Microstructure and Corrosion Resistance of CrN and CrN/TiN Coated Heat-Resistant Steels in Molten Aluminum Alloy

The components of the equipment for processing the Al melts into the molded parts can be markedly corroded by the molten Al. In this study, a 4 μm CrN coating or CrN/TiN multilayer coating for providing the physical and chemical barriers between the molten reactive Al and the steel substrate were deposited by Cathodic Arc Evaporation onto 10 mm-thick heat-resistant steel plates. The dipping tests were conducted in a 700℃ A356 melt for 1 to 21 h at intervals of 3 h. The damage of the coated steel was eva...

Welding of SA213-T91 and SA213-T23 heat-resistant steels applied in ultra supercritical thermal power units

The marteasite SA213-191 and bainite SA213-T23 high-temperature resistant steels were applied to the heating surface of the ultra supercritical thermal power unit boiler. The weld metal microstructures and welded joint performance between the two kinds of dissimilar steels were analyzed. The main reasons of the welding defects such as hot crack, cold crack, brittleness and decrease in toughness were discussed during the welding of the dissimilar heat-resistant steels of SA213- 191 and SA213-T23 in boiler manufacturing and processing operation. The welding materials were chosen and welding procedure was made according to the base metals.

Improving creep strength of the fine-grained heat-affected zone of novel 9Cr martensitic heat-resistant steel via modified thermo-mechanical treatment

The infamous type Ⅳ failure within the fine-grained heat-affected zone (FGHAZ) in G115 steel weldments seriously threatens the safe operation of ultra-supercritical (USC) power plants.In this work,the traditional thermo-mechanical treatment was modified via the replacement of hot-rolling with cold rolling,i.e.,normalizing,cold rolling,and tempering (NCT),which was developed to improve the creep strength of the FGHAZ in G115 steel weldments.The NCT treatment effectively promoted the dissolution of preformed M_(23)C_(6)particles and relieved the boundary segregation of C and Cr during welding thermal cycling,which accelerated the dispersed reprecipitation of M_(23)C_(6) particles within the fresh reaustenitized grains during post-weld heat treatment.In addition,the precipitation of Cu-rich phases and MX particles was promoted evidently due to the deformation-induced dislocations.As a result,the interacting actions between precipitates,dislocations,and boundaries during creep were reinforced considerably.Following this strategy,the creep rupture life of the FGHAZ in G115 steel weldments can be prolonged by 18.6%,which can further push the application of G115 steel in USC power plants.

Effect of N on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of High Si Martensitic Heat-Resistant Steels

In order to investigate the effect of N on the microstructure and room temperature mechanical properties of new-type high silicon martensitic heat-resistant steels,three steels containing the same total content of C and N but different N contents have been designed and prepared according to the thermo-calc calculation.The thermodynamic calculation and experiments indicate that the replacing of C by N changes the kind and volume fraction of precipitates of the high Si martensitic steel significantly.Along with the N content increasing,the precipitates in the samples after 750 °C tempering change from（Cr23C6？ VN ？ TaC） to（Cr23C6？ VN ？ TaC ？ TaN） and finally to（Cr23C6？ VN ？ Cr2N）according to both experimental results and thermodynamic calculations.The room temperature mechanical tests show that the strength of the steel decreases as the N content increases.However,the Charpy impact toughness increases with N content increasing.According to the calculation and SEM observation,it is inferred that the decrease of amount and size of precipitates accounts for the changes of the mechanical properties.

Achieving a high-strength dissimilar joint of T91 heat-resistant steel to 316L stainless steel via friction stir welding

The reliable welding of T91 heat-resistant steel to 316L stainless steel is a considerable issue for ensuring the safety in service of ultrasupercritical power generation unit and nuclear fusion reactor,but the high-quality dissimilar joint of these two steels was difficult to be obtained by traditional fusion welding methods.Here we improved the structure-property synergy in a dissimilar joint of T91 steel to 316L steel via friction stir welding.A defect-free joint with a large bonding interface was produced using a small-sized tool under a relatively high welding speed.The bonding interface was involved in a mixing zone with both mechanical mixing and metallurgical bonding.No obvious material softening was detected in the joint except a negligible hardness decline of only HV~10 in the heat-affected zone of the T91 steel side due to the formation of ferrite phase.The welded joint exhibited an excellent ultimate tensile strength as high as that of the 316L parent metal and a greatly enhanced yield strength on account of the dependable bonding and material renovation in the weld zone.This work recommends a promising technique for producing high-strength weldments of dissimilar nuclear steels.

