Papers by Keyword: Low Carbon Steel

Abstract: The microstructure evolution and precipitation behavior of two low carbon steels are studied, with 0.05C-0.77%Nb added in one steel and (0.03C-)1.63Cu-0.74%Nb added in the other as a comparison. In the Cu-Nb steel tempered at 600°C for 18 hrs, there are two peaks in the particle size distribution figure, one between 2-3nm formed by NbCN precipitates, and the other, 10-12nm for Cu precipitates. The TEM observation on carbon replica shows that the average particle diameter of NbCN precipitate is 2.81±0.78nm in C-Nb steel, while 4.23±0.95 nm in Cu-Nb steel with lower carbon. The analysis shows that this size increase of NbCN not only decreases the precipitation strengthening, but also weakens significantly the pinning effect on the dislocations, which results in a more serious microstructure softening in Cu-Nb steel.

Abstract: No clear-cut information is available with regard to the effect of foreign atoms on the solubility limit of C in b.c.c. iron despite many previous studies. Against this backdrop, the influence of substitutional atoms (Mn, Cr, P, Si, Al) on the solubility limit of C in b.c.c. iron in equilibrium with cementite was investigated in low-carbon steels at a temperature of 700°C. In detail, the C solubility limit was determined from internal friction measurements combined with infrared analysis of C using a high-frequency combustion technique. It has been clarified that Mn, Cr, and Al hardly change the C solubility limit, whereas P and Si increase it. The thermodynamical calculation indicates that, under para equilibrium Si increases the C solubility limit and Mn hardly changes it, while under ortho equilibrium Mn and Si decrease it. However, the present experimental condition was verified to be close to ortho form. The discrepancy between the experiments and the calculations seems to come from the fact that: 1) single solute C atoms and the C atoms combined as Substitute-C complex are not distinguished experimentally, and 2) in the regular solution model, the non-uniform distribution of C atoms around alloying atoms is not introduced into the entropy term, which is something that should be studied further in the future.

Abstract: 2-D cellular automaton model was developed to simulate the dynamic strain-induced transformation (DSIT) from austenite (γ) to ferrite (α) and the post-dynamic kinetic behavior in a low carbon steel with the purpose of developing a methodology of mesoscopic computer simulation for an improved understanding of the formation of ultra-fine ferrite (UFF) in DSIT and the conservation of this microstructure during the post-deformation period. The predicted microstructure obtained after DSIT was compared with a quenched dual-phase steel. Its microstructure, consisting of fine-grained ferrite and fine islands of retained austenite dispersed in the matrix, were found to be in good agreement with the predictions. The simulated results indicate that the refinement of ferrite grains produced via DSIT can be interpreted in terms of unsaturated nucleation and limited growth mechanisms. It is also revealed that continuing transformation from retained austenite to ferrite and the reverse transformation both could take place simultaneously during the post-deformation isothermal holding. A competition between them exists at the early stage of the post-dynamic transformation.

Abstract: Warm rolled deformation is one of deformation technique to improve the strength of steels through the refining grain size of ferritic microstructure. In application, low carbon steel which used in structural industry need some protection against corrosion attack, cathodic protection is usually applied combining with coating. Cathodic protection creates reduction reaction which produces hydrogen, and the hydrogen atom may diffuse into the crystal lattice lead to the Hydrogen Induced Cracking. The present study is to observe the morphology of microstructure influenced by hydrogen charging as the source of hydrogen which attacks the steel surface, and observed by Optical Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy. After warm rolling of 650oC and 35% deformation, ferrite grain size is smaller than bulk material and the hardness value increasing. After tensile test of hydrogen charged steel found the ductile fracture, it means the smaller the ferrite grains size, the resistance of hydrogen attack is increase.

Abstract: Low carbon steel is widely used in industries due to its low cost and easy to recycle. However, the low carbon steel is also known that easily attacked by environment and low strength compared with other kinds of steel. Therefore, several surface coating and treatment techniques are employed to improve its properties. This study was aimed to investigate influence of combined processes between gas soft nitriding and gas carburizing on the hardness of low carbon steel. The specimen was normalized by normalizing and shot blasting. Then the specimen was treated by gas carburizing, gas carbonitriding and combined processes between gas soft nitriding and gas carburizing. It was found that the combined processes yielded the good surface hardness and total case depth compared to other conditions. The most advantage of the combined processes could be considered to be very small variation of hardness.

