Effect of intercritical annealing of normalised Nb-Ti-V microalloyed plate steel on microstructural evolution

Abstract

A homogeneous microstructure is required for consistent mechanical properties in normalised Nb-Ti-V microalloyed plate steels. Frequently, as-hot rolled microalloyed plate steels have a banded microstructure that is persistent even after normalising heat treatment (NHT), and this leads to inconsistencies and some scatter in mechanical properties. Therefore, this work focused on the influence of single-cycle normalising heat treatment (SNHT), double-cycle normalising heat treatment (DNHT) followed by intercritical annealing normalising heat treatment (INHT) on the homogenisation and mitigation of a banded microstructure. The study was conducted on a 0.13C-Nb-Ti-V plate steel grade. The as-hot rolled microstructure was banded and had a 1.13 Anisotropy Index (AI) value. Results from the three thermal cycles revealed that the DNHT and INHT mitigated the pearlite microstructural banding and gave a more homogenized pearlite phase distribution throughout the microstructure, unlike the SNHT that retained the banding. The DNHT also exhibited the finest ferrite grain size, while the INHT exhibited the coarsest. From Vickers hardness measurements (153±5.8 HV, 157±3.6 HV and 166±4.5 HV), the UTS was approximately deduced as, 480, 490 and 530 MPa for the SNHT, DNHT and INHT respectively.