Materials Science and Engineering A 530 (2011) 530538

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Materials Science and Engineering A
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ msea
Effects of carbon equivalent and cooling rate on tensile and Charpy impact
properties of high-strength bainitic steels
Hyo Kyung Sung
a
, Sang Yong Shin
a
, Byoungchul Hwang
b
, Chang Gil Lee
b
, Nack J. Kim
c
, Sunghak Lee
a,
a
Center for Advanced Aerospace Materials, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, South Korea
b
Ferrous Alloys Group, Korea Institute of Materials Science, Changwon, 641-831, South Korea
c
Graduate Institute of Ferrous Technology, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 790-784, South Korea
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 1 February 2011
Received in revised form 27 July 2011
Accepted 10 October 2011
Available online 17 October 2011
Keywords:
High-strength bainitic steel
Carbon equivalent
Cooling rate
a b s t r a c t
The effects of carbonequivalent and cooling rateontensile and Charpy impact properties of high-strength
bainitic steels were investigated. Eight steel plates were fabricated with varying C, Cr, and Nb additions
under two different cooling rates, and their microstructures, tensile, and Charpy impact properties were
evaluated. Volume fractions of microstructural components present in the steels increased in the order of
granular bainite, acicular ferrite, bainitic ferrite, and martensite as the carbon equivalent or cooling rate
increased, which resulted in decreased ductility and upper shelf energy and increased energy transition
temperature in spite of increased strength. In the steels containing about 50vol.% of bainitic ferrite and
martensite, the tensile strength was about 900MPa, while the elongation and upper shelf energy were
about 20% and 200J, respectively. In order to achieve the best combination of tensile strength, ductility,
and upper shelf energy, e.g., 860900MPa, 20%, and 200J, respectively, granular bainite, and acicular
ferrite were produced by controlling the carbon equivalent and cooling rate, while about 50vol.% of
bainitic ferrite and martensite were maintained to keep the high strength.
2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Structural steels require improved mechanical properties such
as strength, ductility, and toughness, as industries demanding
structural steels have developed quickly. Thick plates of high-
strength high-toughness steels are widely used for large-scale
constructions of buildings, bridges, ships, and industrial plants, and
bainitic and martensitic microstructures are positively utilized in
these steel plates in order to achieve high tensile strength [15].
The addition of alloying elements into these steel plates is a simple
way to obtain the bainitic and martensitic microstructures, but can
easily lead to the abrupt deterioration of ductility and toughness as
well as poor weldability and corrosion resistance [6,7]. Therefore,
the formation of ne low-temperature transformation phases such
as bainite by controlling rolling and cooling conditions, while the
additionof alloyingelements is minimized, havebeenrecentlyused
as a promising methodfor anexcellent combinationof strengthand
toughness [15].
Among alloying elements, carbon is most effective and econom-
ical element for strengthening steels by readily forming martensite
and bainite [8]. Chromium renes grains, and homogeneously dis-
tributes bainitic microstructures, while preventing the formation

Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 54 279 2140; fax: +82 54 279 2399.
E-mail address: shlee@postech.ac.kr (S. Lee).
of martensite [911]. Niobium enhances strength and toughness
simultaneously by forming carbo-nitrides during hot rolling and by
rening austenite grains [12,13]. In addition to the effects of alloy-
ing elements, various and complex microstructures can be formed
by varying cooling conditions, and bainite or martensite is readily
formed with increasing cooling rates [1417]. Thus, the optimiza-
tion of various chemical compositions and cooling conditions can
produce high-strength high-toughness steel plates having bainitic
microstructures. Since bainitic steels have various microstruc-
tures andmechanical properties, depending onprocess parameters
such as chemical compositions and cooling conditions, it is neces-
sary to systematically investigate effects of process parameters on
microstructures and mechanical properties.
Inthepresent study, high-strengthbainitic steel plates werefab-
ricated by varying contents of C, Cr, and Nb and cooling rates, and
their tensileandCharpyimpact properties wereinvestigated. Based
on these test results, the microstructural evolution due to varia-
tions in alloying elements and cooling conditions was understood,
andthecorrelationbetweenmicrostructural factors andtensileand
Charpy impact properties was examined.
2. Experimental
Four high-strength bainitic steels were made by a vacuum
induction melting method, and their chemical compositions were
shown in Table 1. The C1, C2, and C3 steels carbon contents of
0921-5093/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.msea.2011.10.015
H.K. Sung et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 530 (2011) 530538 531
Table 1
Chemical compositions of the high-strength bainitic steels (wt.%).
Steel C Si Mn Ni Mo Cr Nb V Ti Al B N Ceq
a
C1 0.03 0.25 1.9 0.5 0.25 0.2 0.04 0.04 0.015 0.03 0.001 0.003 0.47
C2 0.05 0.2 0.04 0.49
C3 0.07 0.2 0.04 0.51
C4 0.07 0.6 0.06 0.59
a
Ceq (%) =C+Mn/6+Si/24+Ni/40+Cr/5+Mo/4+V/14 [WES 3001].
Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of rolling and cooling conditions of the steels.
0.03, 0.05, and 0.07 weight percent, respectively, and the C4 steel
contains 0.6 weight percent of Cr and 0.06 weight percent of Nb
added into the C3 steel. The carbon equivalent (C
eq
) increases in
the order of the C1, C2, C3, and C4 steels (0.47, 0.49, 0.51, and
0.59 respectively). Eight steel plates were fabricated by different
cooling conditions as shown in Fig. 1. After the austenitization at
1150

C for 1h, rolling was started at about 850

C and nished in
the austenite region above Ar
3
. An overall grain renement effect
was expected by rolling with a high rolling reduction ratio (88%) in
the non-recrystallized region of austenite [7] and the plate thick-
ness was reduced from 100mm to 12mm. The rolled plates were
air-cooleddowntothe start coolingtemperature of 600

Cat a cool-
ing rate of 0.1

C/s, and then were water-cooled at a cooling rate

of 10

C/s to room temperature. In some plates, the cooling rate

was changed to 0.1

C/s at 400

C in order to form a considerable

amount of acicular ferrite (Fig. 1). For convenience, the fast cooling
condition from 600

C and slow cooling condition from 400

C are
referred to as C and D, respectively.
The longitudinal-transverse (L-T) plane of the steel specimens
was polished and etched in a 2% nital solution, and microstructures
were observed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM, model; S-
4300E, Hitachi, Tokyo, Japan). TensileandCharpyimpact specimens
were obtained from the 1/2 thickness location of the rolled plate.
Round tensile specimens having a gage diameter of 6.35mm and
a gage length of 25.4mm were prepared in the transverse direc-
tion, and were tested at room temperature at a crosshead speed
of 5mm/min in a universal testing machine (model; Instron 5582,
Instron, Canton, MA, USA) with 100kN capacity. Charpy impact
tests were performedonstandardCharpy V-notchspecimens (size;
10mm10mm55mm, orientation; transverse-longitudinal (T-
L)) inthe temperature range from196