Review on the plastic instability of medium -Mn steels for identifying the formation mechanisms of Lüders and Portevin -Le Chatelier bands

Plastic instability,including both the discontinuous yielding and stress serrations,has been frequently observed during the tensile deformation of medium-Mn steels(MMnS)and has been intensively studied in recent years.Unfortunately,research results are controversial,and no consensus has been achieved regarding the topic.Here,we first summarize all the possible factors that affect the yielding and flow stress serrations in MMnS,including the morphology and stability of austenite,the feature of the phase interface,and the deformation parameters.Then,we propose a universal mechanism to explain the conflicting experimental results.We conclude that the discontinuous yielding can be attributed to the lack of mobile dislocation before deformation and the rapid dislocation multiplication at the beginning of plastic deformation.Meanwhile,the results show that the stress serrations are formed due to the pinning and depinning between dislocations and interstitial atoms in austenite.Strain-induced martensitic transformation,influenced by the mechanical stability of austenite grain and deformation parameters,should not be the intrinsic cause of plastic instability.However,it can intensify or weaken the discontinuous yielding and the stress serrations by affecting the mobility and density of dislocations,as well as the interaction between the interstitial atoms and dislocations in austenite grains.

Prediction model for corrosion rate of low-alloy steels under atmospheric conditions using machine learning algorithms

This work constructed a machine learning(ML)model to predict the atmospheric corrosion rate of low-alloy steels(LAS).The material properties of LAS,environmental factors,and exposure time were used as the input,while the corrosion rate as the output.6 dif-ferent ML algorithms were used to construct the proposed model.Through optimization and filtering,the eXtreme gradient boosting(XG-Boost)model exhibited good corrosion rate prediction accuracy.The features of material properties were then transformed into atomic and physical features using the proposed property transformation approach,and the dominant descriptors that affected the corrosion rate were filtered using the recursive feature elimination(RFE)as well as XGBoost methods.The established ML models exhibited better predic-tion performance and generalization ability via property transformation descriptors.In addition,the SHapley additive exPlanations(SHAP)method was applied to analyze the relationship between the descriptors and corrosion rate.The results showed that the property transformation model could effectively help with analyzing the corrosion behavior,thereby significantly improving the generalization ability of corrosion rate prediction models.

A review on the multi-scaled structures and mechanical/thermal properties of tool steels fabricated by laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing

The laser powder bed fusion(LPBF) process can integrally form geometrically complex and high-performance metallic parts that have attracted much interest,especially in the molds industry.The appearance of the LPBF makes it possible to design and produce complex conformal cooling channel systems in molds.Thus,LPBF-processed tool steels have attracted more and more attention.The complex thermal history in the LPBF process makes the microstructural characteristics and properties different from those of conventional manufactured tool steels.This paper provides an overview of LPBF-processed tool steels by describing the physical phenomena,the microstructural characteristics,and the mechanical/thermal properties,including tensile properties,wear resistance,and thermal properties.The microstructural characteristics are presented through a multiscale perspective,ranging from densification,meso-structure,microstructure,substructure in grains,to nanoprecipitates.Finally,a summary of tool steels and their challenges and outlooks are introduced.

A Physical Core-Loss Model for Laminated Magnetic Sheet Steels

A full-frequency instant core-loss equation built from the induction physical model of magnetic materials, where the iron loss, eddy loss, and hysteresis loss no longer have an integral term, and this new equation provides high simulation accuracy and performs dynamic core loss analysis on non-sinusoidal or pulse magnetic fields. The simulation examples use a high-grade electrical steel sheet 65CS400 by Epstein experimental data covering magnetic field 0.1 - 1.8 T and frequency 50 - 5000 Hz, and the average error of the simulated core loss is less than 4%. Since the simulation is converged by magnetic physical parameters, so the physical relevance of the similar laminated materials can be compared with the coefficient results. .

