Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Abstract
High strength low alloy (HSLA) steels have demonstrated superior mechanical properties through controlled rolling (CR). In
the present investigation, the effects of processing parameters, such as finish rolling temperature, rolling reduction, inter-pass
time and cooling rate, on the final microstructure and mechanical properties of a grade X52 type HSLA steel has been studied
by tensile and charpy impact tests and optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. To yield better mechanical
properties of X52 microalloyed steel grade, the optimization of the rolling process in the laboratory experiment and rolling mill
has been carried out. It has been found that the tensile and impact properties of X52 steel are significantly improved by
controlled rolling in the (a+g) two-phase region. The cause of such improvement in mechanical properties of the control-rolled
steel is correlated with changes in microstructure, i.e. ferrite grain refinement, a large number of subgrains and high dislocation
density. Furthermore, the low carbon contents exhibited by these steels cause evident improvement in their toughness and
weldability. Finally, a controlled rolling process in the (a+g) two-phase region of X52 steel plates has been suggested.
D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Controlled rolling; Controlled cooling; Processing parameters; Microalloying; HSLA steel; Mechanical properties; (a + g) phase
region
0167-577X/02/$ - see front matter D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 6 7 - 5 7 7 X ( 0 2 ) 0 0 4 4 0 - 8
A. Bakkaloğlu / Materials Letters xx (2002) 200–209 201
struction, expensive heat treatments such as quenching on the chemical composition, controlled rolling pa-
and tempering are often needed. For wider application rameters and cooling conditions of the plate [7]. The
of cost-effective high strength steels, physical metal- present work is a laboratory study of the effects of the
lurgists now recommend the substitution of carbon by processing parameters on the microstructure and prop-
other strengthening mechanisms. It is well known that erties of Standard pipeline grade X52 type API HSLA
grain refinement is the most effective means to im- steel.
prove both strength and toughness according to the
d 1/2 law [4]. This grain refinement is obtained by
careful control of the rolling conditions — time, tem- 2. Experimental procedure
perature and deformation during the whole production
process. The controlled rolling process is the industrial The chemical composition of the steel used in this
technology to achieve this aim by combining the sha- investigation is given in Table 1. The steel was supplied
ping process with control of microstructure. by the Erdemir Iron and Steel Factory, Turkey. The
The grain size can be controlled by such factors as steel was melted in a 120-ton oxygen blown converter,
deoxidation practice during steel producing and con- slabbed, and hot rolled into plate on a semicontinuous
trolled rolling. Small additions of Nb, V and Ti also mini-rolling mill. Plate controlled rolling process fol-
induce grain refinement [5]. The austenite grain boun- lowed by controlled cooling tests were carried out on a
daries are major ferrite nucleation sites and, therefore, 250-kN laboratory rolling mill with 160-mm diameter
fine-grained austenite yields fine-grained ferrite. Con- rolls and rolling speed of 13 m min 1. In the present
trolled rolling has produced appreciable grain refine- work, slabs (20150150 mm) were reheated at 1150
ment providing controlled rolled steels with mech- jC for 1 h and were rolled to 7-mm thick plates with six
anical properties comparable to those of more highly passes as two different rolling schedules.
alloyed or heat treated steels. Therefore, it was deci- The controlled rolling schedules used are shown in
ded to investigate the influences of various controlled Fig. 1. The first schedule is: reheating steel to rolling
rolling process, involving deformation in the recrys- temperature, rolling in the recrystallization region,
tallization region, g non-recrystallization and (a + g) rolling in the (g + a) two-phase region, final cooling.
regions, on the structure and properties of a niobium The second schedule is: reheating steel to rolling
containing HSLA steel. temperature, rolling in the g non-recrystallization
Following the great progress of controlled rolling region, rolling in the (a + g) two-phase region, final
practice over the last two decades, accelerated cooling cooling. The difference between these two schedules is
after hot rolling has currently been regarded as a in first stage rolling: the g recrystallization temperature
further advanced thermomechanical treatment in hot range is used in the first schedule and the g non-
rolling process. However, it is very important that recrystallization region in the second schedule [8 –10].
HSLA steel plates with low cost and high quality can It is observed that a total of 10– 20% reduction was
be manufactured using existing rolling mills in terms performed both in the recrystallization and the non-
of thermomechanical processing or so-called thermo- recrystallization regions prior to the final rolling in the
mechanical control process. In general, thermome- (a + g) two-phase region. After the last rolling pass,
chanical control process of plates consists of both the result in total reduction was 35– 40%. The start
controlled rolling and accelerated cooling after hot rolling temperatures of 950 jC for recrystallization
rolling. So, the controlled rolling parameters (reheat- austenite region and 850 jC for non-recrystallization
ing temperature, reduction, deforming temperature, austenite region were used. The finish rolling temper-
inter-pass time) and cooling conditions (cooling rate
and finish cooling temperature) play a particularly
important role [6].
