• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.209-215
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• 2016

In this study, the effect of Nb contents and processing parameters on dynamic recrystallization behaviour of 0.15C-0.2Si-0.5Mn low-carbon steels was investigated. Three kinds of steel specimens with different Nb contents were fabricated and then high-temperature compressive deformation test was conducted by varying reheating temperature (RT), deformation temperature (DT), and strain rate (SR). The Nb2 and Nb4 specimens containing Nb had smaller prior austenite grain size than the Nb0 specimens, presumably due to pinning effect by the formation of carbides and carbonitrides precipitates at austenite grain boundaries. The high-temperature compressive deformation test results showed that dynamic recrystallization behavior was suppressed in the specimens containing Nb as the strain rate increased and deformation temperature decreased because of pinning effect by precipitates, grain boundary dragging effects by solute atoms, although the compressive stress increased with increasing strain rate and decreasing deformation temperature.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.8
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• pp.749-756
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• 2010

Low carbon steels were oxidized isothermally at 1050 and $1180^{\circ}C$ for 4 hr in air in order to determine the effect of alloying elements Si, S, Cu, Sn, and Ni on oxidation. For oxidation resistance of low carbon steels, the beneficial elements were Si, Cu, and Ni, whereas the harmful elements were S and Sn. The most active alloying element, Si, was scattered inside the oxide scale, at the scale-alloy interface, and as an internal oxide precipitate. The relatively noble elements such as Cu and Ni tended to weakly segregate at the scale-alloy interface. Sulfur and Sn were weakly, uniformly distributed inside the oxide scale. Excessively thick, non-adherent scales containing interconnected pores formed at $1180^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.577-582
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• 2015

The present study is concerned with the influence of niobium(Nb) addition and austenitizing temperature on the hardenability of low-carbon boron steels. The steel specimens were austenitized at different temperatures and cooled with different cooling rates using dilatometry; their microstructures and hardness were analyzed to estimate the hardenability. The addition of Nb hardly affected the transformation start and finish temperatures at lower austenitizing temperatures, whereas it significantly decreased the transformation finish temperature at higher austenitizing temperatures. This could be explained by the non-equilibrium segregation mechanism of boron atoms. When the Nb-added boron steel specimens were austenitized at higher temperatures, it is possible that Nb and carbon atoms present in the austenite phase retarded the diffusion of carbon towards the austenite grain boundaries during cooling due to the formation of NbC precipitate and Nb-C clusters, thus preventing the precipitation of $M_{23}(C,B)_6$ along the austenite grain boundaries and thereby improving the hardenability of the boron steels. As a result, because it considerably decreases the transformation finish temperature and prohibits the nucleation of proeutectoid ferrite even at the slow cooling rate of $3^{\circ}C/s$, irrespective of the austenitizing temperature, the addition of 0.05 wt.% Nb had nearly the same hardenability-enhancing effect as did the addition of 0.2 wt.% Mo.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.59-66
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• 1989

The weldability and joint performance were evaluated for newly developed 60kg/mm$\^$2/ steel which had low cold cracking susceptibility. The main results obtained were as follows; In case of quenched and tempered 60kg/mm$\^$2/ steels, it was very effective to improve weldability and joint performance by lowering carbon and Pcm level. Very small addition of about 0.001 to 0.002wt% boron exhibited an appreciable compensation effect on strength which was decreased by lowering carbon and Pcm level. As a result, the newly developed steel was able to be welded without preheating and exhibited superior joint performance to conventional steels.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.583-589
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• 2015

This paper presents a study on the room- and low-temperature impact toughness of hypoeutectoid steels with ferrite-pearlite structures. Six kinds of hypoeutectoid steel specimens were fabricated by varying the carbon content and austenitizing temperature to investigate the effect of microstructural factors such as pearlite volume fraction, interlamellar spacing, and cementite thickness on the impact toughness. The pearlite volume fraction usually increased with increasing carbon content and austenitizing temperature, while the pearlite interlamellar spacing and cementite thickness mostly decreased with increasing carbon content and austenitizing temperature. The 30C steel with medium pearlite volume fraction and higher manganese content, on the other hand, even though it had a higher volume fraction of pearlite than did the 20C steel, showed a better low-temperature toughness due to its having the lowest ductile-brittle transition temperature. This is because various microstructural factors in addition to the pearlite volume fraction largely affect the ductile-brittle transition temperature and low-temperature toughness of hypoeutectoid steels with ferrite-pearlite structure. In order to improve the room- and low-temperature impact toughness of hypoeutectoid steels with different ferrite-pearlite structures, therefore, more systematic studies are required to understand the effects of various microstructural factors on impact toughness, with a viewpoint of ductile-brittle transition temperature.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.456-459
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• 2005

