The precipitation of A1N and NbC and the hot ductility of low carbon steels

Highly Enhanced Hot Ductility Performance of Advanced SA508-4N RPV Steel by Trace Impurity Phosphorus and Rare Earth Cerium

Advanced SA508-4N RPV steel samples, unadded, P-added, and P+Ce-added, are investigated on their hot ductility behavior. Hot tensile tests are carried out in the temperature range of 750 to 1000 °C through a Gleeble 1500D machine. It is demonstrated that the deformation temperatures of all the three steels are located in the austenite single-phase region. There is no ductility trough present for the P+Ce-added steel, but the unadded one exhibits a deep ductility trough. The reduction of area (RA) of the former is always higher than 75% and increases with rising temperature until reaching ~95% at 900 °C or above, whereas the lowest RA value of the latter is only ~50% at 850 °C. Microanalysis indicates that the grain boundary segregation of P and Ce takes place in the tested P+Ce-added steel. This may restrain the boundary sliding so as to improve the hot ductility behavior of the steel. Furthermore, the addition of P and Ce is able to facilitate the occurrence of the dynamic recrystallization (DR) of the steel, lowering the initial temperature of DR from ~900 to ~850 °C and thereby enhancing the hot ductility performance. Consequently, the combined addition of P and Ce can significantly improve the hot ductility of SA508-4N RPV steel, thereby improving its continuous casting performance and hot workability.

Effect of Different Thermal Schedules on Ductility of Microalloyed Steel Slabs during Continuous Casting

Ductility is the important indicator of transverse surface cracking susceptibility of slabs of microalloyed steels during continuous casting. Welding structure steel HG785 is selected to study the effect of different thermal schedule on ductility of microalloyed steel slabs during continuous casting in this paper. Surface Structure Control (SSC) cooling process parameters of HG785 microalloyed steel were confirmed by the aid of thermomechanical simulation experiment of Gleeble 3500. Results of tensile tests show that the ductilities of slabs under traditional thermal schedule and temperature fluctuation thermal schedule are very low in the III brittleness zone, and the reductions of area reach 29.7% and 26.0% at 800 °C, respectively. The ductility of slabs under SSC thermal schedule is obviously improved, since the pro-eutectoid ferrite film and aggregation of precipitates along the austenite grain boundary has not been discovered.