Effect of controlled cooling on microstructure and tensile properties of low C Nb-Ti-containing HSLA Steel for construction

Abstract

The thermo-mechanical control processing (TMCP) of low carbon (C) Nb-Ti-containing HSLA steel with different cooling rates from 5 to 20 °C/s was simulated using a Gleeble 3500 system. The samples’ microstructure was characterized and the tensile properties measured. The results show that a microstructure mainly consisting of quasi-polygonal ferrite (QPF), granular bainitic ferrite (GBF), and martensite/austenite (M/A) constituent formed in each sample. Furthermore, the accelerated cooling led to a significant grain refinement of the QPF and GBF, and an increase in the density of dislocations, as well as suppressed the precipitation of nanoscale particles, however, the overall yield strength (YS) still increased obviously. The accelerated cooling also brought about a decrease in amount of M/A constituent acting as a mixed hard phase, which weakened the overall strain-hardening capacity of the QPF + GBF + M/A multiphase steel and simultaneously elevated yield-to-tensile strength ratio (YR). In addition, the mechanisms in dominating the influence of controlled cooling on the final microstructure and tensile properties were discussed.