The size effect of martensite laths and precipitates on high strength wear-resistant steels

Low alloy high strength wear resistant steels are with high toughness, low cost and good abrasion resistance. It can effectively resist the propagation of wear cracks and prolong the service life of machine components. This paper focuses on the internal relationship between macroscopic physical properties and microscopic martensite lath and precipitate size throughout thickness of wear resistant steel. Four kinds of 40mm thickness wear resistant steels with different alloy chemical composition were produced and investigated. Results show the strength and hardness performance of ARIV are obviously higher than other three steels. ARI have a relatively large strength difference through thickness. The impact toughness of ARIV is relatively uniform, which is greater than that of the ARIII at middle layer and lower than that of the ARIII at 1/4 layer. The width of martensite lath of ARIV is relatively small, mainly 100 ~ 300 nm，while that of ARII and ARIII is mainly 200 ~400 nm. ARIV steel has shorter martensite lath band and more precipitates below 50 nm. It indicates that the size of martensite laths and precipitates of wear-resistant steels are important factors to determine its performance throughout thickness.

Influence of the Evolution of 9CrMoCoB Steel Precipitates on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties during High-Temperature Aging

In this study, the short-term aging was carried out to reveal the evolution of precipitates and mechanical properties of heat resistant 9CrMoCoB steel during the early creep, replacing the conventional creeping. The tempered martensite lath structure (TMLS) and precipitates were observed in the as-aged 9CrMoCoB steel. TMLS in the matrix underwent a transition to the polygonal ferrite after aging only for 300 h. In comparison, the mean diameter of the precipitates increased from 183 to 267 nm after aging at 650 °C for 300 h. Also, the mean diameter of the precipitates increased from 183 to 302 nm at 700 °C. The room-temperature and high-temperature strength of 9CrMoCoB steel decreased after high-temperature aging, which may be mainly due to precipitates coarsening. Many M23C6 phases precipitate in the prior austenite grain boundary (PAGB) and lath boundary. After aging 100 h, TMLS transformed into polygonal ferrite, and the size of the precipitate at the subgrain boundary was about 100 nm, while after 300 h of high-temperature aging, large precipitates appear (400 nm) in the matrix. After 200 h of high-temperature aging, the obvious growth of precipitates on the PAGB and lath boundary weakens the pinning effect on the PAGB and martensite lath boundary and accelerates the transformation of microstructure and mechanical properties.

KARAKTERISASI KEKERASAN DAN STRUKTUR MIKRO BAJA AISI 410 PADA PROSES TEMPERING DENGAN VARIASI MEDIA PENDINGIN

In AISI 410 steel, the characteristic changes observed in this study were the value of hardness, and microstructure shape. Material samples heated on temperature 9000C and held for 45 minutes, with cooling medium variation used are water, used oil, and SAE 20W-50 oil. In the process, tempering the material sample returns heated on 3000C and held for 15 minutes, then cooled in the room open. The results showed that the microstructure formed in AISI 410 steel after heat treatment is martensite lath, ferrite and austenite. From the results has been obtained, that the quenching process with a variety of cooling media used and followed by the tempering process can affect the shape of the microstructure of AISI 410 steel, changes that occur are increase in the hardness value of the material. The results showed that the sample quenching water had the highest hardness is 378 HV, followed by quenching of SAE 20W-50 oil and used oil with grades of 377 and 362 HV, respectively. The increase in hardness value occurs due to changes in the micro structure that occur due to the heat treatment process. The increase in the value of hardness that occurred in the material was 143.7%.

Inhibition Effect of Ti on the Formation of Martensite Lath in 14Cr Oxide Dispersion Strengthened Steel

Three model powders defined as MP powders (milled pre-alloyed powders), mixed powders (MX, 50 wt.% MP powders + 50 wt.% Oxide-Dispersion Strengthened powders) and Oxide Dispersion Strengthened (ODS) powders (alloyed pre-alloyed powders with the addition of Ti and Y2O3) are obtained under identical ball milling parameters. These powders are then consolidated under same sintering condition by spark plasma sintering (SPS) in order to investigate the formation mechanism of martensite lath in the MP steel and the effect of Ti on the stability of ferrite. The results indicate that the addition of Y2O3 and Ti powders can act as friction material during the mechanical alloying process, thus promoting the refinement effect. The formation of martensite lath in the MP steel is attributed to the local Cr depletion resulted from the large amounts of M23C6 precipitation. Ti possesses a strong affinity to C and long range diffusion ability, which efficiently prevents the martensite lath formation and local Cr depletion. Present study supports the conclusion that the lack of martensite in the MX and ODS steel is due to the addition of Ti. Secondary phases in these steels are identified and analyzed as well.

