Streamlining Alloy Design and Thermo-Mechanical Processing Parameters for High Strength Line Pipe Steels and Hot Rolled Microall
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University of Texas at El Paso DigitalCommons@UTEP Open Access Theses & Dissertations 2018-01-01 Streamlining Alloy Design And Thermo- Mechanical Processing Parameters For High Strength Line Pipe Steels And Hot Rolled Microalloyed Steels: Process - Structure - Property Paradigm Venkata Vignesh Natarajan University of Texas at El Paso, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/open_etd Part of the Materials Science and Engineering Commons, and the Mechanics of Materials Commons Recommended Citation Natarajan, Venkata Vignesh, "Streamlining Alloy Design And Thermo-Mechanical Processing Parameters For High Strength Line Pipe Steels And Hot Rolled Microalloyed Steels: Process - Structure - Property Paradigm" (2018). Open Access Theses & Dissertations. 129. https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/open_etd/129 This is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UTEP. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UTEP. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STREAMLINING ALLOY DESIGN AND THERMO-MECHANICAL PROCESSING PARAMETERS FOR HIGH STRENGTH LINE PIPE STEELS AND HOT ROLLED MICROALLOYED STEELS: PROCESS – STRUCTURE – PROPERTY PARADIGM VENKATA VIGNESH NATARAJAN Doctoral Program in Materials Science and Engineering APPROVED: Devesh Misra, Ph.D., Chair Srinivasa Rao Singamaneni, Ph.D. Guikuan Yue, Ph.D. Charles Ambler, Ph.D. Dean of the Graduate School Copyright © by Venkata Vignesh Natarajan 2018 DEDICATION I would love to dedicate my dissertation to my beloved grandparents. STREAMLINING ALLOY DESIGN AND THERMO-MECHANICAL PROCESSING PARAMETERS FOR HIGH STRENGTH LINE PIPE STEELS AND HOT ROLLED MICROALLOYED STEELS: PROCESS – STRUCTURE – PROPERTY PARADIGM by VENKATA VIGNESH NATARAJAN DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at El Paso in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Metallurgical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO December 2018 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful to the Almighty for giving me the strength and blessings at every foot of my life. I would like to extend my most sincere thanks to the esteemed Professor and my supervisor, Dr. R. Devesh K. Misra, for giving me the opportunity to do this project. His continuous support, skillful guidance, encouragement brought the enthusiasm in me. His numerous invaluable comments, assistance, and guidelines throughout the course were of utmost importance and added great value to help me complete this work. I wholeheartedly thank my committee members Dr. Srinivasa Rao Singamaneni, Dr. Guikuan Yue, for pushing me forward with their continued encouragement and timely advice. I would like to thank my family and friends for their constant support and the strong belief in me in attaining a greater good. I am also thankful to the colleagues and the laboratory staff for their assistance and to the Department of Metallurgical, Materials, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso for its facilities. It is my foremost duty to express my deep regards and gratitude to ArcelorMittal Global R&D, Research Institute located at East Chicago for the materials supply and the financial support during my Ph.D. v ABSTRACT The process parameters related to thermo-mechanical controlled processing (TMCP) of steels play a vital role in affecting the ultimate mechanical properties. We illustrate here the impact of coiling temperature, the impact of finish cooling temperature on interrupted cooling and compare with continuous cooling, and the impact of carbon and niobium on the microstructure and precipitation behavior and corresponding changes in mechanical properties, in an ultrahigh strength titanium- niobium microalloyed steel. The microstructural advancement was contemplated via transmission electron microscopy and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD). The goal was to underscore the impact of coiling temperature on the nature and distribution of microstructural constituents that essentially added to differences in the yield and tensile strength of these steels. Depending on the coiling temperature, the microstructure comprised of either a combination of fine lath-type bainite and polygonal ferrite or polygonal ferrite together with the precipitation of carbides of size less than 10 nm in the matrix. The microstructure of steel coiled at lower temperature predominantly comprised of bainitic ferrite with lower yield strength contrasted with the steel coiled at a higher temperature, and the yield to tensile strength ratio was found to be around 0.76. The microstructure of the steel coiled at a higher temperature comprised of polygonal ferrite and extensive precipitation of carbides and was characterized by higher yield strength and with yield strength/tensile strength ratio of 0.94. The microstructure of continuously cooled and interrupted cooled steels with various finish exit temperatures comprised of polygonal ferrite, bainite and martensite/austenite constituent. However, the fraction of various microstructural constituents was diverse in each of the trial steels. Similarly, there were differences in the distribution and average size of (Nb, Ti)C precipitates. The previously mentioned differences in the microstructure and precipitation introduced differences in mechanical properties. Moreover, electron backscattered vi diffraction studies showed particular variation in average grain area and high angle boundaries between continuously cooled and interrupted cooled steels. Carbon and niobium (Nb) play a vital role in influencing the ultimate microstructure and tensile properties. The increase of carbon weight percent in steel increased the precipitation temperature of (Nb, Ti)(C, N), which prompted relatively larger size precipitates in the matrix. Besides, high carbon content added to stabilization of austenite and delayed the transformation temperature of ferrite and bainite, such that martensite/austenite constituent (M/A) was obtained. This affected the properties by slightly increasing the strength of the steel. Polygonal ferrite microstructure in steel with high Nb-content was responsible for relatively low strength in comparison with steels with higher carbon content. Granular bainite and lath bainite in steel were characterized by the best combination of strength and elongation. The outcomes of the thermodynamic simulations were consistent with the experimentally observed microstructure. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................v ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................. viii LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... xiv LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................xv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................1 1.1 Crude steel production ..........................................................................................1 1.2 Significance of high strength low alloy steel in the modern world ......................1 1.3 Line pipe specifications ........................................................................................4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................14 2.1 High strength low alloy (HSLA) steel ................................................................14 2.2 Classification of high strength low alloy steel ....................................................15 2.3 Evolution of line-pipe grade steels .....................................................................16 2.4 Target development and microstructure design ..................................................27 2.4.1 Key attributes of weldability implied for developing X120 line pipes ......28 2.4.2 X-120 microstructure design......................................................................28 2.4.3 Key metallurgical factors ...........................................................................29 viii 2.5 Importance of alloying elements .........................................................................35 2.5.1 Addition of vanadium ................................................................................37 2.5.2 Statistics on the use of vanadium ...............................................................40 2.5.3 Addition of titanium ...................................................................................40 2.5.4 Addition of niobium ...................................................................................41 2.6 Microalloying effects in austenite .......................................................................43 2.6.1 Precipitation and dissolution of microalloy-carbonitrides in austenite......43 2.7 Thermo-mechanical processing of line pipe steels .............................................46 2.7.1 Reheating process ......................................................................................49