Third generation high strength low alloy steels with improved toughness

On-line thermo mechanical controlled processing(TMCP) was conducted to develop the third generation high strength low alloy(HSLA) steel with high toughness economically.The ultra-low carbon content ensured a high level of upper shelf energy while ultrafine lath martensitic structure transformed from super-thin pancaked austenite during controlled rolling and cooling.The reduction of martensite block size decreased ductile-to-brittle transition temperature(DBTT) and compensated the strength loss due to carbon reduction.Consequently,the excellent balance of strength and toughness values was obtained as 950-1060 MPa for yield strength,180 J for Charpy V-notch impact absorbed energy at 30℃,which is much superior to that of traditional martensitic steel.Two mechanisms for the refinement of lath martensite block were proposed:One is the austenite grain refinement in the direction of thickness,and the other is the reduction in the fraction of sub-block boundaries with small misorientation and the increase in the fraction of block boundaries with large misorientation,possibly due to austenite hardening.

Ausforming effects on anisotropy of mechanical properties in HSLA martensitic steel

In order to clarify effects of prior pancaked austenitic structure on microstructure and mechanical properties of transformed martensite in ausformed steel,a super-thin pancaked austenite was processed by multi-pass rolling in a 0.03-2.6Mn0.06Nb-0.01Ti(wt%) low alloy steel.The evolution of prior pancaked austenite grain during multi-pass rolling was studied using Ni-30Fe model alloy.Related with the structure and texture in the prior super-thin pancaked austenite in Ni-30Fe alloy,the texture and anisotropy of mechanical properties of transformed martensite in the studied ausformed steel were focused on.There were mainly three kinds of rolling texture components in the super-thin pancaked austenite:Goss {110} 001,copper {112} 111 and brass {110} 112.They were further transformed into the weak {001} 110 and strong {112} 110,{111} 112 texture components in the martensitic structure.The orientation relationship(OR) of lath martensite transformation from pancaked austenite in the ausformed steel deviated larger from the exact Kurdjumov-Sachs(K-S) OR than in the case of equiaxed austenite without deformation.The tensile and yield strengths of the ausformed martensitic steel first decreased and then increased as the angle between tension direction and rolling direction increased.The main reason for the anisotropy of strength was considered as the texture component {112} 110 in martensite.However,the anisotropy of impact toughness was more complex and the main reasons for it are unknown.