A Modified Microstructure-Based Creep Damage Model for Considering Prior Low Cycle Fatigue Damage Effects

A modified continuum damage mechanics (CDM) model was proposed to predict the creep behavior of P92 steel with prior low cycle fatigue (LCF) damage. In order to investigate the damage mechanisms of prior LCF, microstructural observations of P92 steel after various prior LCF and subsequent creep exposures were performed. Results show that the key creep degradation is associated with the martensite lath recovery. Based on the physics of microstructural evolutions, three state variable formulas which represent damage mechanisms related to martensite lath recovery were employed to account for the prior LCF damage. The three state variable formulas which describe the damage evolution with prior LCF cycles were coupled with Hayhurst CDM model. The main advantage of the modified CDM creep model lies in its ability to directly predict creep behavior with different levels of prior LCF damage. The only parameter needed to be known for the prediction is the martensite lath width after prior LCF. Comparison of the predicted and experimental results shows that the proposed model can give a reasonable prediction for creep behavior. Moreover, this model also shows good predictive ability at different strain amplitudes of prior LCF.

Microstructural Evaluation of 9Cr-3W-3Co-Nd-B Heat-Resistant Steel (SAVE12AD) After Long-Term Creep Deformation

The new ferritic heat-resistant steel composed of 9Cr-3W-3Co-Nd-B, registered as ASME Code Case 2839, has been developed for large diameter and heavy wall thickness pipes and forgings of fossil-fired power boilers. The steel, which contains 0.01 mass% boron, a small amount of neodymium, and optimized amounts of nitrogen, is characterized by the superior long-term creep strengths of both the base metal and welded joint. P92 had equiaxed subgrain structures changed from martensite lath structures and coarsened M23C6 type carbides after long-term creep. In contrast, the developed steel, SAVE12AD, maintained martensite lath structures with fine M23C6 along the boundaries even after the long-term creep stage. The addition of high amounts of boron suppressed the coarsening of M23C6 along the boundaries, thereby stabilizing the martensite lath structure in the base metal of the steel. Consequently, SAVE12AD had higher creep rupture strength than other high chromium ferritic steels. To investigate the creep rupture strength of welded joints, two welded joints with Ni-based alloy and Grade 92 welding filler wires were prepared by automatic gas tungsten arc welding. The creep rupture strength of each welded joint showed small degradation compared with the base metal in the long-term creep stage over 10,000 hours. These were ruptured 1.5 mm away from the fusion line, which was the same area as Type IV cracking. Microstructural observations were carried out by electron back scatter diffraction analysis using simulated heat-affected zone samples at different peak temperatures from 750 °C to 1350 °C in order to clarify the microstructure in the heat-affected zone. No fine grain area was observed in the microstructure after the simulated heat-affected zone at 910 °C just above AC3 transformation temperature, although there were fine grains along prior austenite grain boundaries, which seemed to form with the diffusion transformation. The creep cracks seemed to have initiated from the fine grain structures, resulting in the rupture at the same area as Type IV cracking. However, the creep rupture strength degradation of the welded joints against the base metal was significantly smaller than that of conventional steel welded joints owing to the suppression of fine grains found in the heat-affected zone heated around AC3 temperature. The developed 9Cr-3W-3Co-Nd-B steel (SAVE12AD) will be used for large diameter and heavy wall thickness pipes and forgings in 600 °C ultra super critical power plants.

Combination of Microstructural Investigation and Simulation during the Heat Treatment of a Creep Resistant 11% Cr-Steel

This work deals with the microstructural evolution of creep resistant martensitic/ferritic 11% Cr-steel during thermomechanical treatment from an experimental as well as modeling point of view. The creep resistance of this material group is highly dependent on the precipitate status. The initial precipitate status is controlled by the chemical composition of the alloy and the heat treatment after casting or hot rolling. It is therefore of utmost interest to understand and model the precipitate kinetics during this process. Once the microstructural evolution has been modeled successfully, only minimum effort is required to computationally test variants in the composition or heat treatment in order to optimize the process. In this work, the material was hot rolled, austenitized and subsequently annealed. All heat treatments have been performed during dilatometry tests. In order to investigate the microstructural evolution during the process, specimens were extracted at definite stages of the treatment. The specimens were then investigated applying various microscopical techniques in order to quantify the microstructural features (grain size, martensite lath width and precipitate data). The experimental data were then compared to thermodynamic simulations (MatCalc). General data such as nucleation sites for precipitates were taken from literature, grain size and martensite lath widths from the experimental data. Simulations include equilibrium calculations and precipitate kinetic simulations. In general, the simulations showed good agreement with the experimental findings, with minor room for improvements. The work thus lays a solid ground for future improvements of the heat treatment process.