EFFECT OF THE CONTROLLED ROLLING CONTROLLED COOLING ON STRENGTH AND DUCTILITY OF THE BAINITE MICRO ALLOYED ENGINEERING STEEL

The continuous cooling transformation of hot deformation austenite austenite of test steel and the effect of different processing schedules of controlled rolling and controlled cooling on the strength and ductility have been studied. The theory and the experiment base are presented for controlled rolling and controlled cooling of the SBL micro alloyed engineering steel.

Effect of endogenous hydrogen utilization on improved methane production in an integrated microbial electrolysis cell and anaerobic digestion： Employing catalyzed stainless steel mesh cathode

Improving the production of methane, while maintaining a significant level of process stability, is the main challenge in the anaerobic digestion process. Recently, microbial electrolysis cell(MEC) has become a promising method for CO_2 reduction produced during anaerobic digestion(AD) and leads to minimize the cost of biogas upgrading technology. In this study, the MEC-AD coupled reactor was used to generate and utilize the endogenous hydrogen by employing biocompatible electrodeposited cobalt-phosphate as catalysts to improve the performance of stainless steel mesh and carbon cloth electrodes. In addition, the modified version of ADM1 model(ADM1 da) was used to simulate the process. The result indicated that the MEC-AD coupled reactor can improve the CH_4 yield and production rate significantly. The CH_4 yield was enhanced with an average of 48% higher than the control. The CH_4 production rate was also increased 1.65 times due to the utilization of endogenous hydrogen.The specific yield, flow rate, content of CH_4, and p H value were the variables that the model was best at predicting(with indexes of agreement: 0.960/0.941, 0.682/0.696, 0.881/0.865, and 0.764/0.743) of the process with SSmeshes 80/SS-meshes 200, respectively. Employing the catalyzed SS mesh cathode, in the MEC-AD coupled reactor, could be an effective approach to generate and facilitate the utilization of endogenous hydrogen in anaerobic digestion of CH_4 production technology, which is a promising and feasible method to scale up to the industrial level.

Reverse metallurgical engineering towards sustainable manufacturing of vehicles using Nb and Mo alloyed high performance steels

Steel is the dominant construction material for most industrial goods such as equipments, structures, buildings or vehicles. Although there have been great advances in steel technology over the last 4 decades, the industry currently faces serious sustainability challenges with regard to energy conservation, reduction of CO2 emission and a generally more efficient use of resources. The principal connotation in this respect is increasing steel strength allowing to reduce component weight. However, it is also necessary considering in how far the modified steel properties interfere with typical manufacturing techniques established in the processing chain. A feasible method in this sense is a reverse approach starting from detailed knowledge of the manufacturing process and translating it back into the most suitable metallurgical and microstruc- tural design of steel. Modifying steels towards better manufacturing performance typically involves innovative alloying and metallurgical processing concepts. Niobium and molybdenum are two of the most powerful alloying elements in helping to adapt microstructures and properties with regard to downstream manufacturing processes. This paper will highlight several examples how a reverse met- allurgical engineering approach can be successfully applied to optimize the efficiency of subsequent manufacturing processes with a focus on the automotive industry.

Effect of Mo content on nano-scaled particles,prior austenite grains and impact toughness of CGHAZ in offshore engineering steels

The effect of Mo on nano-scaled particles,prior austenite grains and impact toughness of coarse-grained heat-affected zone(CGHAZ)in offshore engineering steels with Ca deoxidation was studied.The heat-affected zone(HAZ)toughness of Mo16 steel is obviously higher than that of Mo8 steel at all the heat inputs of 50,100,150 and 200 kJ/cm,with HAZ toughness of both steels decreased with increasing the welding heat input.When the Mo content is increased from 0.08 to 0.16%,the size of nano-scaled particles in HAZ is decreased from 18 to 15 nm,and their number density is increased from 0.7 to 0.9μm^(−2).Thus,the Zener pinning force is increased,and the prior austenite grain size(PAGS)is decreased,leading to the improved HAZ toughness.Microstructural characterizations show that the nano-scaled particles in both steels are Ti(C,N)with the solute elements of Nb and Mo.The calculated critical particle size of TiN is 10.2 and 8.4 nm in Mo8 and Mo16 steels at 1350℃,and the particles larger than the critical size are stable during the welding process.From the Zener pinning force calculation,Ti(C,N)particles play the more important role in the pinning effect on the prior austenite grain growth.Based on the regression analysis by the MATLAB results,the predicted values of PAGS at different heat inputs are well fitted with the experimental data.

Dependence of corrosion resistance on grain boundary characteristics in a high nitrogen CrMn austenitic stainless steel

Processing schedules for grain boundary engineering involving different types of cold deformation（tension, compression, and rolling） and annealing were designed and carried out for 18Mn18Cr0.6N high nitrogen austenitic stainless steel. The grain boundary characteristic distribution was obtained and characterized by electron backscatter diffraction（EBSD） analysis. The corrosion resistance of the specimens with different grain boundary characteristic distribution was examined by using potentiodynamic polarization test. The corrosion behavior of different types of boundaries after sensitization was also studied.The fraction of low-∑ boundaries decreased with increasing strain, and it was insensitive to the type of cold deformation when the engineering strain was lower than 20%. At the strain of 30%, the largest and smallest fractions of low-∑ boundaries were achieved in cold-tensioned and rolled specimens, respectively. The fraction of low-∑ boundaries increased exponentially with the increase of grain size. The proportion of low-∑ angle grain boundaries increased with decreasing grain size. Increasing the fraction of low-∑ boundaries could improve the pitting corrosion resistance for the steels with the same grain size.After sensitization, the relative corrosion resistances of low-∑ angle grain boundaries, ∑3 boundaries, and ∑9 boundaries were 100%, 95%, and 25%, respectively, while ∑27 boundaries, other low-∑ boundaries and random high-angle grain boundaries had no resistance to corrosion.

Alloy design by dislocation engineering

Ultra-high strength alloys with good ductility are ideal materials for lightweight structural application in various industries. However, improving the strength of alloys frequently results in a reduction in ductility, which is known as the strength-ductility trade-off in metallic materials. Current alloy design strategies for improving the ductility of ultra-high strength alloys mainly focus on the selection of alloy composition （atomic length scale） or manipulating ultra-fine and nano-grained microstructure （grain length scale）. The intermediate length scale between atomic and grain scales is the dislocation length scale. A new alloy design concept based on such dislocation length scale, namely dislocation engineering, is illustrated in the present work. This dislocation engineering concept has been successfully substantiated by the design and fabrication of a deformed and partitioned （D＆P） steel with a yield strength of 2,2 GPa and an uniform elongation of 16%. In this D＆P steel, high dislocation density can not only increase strength but also improve ductility. High dislocation density is mainly responsible for the improved yield strength through dislocation forest hardening, whilst the improved ductility is achieved by the glide of intensive mobile dislocations and well-controlled transformation-induced plasticity （TRIP） effect, both of which are governed by the high dislocation density resulting from warm rolling and martensitic transformation during cold rolling. In addition, the present work proposes for the first time to apply such dislocation engineering concept to the quenching and partitioning （Q＆P） steel by incorporating a warm rolling process prior to the quenching step, with an aim to improve simultaneously the strength and ductility of the Q＆P steel. It is believed that dislocation engineering provides a new promising alloy design strategy for producing novel strong and ductile alloys.