Abstract: The phase transformation during continuous cooling in low carbon steel has been widely measured by dilatometer using the lever rule. However, the concept of lever rule has several limitations. In low carbon steels, it is observed that overlapped transformation region of multi-phase and inflection point of small amount of low temperature phase is hardly differentiated. First derivatives of LVDT during continuous cooling could be better way to identify the inflection point and transformation region of phases (especially low temperature phase). Furthermore, first derivative of LVDT could be expressed as the lattice parameter and phase fraction due to temperature. Therefore, phase transformation behavior is simulated by the analysis of first derivative of LVDT using Avrami equation from experimental LVDT. As a result, the start, finish temperature and the amount of each phase are determined. The method is also confirmed by OM and SEM.

Abstract: In order to study about dynamic transformation phenomenon, Fe-6Ni-0.1C alloy was hot-deformed in uniaxial compression using thermo-mechanical simulator at various temperatures ranging from 600 to 1000 °C at various strain rates from 0.001 to 1 s^-1 after austenitization. As the value of Zener-Hollomon (Z) parameter increased, softening of the stress from the empirically expected value, which was extrapolated from stresses deformed at low Z value, was observed through systematical analysis of peak stresses. It suggested that this softening phenomenon was attributed to the dynamic transformation, since ferrite is softer than austenite at elevated temperature. The microstructural observation also supported that ferritic transformation occurred during compressive deformation. Even above Ae₃ temperature the softening of the peak stress of austenite was still observed, which implied that dynamic ferritic transformation might occur above Ae₃ temperature.

Abstract: Influence of ultrasonic wave, argon blowing agitating and their coordinated treatment on nitrogen content in low carbon steel was mainly studied. Results showed that ultrasonic wave, argon blowing or their coordinated treatment can all reduce the nitrogen content in low carbon molten steel. While treated with ultrasonic wave separately, removal rate of the nitrogen in molten steel is relatively low with 3.13%~9.04%. Using the argon blowing agitating separately, removal rate of the nitrogen in molten steel is relatively high with 6.89%~32.68%, when the argon blowing flow is 0.5 l/min, removal rate of nitrogen is 32.68%. The nitrogen removal effect of the ultrasonic wave-argon blowing agitating coordinated treatment is considerably improved than that of separately ultrasonic treatment. While 300 W ultrasonic wave and 0.5l/min argon blowing agitating cooperatively treatment on the low carbon molten steel, the removal rate of nitrogen is 26.95%.

Abstract: A Fe-0.05C-2.94Mn-1.87Si steel is heat treated using a two-stage isothermal holding process to obtain allotriomorphic ferrite and bainite. Two kinds of allotriomorphic ferrite are obtained, one with only carbon partitioning and the other, alloying element partitioning. It is observed that the allotriomorphic ferrite stimulates the adjacent bainite to select the similar variant on the side where near K-S relationship is maintained between ferrite and prior austenite. The longer the border length of the allotriomorphic ferrite, the larger the stimulated bainite area. The statistical measurement shows that the alltriomorhpic ferrite with alloying element partitioning stimulates such bainite variant selection as well as that with only carbon partitioning.

Abstract: In this work structured sheet metals were investigated using electrochemical measurement techniques. The main purpose is obtaining fundamental information about the corrosion resistance of structured sheet metals in comparison to smooth sheet metals as well determination of the influence of the structuring process on the corrosion properties. The corrosion resistance of structured sheet metals is affected by manufacturing process. One of the main influence factors is the change of the surface roughness. In this study the low carbon steel DC04 and the stainless steel 304 (X5CrNi18-10) were investi-gated. The electrochemical tests were carried out in 3%-NaCl solution. Potentiodynamic linear polarization was used to determine such electrochemical characteristics as the free corrosion potential, the corrosion current, the pitting and protection potential. Furthermore, the corrosion rate was calculated for smooth and structured sheet metals of the low carbon steel DC04. For the stainless steel 304 the pitting density was estimated. The surface roughness was measured for both materials. The electrochemical corrosion tests show a small difference in the corrosion behaviour of structured and smooth sheet metals. Structured sheet metals have a lower corrosion resistance than smooth sheet metals. The steel DC04 shows the worst corrosion properties at the structure location “negative” in comparison to the structure location “positive”. The corrosion resistance of the stainless steel 304 is better at the structure location “negative” than at the structure location “positive”. Moreover, the results show the correlation between the surface roughness and the corrosion resistance for structured sheet metals.