Cto 25

Cby a Tinius Olsen

impact tester (model: FAHC-J-500-01, JT Toshi, Tokyo, Japan) of
500J capacity. In order to reduce errors in data interpretation, a
regressionanalysis for absorbedimpact energywas conductedwith
a hyperbolic tangent curve tting method [18,19]. Based on the
regression analysis data, the energy transition temperature (ETT)
whichcorresponds to the average value of upper shelf energy (USE)
and lower shelf energy (LSE) was determined.
3. Results
3.1. Microstructure
Fig. 2(ah) is SEM micrographs, obtained with a secondary
electron detector, of the eight steel specimens. Various microstruc-
tures are marked in the micrographs. Their volume fraction was
roughly measured; the results are shown in Table 2. The specimens
are composed of acicular ferrite (AF), bainitic ferrite (BF), granu-
lar bainite (GB), and martensite (M) [6,12,15,2022]. In terms of
the shape and characteristics of microstructures, AF is generally
characterized by ne grain size, irregular-shape, and alignment in
arbitrarydirections [2022]. AFcanbegroupedintopackets accord-
ing to orientations between neighboring laths, and is known as a
microstructure with good combination of strength and toughness
since it has high interior dislocation density and ne grains. GB
is an equi-axed microstructure, contains island-type martensite-
austenite (MA) constituents, and has low toughness because of
relatively large packets [6,12,14]. BF is identied differently by
researchers, [6,12,14] depending on the presence or distribution of
secondary phases such as MA, retained austenite (RA), and cemen-
tite. Mis formedat veryfast coolingrates, andhas highstrengthand
Table 2
Volume fractions of acicular ferrite, granular bainite, bainitic ferrite, and martensite, and typical microstructural indications of the steels.
Steel specimen Volume fraction (%) Microstructural indication
Acicular ferrite Granular bainite Bainitic ferrite Martensite
C1-C 80 20 AF (GB)
a
C2-C 10 10 50 30 Mixed
b
C3-C 50 50 BF +M
C4-C 20 80 M (BF)
a
C1-D 50 50 GB+AF
C2-D 80 20 AF (GB)
a
C3-D 50 20 20 10 Mixed
b
C4-D 50 50 BF +M
a
(); minor phase.
b
Mixed; AF +GB+BF +M.
532 H.K. Sung et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 530 (2011) 530538
Fig. 2. SEM micrographs (L-T plane) of the (a) C1-C, (b) C2-C, (c) C3-C, (d) C4-C, (e) C1-D, (f) C2-D, (g) C3-D, and (h) C4-D steels. Nital etched.
lowtoughness. Eachmicrostructureis classiedintothesemorpho-
logical categories.
Among the C-series (fast cooled) specimens, the C1-C specimen
having lowC
eq
of 0.47% consists of 80vol.% of AF and 20vol.% of GB,
and its grain size is ne (about 5m) (Fig. 2(a)). The C2-C specimen
having C
eq
of 0.49% has the microstructure mixed with 50vol.% of
BF, 30vol.% of M, 10vol.% of AF, and 10vol.% of GB (Fig. 2(b)). Its
overall grain size is large because the sizes of GB and BF are about
H.K. Sung et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 530 (2011) 530538 533
Fig. 3. Room-temperature tensile stressstrain curves of the (a) C-series (fast
cooled) specimens and (b) D-series (slow cooled) specimens. (For interpretation
of the references to color in this gure, the reader is referred to the web version of
the article.)
10m and several tens of micrometers, respectively, although the
sizes of M and AF are ne (about 2m). The C3-C specimen having
increased C
eq
contains BF and M at about 50vol.% each, and the
volume fraction of M is higher than that of the C2-C specimen (Fig.
2(c)). The C4-C specimen containing Cr and Nb consists of 80vol.%
of lath-type M and 20vol.% of BF (Fig. 2(d)). When the D-series
(slowcooled) specimens are compared, the C1-Dspecimenconsists
of GB and AF at about 50vol.% each, and the grain size of GB is
coarse (several tens of micrometers), while the grain size of AF is
relatively ne (about 5m) (Fig. 2(e)). The microstructure of the
C2-D specimen is similar to that of the C1-C specimen, but its grain
size is smaller (Fig. 2(f)). The C3-Dspecimenhas the microstructure
mixed with 50vol.% of AF, 20vol.% of GB, 20vol.% of BF, and 10vol.%
of M(Fig. 2(g)). The microstructure of the C4-D specimen is similar
to that of the C3-C specimen, and the size of M is about 3m (Fig.
2(h)). In general, the volume fraction of microstructures increases
in the order of GB, AF, BF, and Mwith increasing C
eq
or cooling rate.
3.2. Tensile properties
Fig. 3(a and b) shows room-temperature stressstrain curves
and tensile properties obtained from them are listed in Table 3.
All the specimens show continuous yielding behavior, and the
Table 3
Room-temperature tensile properties of the steels.
Steel
specimen
Yield strength
(MPa)
Tensile
strength (MPa)
Elongation
(%)
Yield
ratio
C1-C 624 801 21.0 0.78
C2-C 690 897 19.8 0.77
C3-C 699 961 19.3 0.73
C4-C 844 1059 17.3 0.80
C1-D 604 757 22.5 0.80
C2-D 631 797 23.5 0.79
C3-D 679 867 19.8 0.78
C4-D 700 955 18.3 0.73
strengthof theC-series specimens is higher thanthat of theD-series
specimens, although the elongation is lower. The C1-D specimen
containing GB and AF has lowest strength and high elongation of
22.5%. The C1-C and C2-Dspecimens containing 80vol.% of AF have
higher strength than the C1-D specimen, and their elongations
are excellent (2123.5%). The C2-C and C3-D specimens contain-
ing various mixed microstructures showhigher strength and lower
elongation than the C1-C and C2-D specimens. The strength of the
C3-C and C4-Dspecimens, whose BF volume fraction is higher than
50%, is higher than that of the C2-C and C3-D specimens, and the
elongation ranges from 18.3 to 19.8%. The C4-D specimen contain-
ing 80vol.% of M has the highest strength and lowest elongation.
In general, the strength increases, while the elongation decreases,
with increasing C
eq
or cooling rate.
3.3. Charpy impact properties
Fig. 4(ad) shows the Charpy absorbed energy data as a function
of test temperature, from which the USE and ETT were obtained as
listed in Table 4. The USE and ETT of the C1-D specimen are 272J
and 99