Continuous cooling transformation behaviors were studied fur low carbon HSLA steels containing three different level $(1\~3\;wt\%)$ of Ni addition. Thermo-mechanical processing (TMP) simulations to construct continuous cooling (CCT) diagram were conducted by using Gleeble system. As cooling rate increased, pearlite, granular bainite, acicular ferrite, bainitic ferrite and lath martensite were transformed from deformed austenite. Fully bainitic microstructure were developed at all cooling rate condition in high Ni containing steel due to hardenability increasing effects of Ni. Ni also influenced the transformation kinetics. At the slowest cooling rate of $0.3^{\circ}C/s$, transformation delayed with decreasing Ni contents because of the diffusion of substitutional alloy elements. However, cooling rate slightly increased to $1^{\circ}C/s$, transformation kinetics accelerated with decreasing Ni contents because nucleation of bainite was sluggish due to hardening of residual austenite.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.154-157
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• 2007

The austenite phase observed in low carbon HSLA steels is well known to be decomposed to various bainitic microstructures, such as granular bainite, acicular ferrite and bainitic ferrite during continuous cooling process. These bainitic microstructures have been usually identified by using either scanning electron microscope (SEM) or transmission electron microscope (TEM). However, SEM and TEM images do no exactly coincide, because of the quite different sample preparation method in SEM and TEM observations. These conventional analysis method is, thus, not suitable for characterization of the complex bainitic microstructure. In this study, focused ion beam (FIB) technique was applied to make site-specific TEM specimens and to identify the 3-dimensional grain morphologies of the bainitic microstructure. The morphological feature and grain boundary characteristics of each bainitic microstructure were exactly identified.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.300-309
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• 2012

Low-carbon steels and a stainless steel were oxidized isothermally and cyclically between $1050^{\circ}C$ and $1200^{\circ}C$ for up to 100 min in air to find the effect of alloying elements of Si, Mn, Ni, and Cr on their oxidation. The most active alloying element of Si was scattered inside the oxide scale, at the scale-alloy interface and as internal oxide precipitates beneath the oxide scale. Manganese, which could not effectively improve the oxidation resistance, was rather uniformly distributed in the oxide scale. Nickel and chromium tended to present at the lower part of the oxide scale. Excessively thick porous scales formed on the low-carbon steels, whereas thin but non-adherent scales containing $Cr_2O_3$ formed on the stainless steel.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2002.10b
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• pp.157-158
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• 2002

A surface hardenable low alloy carbon steel was implanted with medium energy (20 - 50KeV) $N_2^+$ ions to produced a modified hardened surface. The implantation conditions were varied and are given in several doses. The surface hardness of treated and untreated steels were measured using depth sensing ultra micro indentation system (UMIS). It is shown that the hardness of nitrogen ion implanted steels varied from 20 to 50GPa depending on the implantation conditions and the doses of implantation. The structure of the modified surfaces was examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It was found that the high hardness on the implanted surfaces was as a result of formation of non-equilibrium nitrides. High-resolution XPS studies indicated that the nitride formers were essentially C and Si from the alloy steel. The result suggests that the ion implantation provided the conditions for a preferential formation of C and Si nitrides. The combination of evidences from nano-indentation and XPS, provided a strong evidence for the existence of $sp^3$ type of bonding in a suspected $(C,Si)_xN_y$ stoichiometry. The formation of ultra hard surface from relatively cheap low alloy steel has significant implication for wear resistance implanted low alloy steels.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.157-165
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• 1999

Grain size of steels is one of the most important parameters which influence yield strength and fracture toughness. Ultrasonic wave propagating in polycrystalline materials is mostly attenuated by scattering at grain boundary. Effect of ultrasonic attenuation on average ferrite grain size of carbon steels with tensile strength $40{\sim}60kgf/mm^2$ consisting of multi phases such as ferrite + pearlite and ferrite + pearlite + bainite was evaluated. The attenuation of these steels rapidly increased with average ferrite grain diameter. Average ferrite grain diameter ($D_{av}$, ${\mu}m$) could be expressed as $1.79+22.97*a^{1/2.03}$, where a is attenuation with unit of nepers/cm. From this study, it was confirmed that nondestructive ultrasonic method could be used in measuring average ferrite grain size indirectly.