Effect of sulfur content on the properties and MnS morphologies of DH36 structural steel

Abstract

The behavior of MnS, a significant non-metallic inclusion in steel with low sulfur content, is poorly understood, in particular, how the MnS inclusion becomes a favorable secondary phase. To clarify how the sulfur content in DH36 structural steel affects the behaviors of MnS, and the steel properties, samples containing 20–380 ppm sulfur were melted, and the ingots were rolled in a semi-industrial single-roll mill. According to experiments using optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), an automatic inclusion analysis system, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the morphology of MnS inclusions changed from thread-shaped to spherical-or spindle-shaped with decreasing sulfur content, and their size and number also decreased. The steel with 20 ppm S contained much more nanoscale MnS, whose pinning effect created a fine grain size in the steel. The reason is that the temperatures of maximum nucleation rate and fastest precipitation of MnS in this sample (900° C and 920° C, respectively) are much lower than the soaking temperature. Compared to samples with 70–380 ppm sulfur, the sample with 20 ppm sulfur content demonstrated the highest yield strength, tensile strength, and impact energy. Finally, the industrially produced DH36 samples were analyzed, and the steel with the lower S content had a higher stability and yield strength, in agreement with our laboratory results.