C, respectively, which showexcellent toughness. The C1-

C and C2-Dspecimens also showexcellent USE (270290J) and ETT
(85

C). The C2-C and C3-D specimens have the decreased USE of
190200J, and show a wide range of ETT of 80 to 50

C. The
USE and ETT of the C3-C and C4-D specimens are 150200J and
80 to 50

C, respectively, which shows poor toughness. The C4-

C specimen shows lowUSE (176J) and high ETT (49

C) because it
consists mainly of M. With increasing C
eq
or cooling rate, the USE
decreases, while the ETT increases like in the case of elongation.
In order to investigate the correlation between cleavage facet
size, crack propagation path, and ETT, SEM fractographs of the
Charpy impact specimens fractured at 196

C for the C1-C, C1-

D, C4-C, and C4-D specimens were examined, and the results are
shown in Fig. 5(ad). All the fracture modes are cleavage. Cleav-
age facet sizes of the C1-C and C1-D specimens are very ne at
10mor ner (Fig. 5(a and c)), whereas those of the C4-C and C4-D
specimens are coarse at about several tens of micrometers (Fig. 5(b
and d)). Fig. 6(ad) are SEMmicrographs of the cross-sectional area
beneath the cleavage fracture of the Charpy impact test specimen
fractured at 196

C after Ni coating, and show the crack propaga-

tion path. It is known that the unit crack path in cleavage fracture
Table 4
Charpy impact properties of the steels.
Steel specimen Upper shelf
energy (J)
Energy transition
temperature (

C)
C1-C 274 87
C2-C 198 79
C3-C 148 43
C4-C 176 49
C1-D 272 99
C2-D 290 84
C3-D 192 54
C4-D 168 50
534 H.K. Sung et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 530 (2011) 530538
Fig. 4. Charpy absorbed energy of the (a) C1, (b) C2, (c) C3, and (d) C4 steels in the temperature range from 196

