Hyo Kyung Sung

Effects of Cooling Conditions on Microstructure, Tensile Properties, and Charpy Impact Toughness of Low-Carbon High-Strength Bainitic Steels

In this study, four low-carbon high-strength bainitic steel specimens were fabricated by varying finish cooling temperatures and cooling rates, and their tensile and Charpy impact properties were investigated. All the bainitic steel specimens consisted of acicular ferrite, granular bainite, bainitic ferrite, and martensite-austenite constituents. The specimens fabricated with higher finish cooling temperature had a lower volume fraction of martensite-austenite constituent than the specimens fabricated with lower finish cooling temperature. The fast-cooled specimens had twice the volume fraction of bainitic ferrite and consequently higher yield and tensile strengths than the slow-cooled specimens. The energy transition temperature tended to increase with increasing effective grain size or with increasing volume fraction of granular bainite. The fast-cooled specimen fabricated with high finish cooling temperature and fast cooling rate showed the lowest energy transition temperature among the four specimens because of the lowest content of coarse granular bainite. These findings indicated that Charpy impact properties as well as strength could be improved by suppressing the formation of granular bainite, despite the presence of some hard microstructural constituents such as bainitic ferrite and martensite-austenite.

Charpy Impact Properties of Heat Affected Zones of API X80 Linepipe Steels Containing Complex Oxides

This study assessed the Charpy impact properties of the heat-affected zones (HAZs) of API X80 linepipe steels containing complex oxides. Three types of steel were fabricated by adding Mg and O2 to form complex oxides and their microstructures and Charpy impact properties were investigated. The number of complex oxides increased with the amount of excess Mg and O2 that was included in the steels. Simulated HAZs containing a number of oxides showed a high volume fraction of acicular ferrite (AF) because the oxides acted as nucleation sites for AF, thereby leading to an improvement in the Charpy impact properties. According to a correlation study between the heat input, the volume fraction of the AF, and the Charpy impact properties, ductile fractures occurred predominantly when the fraction of the AF was 20% or higher; moreover, the Charpy absorbed energy was excellent at more than 100 J. These findings suggest that the improvement of the Charpy impact properties of the HAZs was associated with the active nucleation of AF in the oxidecontaining steel HAZs. (Received March 17, 2010)

Effects of C and Si on strain aging of strain-based API X60 pipeline steels

Four types of strain-based API X60 pipeline steels were fabricated by varying the C and Si contents, and the effects of C and Si on strain aging were investigated. The 0.05 wt% C steels consisted mainly of polygonal ferrite (PF), whereas the 0.08 wt% C steels consisted of acicular ferrite (AF). The volume fraction of AF increased with increasing C content because C is an austenite stabilizer element. The volume fractions of bainitic ferrite (BF) of the 0.15 wt% Si steels were higher than those of the 0.25 wt% Si steels, whereas the volume fractions of the secondary phases were lower. From the tensile properties before and after the aging process of the strainbased API X60 pipeline steels, the yield strength increased and the uniform and total elongation decreased, which is the strain aging effect. The strain aging effect in the strain-based API X60 pipeline steels was minimized when the volume fraction of AF was increased and secondary phases were distributed uniformly. On the other hand, an excessively high C content formed fine precipitates, and the strain aging effect occurred because of the interactions among dislocations and fine precipitates.