Impact Toughness of Heat-Affected Zones of 11Cr Heat-Resistant Steels

Aiming at the requirements of structural steel in Gen-IV nuclear reactor, the high-chromium martensitic heat-resistant steels containing 10–12% chromium were developed. The toughness of heat-affected zones(HAZs) is one of the important factors for evaluating the weldability of steels. In this paper, the simulated HAZs were fabricated using tempered SIMP steels. The effects of microstructures on the impact toughness of materials were analyzed using Vickers hardness tester, optical microscope, transmission electron microscope. Experimental results demonstrated that the HAZs of weldment were poor in toughness, much lower than that of the base metal. However, after experiencing post-weld heat treatment, the toughness of the HAZs increased greatly. The toughness became better in terms of CG-HAZ, FG-HAZ and IC-HAZ for the two steels, regardless of as-welded or after PWHT. Compared with SIMP7 steel, chemical compositions, such as C, Si, Mn and Cr, were adjusted to a lower content;the toughness of base metal and simulated HAZs was better in the case of SIMP11. The conjunct roles of dislocation density and carbon contents retained in the martensite led to poor impact toughness of the aswelded HAZs, because dislocations and carbon atoms affected the inner stresses within lattices.

Phase Transformation Behavior and Microstructural Control of High-Cr Martensitic/Ferritic Heat-resistant Steels for Power and Nuclear Plants: A Review

The martensitic/ferritic steels have been used as boiler and turbine materials in power plants, and also been selected as potential materials for structural materials in nuclear reactors. In this paper, the kinetic analysis of the martensite formation and microstructural control of high-Cr martensitic/ferritic steels are reviewed. A modular approach, incorporating Fisher partitioning nucleation and anisotropic growth for impingement, was proposed to describe the martensite formation kinetics under different cooling rates.The kinetic analysis suggested a thermal-activated growth feature occurring during the martensitic transformation of martensitic steels. The microstructure can be tuned by composition optimization and various combinations of heat treatment parameters(temperature, time, severe and minor deformation).For the application in power plant, the potential of boundary-design, refinement of original austenite grain size and the final martensitic lath, pinning effect of stable carbides, in improving the performances of martensitic/ferritic steels at elevated temperatures should be investigated more thoroughly.Furthermore, efforts should be made to explore the effects of retained austenite on the improvement of high-temperature creep strength. For the application of nuclear plants, attempts should also be made to produce Fe powders with uniformly distributed oxide particles by chemical reactions.

Precipitation and hot deformation behavior of austenitic heat-resistant steels: A review

The austenitic heat resistant-steels have been considered as important candidate materials for advanced supercritical boilers, nuclear reactors, super heaters and chemical reactors, due to their favorable combination of high strength, corrosion resistance, perfect mechanical properties, workability and low cost.Since the precipitation behavior of the steels during long-term service at elevated temperature would lead to the deterioration of mechanical properties, it is essential to clarify the evolution of secondary phases in the microstructure of the steels. Here, a summary of recent progress in the precipitation behavior and the coarsening mechanism of various precipitates during aging in austenitic steels is made. Various secondary phases are formed under service conditions, like MX carbonitrides, M_（23）C_6 carbides, Z phase, sigma phase and Laves phase. It is found that the coarsening rate of M_（23）C_6 carbides is much higher than that of MX carbonitrides. In order to understand the thermal deformation mechanism, a constitutive equation can be established, and thus obtained processing maps are beneficial to optimizing thermal processing parameters, leading to improved thermal processing properties of steels.

Microstructure Evolution of T91 Heat-Resistant Steels after Long-Time Aging

To investigate the evolution of microstructure damage degree and the precipitated phases of heat-resistant metal in power plant under high temperature and stress environment, the high- temperature aging tests were conducted to investigate the aging behavior of T91 steel at different temperatures and stress. The optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmis- sion electron microscopy were used to investigate the structure and precipitated phases, the results showed that the orientation characteristics of tempered martensite was dispersed, and the grain size is obviously increased. The density of dislocation decreased with increasing temperature and stress. The important strengthen- ing phase of M23C6 （M=Fe, Cr） was coarsened by the diffusion of main alloying elements Cr, while the smaller size MX （M=Nb,V; X=C, N） phase distributed in the grain is relatively stable in the aging.