Table 1
The aim of controlled rolling process of micro- Chemical composition of the steel used in investigation (wt.%)
alloyed steels is to obtain required properties by
Steel grade C Mn Si P S Nb V Al Ni
controlling the final microstructure. The final micro-
structure and mechanical properties depend strongly X52/AP15L 0.10 1.04 0.24 0.013 0.005 0.036 0.010 0.039 0.026
202 A. Bakkaloğlu / Materials Letters xx (2002) 200–209
3. Experimental results
Fig. 5. Effect of cooling rate on the ferrite grain size, tensile pro-
perties and impact toughness of steel plate. Final rolling temperature
780 jC and final reduction is 25% (5, schedule 2; D, schedule 1).
The formation of the deformation bands is one of produces a pancake structure [17]. Since the austenite
the principle features of controlled rolling. In the grain boundary are major nucleation sites for ferrite,
conventional hot rolling, alpha-grains nucleate exclu- the austenite grain boundary area is increased, and
sively at the gamma-grain boundaries, whereas in the because fine-grained austenite yields fine grain ferrite
controlled rolling, the alpha-grain nucleation occurs at [18], the result is fine-grained ferrite in the steel control
both the grain interiors and grain boundaries, since the rolled at 740 jC. The transition temperature is lower
deformation band is equivalent to gamma-grain boun- for steel rolled at 740 and 780 jC., as compared to that
dary with regard to the ferrite nucleation, the gamma- rolled at higher temperatures (Fig. 2). As shown in Fig.
grain can be considered as divided into several blocks 3, the steel control rolled according to schedule 2 at
by deformation bands. This division allows one to 760 jC exhibit better toughness than control rolled
produce much more refined grain structure. The sec- according to schedule 1. Deformation at low temper-
ond important feature of the controlled rolling is a ature in the (a + g) region resulted in a mixed grain size
formation of subgrain structure during deformation in and a high dislocation density. The results show that
two-phase region. The smaller the subgrain size, the ferrite, which formed during deformation in the (a + g)
stronger its strengthening effect is. region, does not undergo complete recovery and
recrystallization. As a consequence, the steel has a
higher tensile and yield strength and lower impact
5. Discussion transition temperature. Especially when the rolling
temperature is lower than 800 jC and the degree
5.1. Mechanical properties reduction is 20 – 30%, better mechanical properties
are obtained.
The above experimental results indicate that the To obtain a good combination of toughness and
mechanical properties of rolled steel are closely asso- strength, a fine grain structure is required. Grain size
ciated with the controlled rolling parameters used. As depends on (a) the starting grain size at the austeniz-
shown in Fig. 2, controlled rolling schedule 2 allows ing temperature and (b) the controlled rolling and
to further increase in the tensile and yield strength and subsequent controlled cooling [19]. In the present
simultaneously to decrease the transition temperature work, attention was focused on the second point.
in comparison with controlled rolling schedule 1. On The hot rolling process has gradually become a much
the other hand, the tensile and yield strength of rolled more closely controlled operation and is increasingly
steel increases significantly, but the elongation applied to low alloy steels with compositions carefully
decreased gradually with lowering rolling temperature chosen to provide optimum mechanical properties
within the (a + g) two-phase region. Similarly, impact when the hot deformation is complete. The most
transition decreases with lowering the rolling temper- efficient practical method for implementation of grain
ature from 850 to 740 jC both in the (a + g) two- refinement in high strength low alloy steel is con-
phase region and in the austenite non-recrystallization trolled rolling process. It relies on processing the
region. The tensile and yield strength of the steel austenite in a temperature region of non-recrystalliza-
rolled according to schedule 2 at 740 jC was higher tion, and/or (a + g) region, thus offering more nucle-
than of the steel rolled at 820 jC. For example, when ation sites for the transformation ferrite. In the last two
the rolling temperature was lowered from 850 to 740 decades, several million tons of steel have been
jC, the yield strength of the steel increased from 330 produced every year by applying controlled rolling
to 425 MPa, while the ultimate tensile strength in the metastable austenite region of niobium micro-
increased from 430 to 528 MPa. The elongation alloyed steels [20].