C to room temperature.
propagation is dened as the crack length of almost straight-line
propagation, and that it is in general close to the distance between
two neighboring high-angle grain boundaries [23]. In the C1-C and
C1-Dspecimens, the crack propagation is bent frequently, and thus
the unit crack path is short below 10m (Fig. 6(a and c)), which
leads to the quite low ETT (99 to 87

C) (Table 4). The unit crack

path is long (above 10m) in areas where coarse M and BF are
formed in the C4-C and C4-D specimens (Fig. 6(b and d)). This long
unit crack path results in higher ETT of 50 to 49

C.
4. Discussion
Carbon added to bainitic steels expands the formation range
of austenite, and promotes the formation of bainitic microstruc-
tures. Other alloying elements should be included for maintaining
strength when the C content is lower than 0.03 weight percent,
and the weldability, formability, corrosion resistance, and tough-
ness can be deteriorated by the easy formation of martensite
or bainite when the C content is higher than 0.08 weight per-
cent [6,7]. The addition of Cr lowers the bainite-start temperature
(B
s
), bainite-nish temperature (B
f
), and martensite-start tem-
perature (M
s
), which can prevent the formation of BF and M,
promote the homogeneous distribution of AF and GB, and rene
grains [6,7]. The abundant addition of Cr increases the strength
by forming martensite or other low-temperature transformation
phases, but decreases the toughness. Nb is a powerful element for
grain rening, and improves the strength and toughness simulta-
neously by forming carbonitrides during hot rolling, suppressing
recrystallization, and rening austenite grains [8,12]. In order to
obtain bainitic microstructures, faster cooling rates are needed
in general, and the volume fraction of bainitic microstructures
increases in the order of GB, AF, BF, and M with increasing cooling
rate [6,7,12,22].
Fig. 7 shows bar graphs of volume fractions of bainitic
microstructures. Among the C-series specimens, the C1-C speci-
men does not contain BF or M, and the volume fraction of BF and
M increases in the C2-C through C4-C specimens. In the D-series
specimens, AF is formed more in the C1-D specimen than in the
C2-D specimen, and BF and M are formed in the C3-D and C4-D
specimens. The fraction of AF is higher than that of GB in the C1-C
specimen, and it is similar to that of GB in the C2-C specimen. The
C2-C specimen has the microstructure mixed with AF, GB, BF, and
M, and the C2-Dspecimen has the similar microstructure to the C1-
C specimen as the fraction of AF increases. In the C3-C specimen,
the fraction of M increases without forming AF or GB, and the C3-
D specimen contains a small amount of BF and M. The fraction of
M is highest in the C4-C specimen, and the C4-D specimen mostly
contains BF and M without AF or GB, which results in the similar
structure to the C3-C specimen.
Morphological identication of AF and GB is somewhat difcult.
It was reported that AF was transformed at higher temperatures
and faster cooling rates than GB [6,7,14]. Since AF has more excel-
lent combination of strength and toughness than GB, the formation
of AF is promoted, while the formation of GB is prevented, but the
single microstructure of AF is hardly obtained under conventional
alloying compositions and processing conditions [12,22]. This is
because the transformation rate of AF and GB is quite fast, because
H.K. Sung et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 530 (2011) 530538 535
Fig. 5. SEM fractographs of Charpy impact specimens fractured at 196

C for the (a) C1-C, (b) C4-C, (c) C1-D, and (d) C4-D steels.
Fig. 6. SEM micrographs of the cross-sectional area beneath the cleavage fracture surface of the Charpy impact specimen fractured at 196

C for the (a) C1-C, (b) C4-C, (c)

