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Effects of Carbon Variation on Microstructure Evolution in Weld Heat-Affected Zone of Nb-Ti Microalloyed Steels

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Abstract

We investigated the effects of C concentration variation from 0.028 to 0.058 wt pct on microstructure of the coarse grained heat-affected zone (CGHAZ) of low heat input girth welded Ti-Nb microalloyed steels by using electron microscope and atom probe tomography. It is found that the CGHAZ microstructure exhibits a systematic response to C variation. Increased C raises the temperature for precipitation of NbC. This leads to coarser (Ti, Nb)N-Nb(C, N) but finer delayed strain-induced NbC in the high-C steel than in the low-C steel. Fine strain-induced NbC are ineffective in preventing austenite grain coarsening in CGHAZ due to their fast dissolution upon heating. For a given inter-particle spacing originally determined by (Ti, Nb)N particles, increased epitaxial growth of Nb(C, N) on pre-existing (Ti, Nb)N in the high-C steel results in a smaller austenite grain size of 34 µm in the CGHAZ of the high-C steel than that of 52 µm in the low-C steel. Increased C promotes a microstructure consisting of bainitic lath structure with C Cottrell atmospheres at dislocation debris and martensitic layers of 30 to 100 nm in thickness at inter-lath boundaries in the CGHAZ. Increased C promotes configuration of crystallographic variants belonging to different Bain groups in the neighbors, preferentially twin-related variant pairs within a bainite packet.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to express grateful thanks to Dr. Gianluigi Botton, Dr. Glynis de Silveira, Mr. Chris Butcher, Dr. Andreas Korinek for help with EBSD and TEM characterization of the samples, Mrs. Julia Huang and Mr. Travis Casagrande for help with FIB preparation of the atom probe samples in Canadian Center of Electron Microscope (CCEM) at McMaster University. The funding from CBMM, Brazil, and Evraz, Inc., NA, Canada is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, L8S 4L7, Canada

    Xiaoping Ma, Brian Langelier & Sundaresa Subramanian

  2. Algoma Steel Inc., Sault Ste. Marie, P6A 7B4, Canada

    Xiaoping Ma

  3. College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, 266580, China

    Xueda Li

  4. Department of Microstructure Physics and Alloy Design, Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Max-Planck-Straße 1, Düsseldorf, 40237, Germany

    Baptiste Gault

  5. EVRAZ North America, Regina, S4P 3C7, Canada

    Laurie Collins

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  1. Xiaoping Ma
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Correspondence to Xiaoping Ma.

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Manuscript submitted December 17, 2017.

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Ma, X., Li, X., Langelier, B. et al. Effects of Carbon Variation on Microstructure Evolution in Weld Heat-Affected Zone of Nb-Ti Microalloyed Steels. Metall Mater Trans A 49, 4824–4837 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-018-4751-8

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