in the overall effective grain size due to the presence of bainitic ferrite having smaller effective grain size.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.525-530
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• 2013

This study investigated the continuous cooling transformation, microstructure, and mechanical properties of highstrength low-alloy steels containing B and Cu. Continuous cooling transformation diagrams under non-deformed and deformed conditions were constructed by means of dilatometry, metallographic methods, and hardness data. Based on the continuous cooling transformation behaviors, six kinds of steel specimens with different B and Cu contents were fabricated by a thermomechanical control process comprising controlled rolling and accelerated cooling. Then, tensile and Charpy impact tests were conducted to examine the correlation of the microstructure with mechanical properties. Deformation in the austenite region promoted the formation of quasi-polygonal ferrite and granular bainite with a significant increase in transformation start temperatures. The mechanical test results indicate that the B-added steel specimens had higher strength and lower upper-shelf energy than the B-free steel specimens without deterioration in low-temperature toughness because their microstructures were mostly composed of lower bainite and lath martensite with a small amount of degenerate upper bainite. On the other hand, the increase of Cu content from 0.5 wt.% to 1.5 wt.% noticeably increased yield and tensile strengths by 100 MPa without loss of ductility, which may be attributed to the enhanced solid solution hardening and precipitation hardening resulting from veryfine Cu precipitates formed during accelerated cooling.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.49-58
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• 1993

Isothermal transformation behavior during patenting and variations of microstructure and tensile strength of patented wires were investigated in Si-added high carbon steel. The TTT curves of the steels were made for two different austenitizing temperature. As the salt bath temperature was increased, the observed microstructures were bainite at $450^{\circ}C$, the mixture of bainite and pearlite at $500^{\circ}C$, and to pearlite at $600^{\circ}C$, The tensile strength of patented wire exhibited the highest value when the structure was pearlite. while the bainitic structure showed the lowest.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.133-140
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• 2014

Cleavage fracture behaviors were investigated in Ni-Mo-Cr steels with mixed microstructure of lower bainite and martensite. As the size of carbide decreased, the cleavage fracture strength increased, which was independent of the sizes of grain and packet. The measured cleavage fracture strengths were in good agreement with cleavage fracture strengths calculated by Petch model rather than by modified Griffith model in micro-structures with fine carbides, the size of which were small below a few hundred nanometer.

• 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.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.164-169
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• 2007

Hydrogen induced cracking (HIC) was studied phenomenologically and the effect of microstructure on HIC was discussed for the steels having two different levels of nonmetallic inclusions. Steels having different microstructures were produced by thermomechanically controlled processes (TMCP) from two different heats which had the different level of nonmetallic inclusions. Ferrite/pearlite (F/P), ferrite/acicular ferrite (F/AF), ferrite/bainite (F/B) were three representative microstructures for all tested steels. For the steels with higher level of inclusions, permissible inclusion level for HIC not to develop was different according to steelmicrostructure. On the contrary, HIC occurred also at the martensite/austenite (M/A) constituents regardless of steel microstructure when they accumulated to a certain degree. It was proved that M/A constituents were easily embrittled by hydrogen atoms. Steels having F/AF is resistant to HIC at a given actual service condition since they covers a wide range of diffusible hydrogen content without developing HIC.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.69-76
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• 2018

This study examined the effect of the heat treatment and alloying elements (B, Ti) on the microstructures and mechanical properties of API J55 steel. The experiments were carried out using various austenization temperatures ($880^{\circ}C$, $910^{\circ}C$, $940^{\circ}C$), cooling methods (water quenching, oil quenching) and tempering temperatures (none, $550^{\circ}C$, $650^{\circ}C$) with J55 and J55+B,Ti steels. The phase diagram and CCT curve were simulated based on the chemical compositions of the J55 and J55+B,Ti steels to predict the microstructures. The results showed that the A1 and A3 temperatures decreased and, as a result, the noses of the ferrite and bainite parts of the CCT curve moved to the right. Various microstructures were formed, namely martensite, bainite, ferrite and pearlite, in accordance with the heat treatment, which had an effect on the hardness, tensile strength and toughness. Martensite was formed after water quenching, but bainite and ferrite appeared after oil quenching with the J55 specimens. On the other hand, martensite was formed, regardless of the cooling method (water quenching, oil quenching), with the J55+B,Ti specimens, because of the improvement of the hardenability caused by the addition of boron. Therefore, the J55+B,Ti specimens exhibited much higher mechanical properties than the J55 specimens, even after the tempering treatment, since the addition of Ti caused fine precipitates to be formed, which inhibited grain growth at the recrystallization temperature.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.49-52
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• 2000

The hole flanging experiments are performed on a flat circular plates with a hole in the center and the flangeability and fracture behavior of TRIP steel and ferrite-bainite duplex steel were examined. Over the ranges of conditions investigated, the flangeability of ferrite-bainite duplex steel is better than TRIP steel and the term 'hole flanging capacity' introduced in this study. Fracture behavior of TRIP steel and ferrite-bainite duplex steel was characterized by petal formation at the edge of flange. In case of crack propagation, crack tip diversion that is supposed to be responsible for flangeability occurs more severely on HSLA Steel.