Development of heat-resistant ferritic stainless steels for exhaust lines at Nisshin Steel

Exhaust emission regulations of the automotive are enforced in each country to prevent air pollution and global warming,and the restriction standard tends to become severer.Various techniques such as the combustion improvement of gasoline,upgrades of the catalyst,and the thermal capacity decreases in the exhaust lines are adopted to suit the regulations,and these lead to an increase of the maximum temperature of the exhaust gas. Recently,ferritic stainless steels are mainly used to parts of exhaust lines,as their thermal expansion coefficient is small,and the cyclic oxidation resistance and the thermal fatigue property are better than austenitic stainless steels. This paper presents newly developed heat-resistant stainless steels from Nisshin Steel for exhaust lines usage,and describes the currents of the steel development that could be envisaged in the future.With regard to improving the high-temperature strength of ferritic stainless steels,the addition of Nb,Mo and Cu is effective in solution hardening and precipitation hardening at 700℃,while the addition of Nb,Mo and W is effective in mainly solution hardening at 900℃.The addition of Cr,Si and Mn suppress the breakaway oxidation in air at 950℃up to 200 h of ferritic stainless steels containing 14%Cr.Especially,the addition of 0.8%or higher Mn would effectively improve the adherence of oxide scale.It is confirmed that ferritic stainless steels,NSSHR-1(14Cr-lMn-0.9Si-Nb) and NSSHR-2(10Cr-0.9Si-Nb-Ti ),is having a superior heat resistance,formability and cost performance compared to conventional Type441 and Type439 respectively.

Effect of annealing and cooling rate on toughness of G115 heat-resistant steels

The effects of annealing before normalizing and different cooling ways, i.e., air cooling, quenching, and water mist cooling after normalizing on the toughness of G115 steels were investigated. The impact tests showed that the annealed samples had better toughness compared to the unannealed samples for three cooling ways. Microstructure observations revealed that the annealed samples had a more uniform grain distribution, smaller size and area fraction of M_(23)C_(6) particles along the grain boundaries, and lower dislocation density than those in the unannealed samples, which performed together for good toughness. Among three cooling ways, air cooling gave the best toughness due to the smallest occupancy of M23C6 particles in the grain boundaries. Thus, the combination of annealing conducted before normalizing and air cooling selected after normalizing can improve the toughness a lot of G115 steels.

Influence of Creep Strength of Weld on Interfacial Creep Damage of Dissimilar Welded Joint between Martensitic and Bainitic Heat-Resistant Steel

The mechanical properties, creep rupture strength, creep damage and failure characteristics of dissimilar metal welded joint （DMWJ） between martensitic （SA213T91） and bainitic heat-resistant steel （12Cr2MoWVTiB（G102）） have been investigated by means of pulsed argon arc welding, high temperature accelerated simulation, mechanical and creep rupture test, and scanning electronic microscope （SEM）. The results show that there is a marked drop of mechanical properties of undermatching joint, and low ductility cracking along weld/G102 interface is induced due to creep damage. Creep rupture strength of overmatching joint is the least. The mechanical properties of medium matching joint are superior to those of overmatching and undermatching joint, and creep damage and failure tendency along the interface of weld/G102 are lower than those of overmatching and undermatching joint after accelerated simulation for 500 h, 1 000 h, 1 500 h, and the creep rupture strength of medium matching joint is the same as that of undermatching joint. Therefore, it is reasonable that the medium matching material is used for dissimilar welded joint between martensitic and bainitic steel.

