Creep property research of new martensite heat-resistant steel G115

G115 steel was jointly developed by China Iron & Steel Research Institute Group Co.,Ltd.and Baosteel for usage in 600-650 ℃ ultrasupercritical boiler tubes.Using a hot extruded G115 tube,creep tests were conducted under a constant stress of 130 MPa and temperatures of 625,650 and 675 ℃.Comparing creep curves under different temperatures,it is observed that the creep performance of a G115 tube is more sensitive to temperature than stress.Steady-state creep rates of creep specimens are significantly increased by enhancing the temperature.A micro-structural analysis of ruptured creep specimens under a stress of 130 MPa and temperatures of 650 ℃ and 675 ℃ was performed;the fracture mechanism of creep specimens under these two temperatures mainly included the appearance of creep holes on the grain boundary and a decrease in the martensite lath density.

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 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.

Evolution of microstructure in reheated coarse-grained zone of G115 novel martensitic heat-resistant steel

Based on the thermal simulation method,a systematical analysis was conducted on the effect of welding peak temperature and the cooling time that takes place from 800 to 500℃ on microstructure,precipitates,substructure and microhardness of the reheated coarse-grained heat-affected zone(CGHAZ)of G115 novel martensitic heat-resistant steel.As revealed from the results,the microstructure of un-altered CGHAZ(UACGHAZ)and supercritically CGHAZ(SCCGHAZ)was lath martensite,and structural heredity occurred.Intercritically reheated CGHAZ(IRCGHAZ)exhibited martensite and over-tempered martensite,and subcritical CGHAZ(SCGHAZ)displayed martensite and under-tempered martensite.The austenite in UACGHAZ and SCCGHAZ was transformed with the diffusion mechanism during the first thermal cycle,but with the non-diffusion mechanism during the second thermal cycle.For this reason,A_(c1) and A_(c3) during the second thermal cycle were significantly lower than those during the first thermal cycle,and A_(c1) and A_(c3) were reduced by nearly 14 and 44℃,respectively.Since the content and stability of the austenite alloy during the second thermal cycle of IRCGHAZ were lower than those during the first thermal cycle,M_(s) increased by nearly 30℃.There were considerable precipitates in the over-tempered region of IRCGHAZ,and the Laves phase was contained,which was not conducive to high-temperature creep property.Moreover,the dislocation density and the number of sub-grains in the region were lower,resulting in a sharp decrease in the microhardness,and it was the weak area in the reheated CGHAZ.

Characterization and numerical simulation of nucleation-growth-coarsening kinetics of precipitates in G115 martensitic heat resistance steel during long-term aging

The service performance of heat resistance steels is largely determined by the precipitation kinetics.The nucleation-growth-coarsening behaviors of precipitates in G115 martensitic heat resistance steel during long-term aging at 650℃ have been systemically investigated.The microstructural characteristics,precipitate morphology and alloying element distribution were studied by scanning electron microscopy,transmission electron microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy.The lognormal distribution fitting combined with the multiple regression analysis was adopted to evaluate the precipitate size distributions.Laves phase has longer incubation time,and its coarsening rate is almost one order of magnitude higher in comparison with that of M_(23)C_(6) carbide.Furthermore,the nucleation rate,number density,average radius,and volume fraction of two precipitates are simulated based on the classical nucleation theory and the modified Langer-Schwartz model.The precipitation behavior of Laves phase can be well explained with the Fe-W system as the interfacial energy takes 0.10 J/m^(2).In contrast,the simulation results of M_(23)C_(6) carbide in the Fe-Cr-C system are significantly overestimated,which results from the inhibitory effect of boron on coarsening.

Hot Deformation Behavior of a New 9%Cr Heat Resistant Steel G115

The hot deformation behavior of a new heat resistant steel Gl15 designed for 650 ℃ ultra-supercritical （USC） power plants was experimentally studied. Hot compression test was carried out in the temperature range of 900-1 200 ℃ and the strain rate range of 0.1-20 s i by using Gleeble 3800 thermal-mechanical simulator, and the corresponding flow curves were obtained. Experimental results show that the flow stress increases with the decrease of deformation temperature and the increase of strain rate. The hot deformation activation energy of G115 steel was determined to be 494 kJ/mol and the constitutive equation was also obtained. For convenience of the practical applica-tion, a good approximate equation was obtained for calculating the peak stress values of Gl15 steel under different deformation conditions. At the strain value of 0.9, natural logarithm of the critical Zener Hollomon parameter Zc of Gl15 steel was determined to be in the scope of 49.67 and 50.65, above which there will be no dynamic recrystalliza-tion （DRX）. And natural logarithm of the critical Zener-Hollomon parameter Zc of Gl15 steel was determined to be in the scopes of 45.58 and 46.27, below which full DRX may occur. Then, the status diagram of dynamic micro structures of G115 steel was established. In addition, the strain rate sensitivity of Gl15 steel is not constant during the test temperature range and it increases linearly from 900 to 1 200 ℃. Therefore, hot deformation at higher tem- peratures would obtain better workability.