C1-D, and (d) C4-D steels, showing the crack propagation path. Fractured surfaces were coated with Ni.
536 H.K. Sung et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 530 (2011) 530538
Fig. 7. Bar diagrams showing volume fractions of acicular ferrite, granular bainite,
bainitic ferrite, and martensite present in the steels. The C1-C and C3-C specimens
have a similar microstructure to the C2-D and C4-D specimens, respectively.
the control of sensitively varying rolling and cooling conditions
is difcult, and because cooling conditions are inhomogeneously
varied with plate directions. When the addition of hardenability
elements and cooling conditions are properly controlled, bainitic
microstructures are readily formed, and in this case the formation
of AF or GBcanbe easier thanthat of M. If the C
eq
is higher than0.5%,
MandBF are readily formed, andthe volume fractionof Mincreases
with increasing cooling rate as the M
s
temperature is lowered. The
B
s
and M
s
temperatures are dened by Kirkaldy et al. [24], Andrew
et al. [25], and Kung et al. [26] as follow:
B
s
(

C) = 830 270C 90Mn 37Ni 70Cr 88Mo (1)

M
s
(

C) = 539 423C 30.4Mn 12.1Cr

17.7Ni 7.5Mo +10Co (2)
These equations might be not mathematically correct expres-
sions because they are empirically obtained by a number of
experiments of steels with varied alloying elements. The B
s
and M
s
temperatures of the present steels are calculated to be 550600

C
and 430460

C, respectively. Since all the steels are cooled in the

temperature range of 400600

C at the fast rate of 10

C/s, bainitic
microstructures or martensite are readily formed, and the respec-
tive volume fractions are determined by the difference in cooling
conditions. Whenthe M
s
temperature is set, the amount of marten-
sitic transformation is determined by degree of cooling (T) below
the M
s
temperature. Koistinen and Marburger [27] calculated the
amount of martensitic transformation according to the following
equation:
M
f
= 1 exp{(1.10 10
2
T)} (3)
Fig. 8. (a) Yield and tensile strengths, (b) elongation, (c) upper shelf energy, and (d) energy transition temperature of the steels. Arrow bands show their general trends.
H.K. Sung et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 530 (2011) 530538 537
where T is the degree of cooling below the M
s
temperature.
The volume fraction of M increases with increasing T. Thus, it
increases in the order of the C1, C2, C3, and C4 steels (with increas-
ing C
eq
), and in the order of the D-series and C-series specimens
(with increasing cooling rate).
The strength, elongation, upper shelf energy, and energy tran-
sition temperature of the steels are shown in Fig. 8(ad). Under
the same cooling rate, the volume fraction increases in the order of
GB, AF, BF, and M as the content of C, Cr, and Nb increases. Thus,
the yield and tensile strengths and ETT increase, and the elonga-
tion and USE decrease. Arrowbands showtheir general trends. The
increase in Cr and Nb contents raises the volume fraction of BF and
M, thereby showing highest strength, lowest elongation, low USE,
and high ETT. Under the same alloy composition, the C-series spec-
imens have higher strength and ETT and lower elongation and USE
than the D-series specimens. The variation in mechanical proper-
ties due to the change in carbon equivalent is larger than that due
to the change in cooling condition because the microstructure is
more sensitively changed by the variation in carbon equivalent as
shown in Table 2 and Fig. 7.
Correlations between tensile strength, elongation, USE, and ETT
are shown in Fig. 9(a and b). The present eight steel specimens
can be classied into ve microstructural groups as indicated by
dotted rectangles. The C1-D specimen fabricated under lowest C
eq
and slow cooling rate consists of GB and AF, and thus has low ten-
sile strength of 750MPa and excellent elongation, USE, and ETT of
22%, 250J, and 100

C, respectively. In the C1-C and C2-D spec-

imens, the volume fraction of AF increases, while the fraction of
GB decreases, as the C
eq
and cooling rate increase. Their tensile
strength is about 800MPa, and the elongation and USE are main-
tained high. Under the increased C
eq
and fast cooling rate, as in the
C3-D and C2-C specimens, the microstructures start to be mixed
with BF and M, and the tensile strength increases to 850900MPa,
whereas the elongation and USE decrease. Here, the ETT ranges
wide from 80