Dissolution Behavior of Delta Ferrites in Martensitic Heat-resistant Steel for Ultra Supercritical Units Blades

The dissolution behavior of delta ferrites in martensitic heat-resistant steel was studied.And the reason why the dissolution rate of delta ferrites decreased with dissolution time was discussed.The experimental results show that the chemical compositions of delta ferrites negligibly change with dissolution time.The decrease of dissolution rate of delta ferrites with dissolution time should be attributed to the change of shape and distribution of delta ferrites.The shape of delta ferrites tends to transfer from polygon to sphere with dissolution time,causing the decrease of specific surface area of delta ferrites.The distribution position of delta ferrites tends to transfer from boundaries of austenite grains to interior of austenite grains with dissolution time,decreasing the diffusion coefficient of alloy atoms.Both them decrease the dissolution rate of delta ferrites.

High-temperature oxidation behavior of 9Cr‒5Si‒3Al ferritic heat-resistant steel

To improve the oxidation properties of ferritic heat-resistant steels,an Al-bearing 9Cr‒5Si‒3Al ferritic heat-resistant steel was designed.We then conducted cyclic oxidation tests to investigate the high-temperature oxidation behavior of 9Cr‒5Si and 9Cr‒5Si‒3Al ferritic heat-resistant steels at 900 and 1000℃.The characteristics of the oxide layer were analyzed by X-ray diffraction,scanning electron microscopy,and energy dispersive spectroscopy.The results show that the oxidation kinetics curves of the two tested steels follow the parabolic law,with the parabolic rate constant kp of 9Cr‒5Si‒3Al steel being much lower than that of 9Cr‒5Si steel at both 900 and 1000℃.The oxide film on the surface of the 9Cr‒5Si alloy exhibits Cr2MnO4 and Cr2O3 phases in the outer layer after oxidation at 900 and 1000℃.However,at oxidation temperatures of 900 and 1000℃,the oxide film of the 9Cr‒5Si‒3Al alloy consists only of Al2O3 and its oxide layer is thinner than that of the 9Cr‒5Si alloy.These results indicate that the addition of Al to the 9Cr‒5Si steel can improve its high-temperature oxidation resistance,which can be attributed to the formation of a continuous and compact Al2O3 film on the surface of the steel.

Precipitation behavior and martensite lath coarsening during tempering of T/P92 ferritic heat-resistant steel

Tempering is an important process for T/P92 ferritic heat-resistant steel from the viewpoint of microstructure control, as it facili- tates the formation of final tempered martensite under serving conditions. In this study, we have gained deeper insights on the mechanism underlying the microstructural evolution during tempering treatment, including the precipitation of carbides and the coarsening of martensite laths, as systematically analyzed by optical microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron mi- croscopy. The chemical composition of the precipitates was analyzed using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Results indicate the for- mation of M3C （cementite） precipitates under normalized conditions. However, they tend to dissolve within a short time of tempering, owing to their low thermal stability. This phenomenon was substantiated by X-ray diffraction analysis. Besides, we could observe the precipitation of fine carbonitrides （MX） along the dislocations. The mechanism of carbon diffusion controlled growth of M23C6 can be expressed by the Zener＇s equation. The movement of Y-junctions was determined to be the fundamental mechanism underlying the martensite lath coarsening process. Vickers hardness was estimated to determine their mechanical properties. Based on the comprehensive analysis of both the micro- structural evolution and hardness variation, the process of tempering can be separated into three steps.

Coarsening behavior of MX carbonitrides in type 347H heat-resistant austenitic steel during thermal aging

In this work, the growth kinetics of MX （M - metal, X - C/N） nanoprecipitates in type 347H austenitic steel was systematically studied. To investigate the coarsening behavior and the growth mechanism of MX carbonitrides during long-term aging, experiments were performed at 700, 800, 850, and 900℃ for different periods （1, 24, 70, and 100 h）. The precipitation behavior of carbonitrides in specimens subjected to various aging conditions was explored using carbon replicas and transmission electron microscopy （TEM） observations. The corresponding sizes ofMX carbonitrides were measured. The results demonstrates that MX carbonitrides precipitate in type 347H austenitic steel as Nb（C,N）. The coarsening rate constant is time-independent; however, an increase in aging temperature results in an increase in coarsening rate of Nb（C,N）. The coarsening process was analyzed according to the calculated diffusion activation energy of Nb（C,N）. When the aging temperature was 800-900℃, the mean activation energy was 294 kJ·mol -1, and the coarsening behavior was controlled primarily by the diffusion of Nb atoms.