decreased from 38% to 27% and impact transition During hot deformation steel recrystallizes. At
temperature was 35 jC. Similar trend is found in relatively high temperatures, dynamic recrystallization
steel rolled according to schedule 1 as shown in Fig. concurrent with the deformation is favored, while at
2. This is attributed to the finer grain size produced by intermediate rolling temperatures, certain incubation
the lower rolling temperature. It has been reported that time to start the forming of new equiaxed grains,
a low hot rolling temperature in the austenite range called static recrystallization, is needed. The kinetics
206 A. Bakkaloğlu / Materials Letters xx (2002) 200–209
of this process depends on the status of the austenite with the decreasing finish rolling temperature for
(grain size, chemical composition, etc.) and the defor- schedules 1 and 2 rolling processes used in the present
mation parameters (temperature, reduction, strain work. As shown in Fig. 2, when the steel was soaked at
rate), thus determining also the final grain size. If 1150 jC, lowering the rolling temperature from 850 to
the deformation temperature is low enough to sup- 749 jC resulted in a decrease of the average ferrite
press recrystallization, the deformed austenite grains grain size from 20 to 8 Am. The reason for such
remain elongated. During and in between the individ- variation of ferrite grain size with rolling temperature
ual deformation steps, only dynamic and static soft- can be related to the recrystallization of a grains.
ening by recovery is observed. Such a retardation of It is observed that the ferrite grain refinement is
recrystallization occurs already at higher temperatures mostly the result of austenite deformation below the
in higher alloyed steels with microalloying elements recrystallization temperature and accelerated cooling
being very effective in this context [20]. It is well after deformation; both processes increase the nucle-
known that niobium is the most effective element in ation of ferrite phase [22]. Several increase mecha-
retarding the recrystallization of deformed austenite nisms of nucleation rate of ferrite by deformation have
when it was initially in solid solution [21]. Therefore, been put forward. These include an interrelation be-
a finer ferrite grain results from the deformed austen- tween the increased nucleation rate of ferrite with the:
ite. This achievement is maintained also when higher (a) bulges formed by local austenite grain boundary
cooling rates like in accelerated cooling are applied. migration [23], (b) formation of subgrains near the
The greater the cooling rate, the finer the ferrite grain deformation austenite grain boundaries, and (c) strain
size will be Fig. 5 indicates why the combination of energy of the dislocations stored in deformed austen-
controlled rolling plus accelerated cooling is preferred ite [24]. The grain refinement is obtained by control of
in practice. the rolling conditions — time, temperature and defor-
mations during the whole production process. Grain
5.2. Microstructure refinement in steels is enhanced through a combina-
tion of controlled rolling and microalloying. The
The mechanical properties of the control-rolled steel primary grain refinement mechanism in controlled
are related to their microstructures. Ferrite grain size is rolling is the recrystallization of austenite during hot
influenced by rolling parameter in the (a + g) two- deformation. Small additions of alloying elements like
phased region. Figs. 2 and 7 show the effect of rolling Nb, V and Ti result in the formation of carbonitrides in
temperature on ferrite grain size and microstructures. the microstructure. These very fine precipitates are
The final average grain size decreases parabolically effective in preventing grain growth. By the use of
Fig. 7. (a – c) Effect of rolling temperatures on the final microstructure of rolled steel according to schedule 2. Final reduction was 30%: (a) 740
jC, (b) 780 jC, (c) 820 jC.
A. Bakkaloğlu / Materials Letters xx (2002) 200–209 207
Fig. 8. (a – c) Effect of rolling reduction on the final microstructure of rolled steel according to schedule 2. Finish rolling temperature was 740
jC: (a) 15%, (b) 25%, (c) 35%.
controlled rolling, recrystallization is retarded during other hand, substructure appears in ferrite grains when
the last passes. deformation takes place in the (a + g) two-phase
The amount of reduction also has an influence on region. As the reduction increases, the defect density
ferrite size. Fig. 8 shows optical micrographs of steel in ferrite grains become so high that dynamic recovery
control rolled from 740 jC due to the amount of structures finally appear in a grains. As this dynamic
reduction. It can be observed that the grain size of recovery structure is quite stable, it is the main
ferrite decreases with increasing rolling reductions strengthening factor in two-phase region rolling [25].
regardless of which rolling schedule is used. During The microstructure after the control rolling process
rolling in the (a + g) two-phase region, both g and a consists of fine ferrite and transformation phases.
grains are compressed. The g grains are elongated and Control-rolled flat products have a ferritic – perlitic
the a grains transformed from the g become much and ferrite – martensite structure. The optical micro-
finer. Therefore, these a grains in the (a + g) two- structure of X52 steel, rolled at 780 jC according to
phase region are also elongated during rolling and schedule 1 and subsequently cooled at different cool-
also become finer after recrystallization [8]. On the ing rates, is shown in Fig. 9. In the air cooled and
Fig. 9. (a – c) Effect of different cooling rates on the final microstructure of rolled steel according to schedule 1. Finish rolling temperature 780
jC and final reduction was 30%, (a) 5 jC/s, (b) 10 jC/s, (c) 20 jC/s.
208 A. Bakkaloğlu / Materials Letters xx (2002) 200–209
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