C to 50

C according to the effect of variously

mixed microstructures. Under the further increased C
eq
and fast
cooling rate, the C4-D and C3-C specimens contain both BF and M
without GB or AF, and their strength increases to 950MPa, while
the elongation, USE, and ETT are deteriorated. The C4-C specimen
fabricated under highest C
eq
and fast cooling rate consists mainly
of M with a small amount of BF. It has highest tensile strength of
1050MPa, but its elongation, USE, and ETT are poor. Arrow bands
in Fig. 9(a and b) shows general trends of tensile strength, elonga-
tion, upper shelf energy, and energy transition temperature. As the
tensile strength increases, the elongation and USE increase, but the
ETT increases. It is interesting that the range of mechanical prop-
erties seems to be wide in the specimens having variously mixed
microstructures.
High-strength bainitic steels have various microstructures and
subsequent mechanical properties accordingtothevariationincar-
bon equivalent and cooling condition, and the correlation between
microstructure, strength, elongation, USE, and ETT can be obtained
from the detailed microstructural analysis in the present study.
The strength increases in the order of volume fraction of GB, AF,
BF, and M, and the elongation and USE are oppositely related with
the strength. In the steel specimens containing 50vol.% of BF and
M or more, the tensile strength is very high, while the elongation
and USE are maintained good, but the ETT is moderate. In order to
develop high-strength bainitic steels having excellent combination
of strength and toughness, the formation of bainitic microstruc-
tures mixed with GB and AF, while the total volume fraction of
BF and M is maintained at about 50vol.%, is needed. It is desirable
to utilize appropriate carbon equivalents and cooling conditions
for variously mixed bainitic microstructures, as in the C2-C and
C3-D specimens. These results are useful for the development of
high-strength bainitic steels which can be applied to large-scale
Fig. 9. Relationships between tensile strength and (a) elongation and upper shelf
energyand(b) energytransitiontemperature. Theeight steels canbeclassiedinto5
microstructural groups as indicatedby dottedrectangles. Arrowbands showgeneral
trends of elongation, upper shelf energy, and energy transition temperature.
constructions requiring high toughness as well as high strength. In
the future, more systematic studies on optimization of microstruc-
tures for improved mechanical properties via control of alloying
compositions and cooling conditions are required.
5. Conclusions
In this study, eight high-strength bainitic steel plates were fab-
ricated by varying carbon equivalent and cooling rate, and effects
of microstructure on tensile and Charpy impact properties were
investigated.
(1) Bainitic microstructures were inuenced by varying carbon
equivalent and cooling rate. The volume fraction of microstruc-
tures increased in the order of GB, AF, BF, and Mwith increasing
carbon equivalent or cooling rate. Grains of AF and Mwere ne
in general, but those of GB and BF were coarse.
(2) As the carbon equivalent or cooling rate increased, the yield
and tensile strengths and ETT increased, and the elongationand
USE decreased. The variation in mechanical properties due to
the change in carbon equivalent was larger than that due to
the change incoolingconditionbecause the microstructure was
more sensitively changed by the variation in carbon equivalent.
(3) In the steel specimens containing about 50vol.% of BF and M,
the tensile strength was about 900MPa, while the elongation
and upper shelf energy were about 20% and 200J, respectively.
538 H.K. Sung et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 530 (2011) 530538
In order to develop high-strength bainitic steels having excel-
lent combination of tensile strength, ductility, and upper shelf
energy, e.g., 860900MPa, 20%, and 200J, respectively, the for-
mationof bainitic microstructures mixedwithGBandAF, while
the total volume fraction of BF and M was maintained at about
50%, was needed.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Ministry of Knowledge Econ-
omy under a contract number of M2007010007. Authors are
grateful to Mr. Seok Su Sohn of POSTECH for his helpful fabrication
and microstructural analysis of the steel specimens.
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