The austenite grain refinement through control of the grain growth during reheating process after thermomechanical controlled process （TMCP） in a vanadium microalloyed steel was achieved. The formation of ultra-fine grained austenite was attributed to the high density of austenite nucleation at the ferrite/martensite structure and to the inhibition of austenite growth by （Ti~ V）C particles at the relatively low reheating temperature. Corresponding with the precipitation behavior of （Ti,V）C with temperature, the growth behavior of austenite in the vanadium mi- croalloyed steel could be divided into two regions. At lower reheating temperature, austenite grains grew slowly, and ultra-fine grained austenite smaller than 5 ~m was successfully obtained. By contrast, the austenite grains grew rap- idly at high temperature due to the dissolution of （Ti, V）C particles. According to the measured and predicted results of austenite growth kinetics, two models were developed to describe the growth behavior of austenite grains in two different temperature regions, and the apparent activation energy Qapp for grain growth was estimated to be about 115 and 195 kJ/mol, respectively.
Geng-wei YANGXin-jun SUNQi-long YONGZhao-dong LIXiao-xian LI
A new Ti-V-Mo complex microalloyed hot-rolled high-strength steel sheet was developed by controlling a thermo-mechanical controlled processing （TMCP） schedule, in particular with variants in coiling temperature. The effects of coiling temperature （CT） on various hardening mechanisms and mechanical properties of Ti-V-Mo complex mi- croalloyed high-strength low-alloy steels were investigated. The results revealed that the steels are mainly strengthened by a combined effect of ferrite grain refinement hardening and precipitation hardening. The variation in simulated coiling temperature causes a significant difference in strength, which is mainly attributed to different precipitation hardening increment contributions. When the CT is 600 ℃, the experimental steel has the best mechanical properties： ultimate tensile strength （UTS） 1000 MPa, yield strength （YS） 955 MPa and elongation （EL） 17%. Moreover, about 82 wt% of the total precipitates are nano-sized carbide particles with diameter of 1-10 nm, which is randomly dispersed in the ferrite matrix. The nano-sized carbide particles led to a strong precipitation hardening increment up to 310 MPa.
Ke ZhangZhao-Dong LiXin-Jun SunQi-Long YongJun-Wei YangYuan-Mei LiPei-Lin Zhao
Ultrafine austenite grains with average size of 2μm were successfully obtained by combining thermo-mechanical control process followed by reheating in a vanadium microalloyed steel.The mixed microstructure transformed from pancaked austenite formed during controlled rolling has a higher density of high angle boundaries,compared to that transformed from equiaxial austenite.It contributes to increasing nucleation density of austenite grain during the reheating process.A certain volume fraction of undissolved nano-sized（Ti,V）C particles,which are formed during the controlled rolling process and/or the reheating process,effectively inhibit austenite grain growth and consequently refine austenite grain size significantly.The critical grain size of austenite calculated by Gladman model agrees well with the experimental result.
YANG Geng-weiLI Zhao-dongSUN Xin-junYONG XiYONG Qi-long
Through the thermo-mechanical control process （TMCP）, a high Nb low Mo fire resistant steel with the yield strength （YS） of 521 MPa at room temperature （RT） and 360 MPa at elevated temperature （ET） of 600 ℃ was developed based on MX （M=Nb, V, Mo; X=C,N） precipitation strengthening. A series of tensile and con- stant load tests were conducted to study the mechanical properties at ET. The dynamic continuous cooling transfor- mation （CCT） as well as precipitation behavior of microalloy carbonitride was investigated by means of thermal sim- ulator and electron microscopy approaches. Results showed that the failure temperature of tested steel was deter- mined as 653 ℃, and the granular bainite was obtained when the cooling rate was higher than 10 ℃/s. In the rolled state, a certain amount of M/A islands was observed. During heating from RT to ET, M/A islands disappeared, and cementites and high dense compound precipitates （Nb, Mo, V）C with size of less than 10 nm precipitated in ferrite at ET （600 ℃）, which resulted in precipitation strengthening at ET.
Zheng-yan ZHANGQi-long YONGXin-jun SUNZhao-dong LIJun-yu KANGGuo-dong WANG
