The Engineering Behind The Mechanical Properties Enhancement On Hsla Steels, Microalloyed With Niobium: Effects of Boron and Titanium
The Engineering Behind The Mechanical Properties Enhancement On Hsla Steels, Microalloyed With Niobium: Effects of Boron and Titanium
The Engineering Behind The Mechanical Properties Enhancement On Hsla Steels, Microalloyed With Niobium: Effects of Boron and Titanium
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Original Article
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: The influence of boron on the mechanical properties of niobium microalloyed steels was
Received 16 December 2019 investigated by comparing the variations of rolled strips with and without boron and tita-
Accepted 19 May 2020 nium addition. Chemical analysis, metallography, mechanical properties, hardness and
Available online xxx hot-torsion tests were performed to characterize rolled samples with different chemical
composition. In order to meet this goal, two different chemical composition for microal-
Keywords: loyed steel were designed: Chemical composition A, relative to an ASTM A1018 HSLA (High
High Strength Low Alloy steels Strength Low Alloy) grade 50, niobium microalloyed steel, standard, low residuals and target
Boron carbon and manganese content of 0.08% and 1.25% respectively. And a chemical composi-
Niobium tion B, identical to chemical composition A, but with the addition of boron and titanium.
Acicular ferrite One heat of each steel was produced in the BOF (Blast Oxygen Furnace) process, followed
Mechanical properties. by Vacuum Degassing and Slab Continuous Casting. One slab of each heat was rolled into
coil, on a Steckel Mill, from which diverse samples were collected at different locations
along the length. The characterization tests results presented are for those samples that
were rolled under processing conditions closer to the initial planning for both steels. The
steel B presents highest values of the yield strength, tensile strength and hardness, lower
elongation and larger grain size. This experiment suggests that the boron addition to the
HSLA steel, niobium and titanium bearing, allows the achievement of higher yield strength,
tensile strength, hardness and lower elongation.
© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the
CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Please cite this article in press as: Oliveira AP, Gonzalez BM. The engineering behind the mechanical properties enhancement on HSLA steels,
microalloyed with niobium: Effects of boron and titanium. J Mater Res Technol. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2020.05.075
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segregated boron in the grain boundaries of austenite does The higher RST of austenite in Nb-B steels compared to Ti-
not change the thermodynamic characteristics of these con- B steels is advantageous for the refinement of the austenitic
tours and this may have some effect on austenite softening structure in controlled rolling. The best structural refining is
during hot work [2]. Results from three-dimensional atomic obtained with larger rolling reductions in the region between
probe tomography (APT) observation suggest that the increase Tnr and Ar3 , where the structure pancakes [9]. Through the
in austenite mechanical strength is accentuated by the segre- addition of niobium, the ferritic grain size is reduced and the
gation of boron into the austenite grain boundaries, causing a volume fraction of the bainite is increased. The addition of
reduction in ferrite formation. Analogous to the effect of boron boron also increases the bainite fraction, but the ferritic grain
in low carbon steels, solid solution niobium has a similar effect size is slightly increased as the nucleation of the ferrite grains
in increasing mechanical properties. Polygonal ferrite nucle- is suppressed by boron. The microstructure of niobium-boron
ation is suppressed over a wide range of cooling rates by the steel consists of fine grain bainite in which previous austenite
synergistic effect between niobium and boron on mechanical grain outlines can be observed [9].
strength and consequently the transformation temperature According to Hannula et al. [10] boron increases the
is reduced. While niobium in solution suppresses polygonal mechanical strength of steel by shifting the ferrite and bai-
ferrite nucleation through a mechanism still under discus- nite transformation curves in the CCT diagram to the right,
sion, either by reducing the energy of grain boundary due to thus increasing the transformation time. In their studies it
niobium or even due to the solute drag mechanism, the occur- was found that the microstructures obtained consisted mainly
rence of a TiN composite and NbC in the grain boundaries of mixtures of bainite and martensite with values ranging
of austenite catalyzes the nucleation of acicular ferrite. The between 275 and 369 HV. With cooling rates of 24◦ C/s the per-
hypothesis is that the diffusion of boron in the grain boundary centage of bainite was 5–10% and 50% with and without boron,
helps the accelerated growth of NbC in the TiN-NbC compos- respectively. Based on these CCT diagrams even at the high-
ite that occurs at the austenite grain boundaries, and there is est cooling rate (96◦ C/s) a small amount of bainite, around
a carbon depletion in solution near the austenite boundary, 5%, still exists in non-boron steel. At sufficiently slow cooling
thus promoting the nucleation of acicular ferrite [3,4]. It has rates, such as between 3 and 6◦ C/s, boron steel has a bainitic
been found that a high increase in mechanical strength can be structure whereas the other steel has a ferritic structure [10].
obtained from the combined effect of boron and niobium or
boron and molybdenum [5–7]. Coarse precipitates of Fe23 (C,B)6
do not nucleate in grain boundaries if niobium is added since
this element is a strong carbide former, which reduces the 2. Materials and methods
carbon supply trough diffusion to the grain boundaries, thus
preventing the formation of the mentioned precipitates and For this study two heats of niobium microalloyed steel were
enhancing the segregation of boron to the grain boundaries produced, one with boron and titanium. The heats were pro-
[5]. The Nb(C,N) begins to precipitate at 960 ◦ C and reduces duced in oxygen steelmaking, BOF, with vacuum degassing,
the carbon content in solution. As a result, the precipitation followed by slab continuous casting.
of Fe23 (C,B)6 is reduced in the austenite and the boron atoms The chemical composition of the steels is presented in
remain in solution [6]. Since boron atoms form very strong Table 1.
bonds with nitrogen, the primary objective of alloy design is Both heats were cast in slabs with a nominal size of
to use the lowest possible nitrogen content, with titanium at a 250 × 1500 mm. Two slabs were rolled in a Steckel hot strip mill
stoichiometric ratio of at least 3.4:1 in order to hinder the for- for the final dimension of 9.50 × 1.500 mm, in order to obtain
mation of boron nitride, BN, in grain boundaries, which may samples for mechanical and metallographic characterization
adversely affect the mechanical properties [8]. and for the hot torsion test. The results obtained in the hot tor-
According to work by Tamehiro et al [9], boron increases sion test will provide the parameters for adjustment of future
the processing window in the Thermo-Mechanical Control rolling. Samples were taken from selected regions of the coils
Process (TMCP) rolling process by increasing the non- after complete cooling. The characterization of the coils was
recrystallization temperature (Tnr ) and reducing the onset of performed as follows:
transformation temperature, from austenite to ferrite (Ar3 ).
This large processing window allows for greater flexibility in • The chemical composition was analyzed by ARL Model
the pancaking stage, which leads to further microstructural 4460 Optical Emission Spectrometer according to ASTM E45,
refining, improving mechanical tensile properties. Among the Standard Test Method for Analysis of Carbon and Low-
microalloying elements Nb, V and Ti, niobium is the one that Alloy Steel by Spark Atomic Emission Spectrometry [11]. The
most strongly delays austenite recrystallization, leading to samples used were obtained during the continuous casting
a significant increase in Recrystallization Stop Temperature process;
(RST), defined as the highest temperature which recrystal- • The microstructure and ferritic grain size were evaluated
lization of austenite is completely absent compared to steel in specimens, referring to the longitudinal orientation,
without the addition of microalloying elements. The interpre- according to ASTM E112, Standard Test Method for Deter-
tation of this RST is like that of Tnr . The combined addition mining Average Grain Size [12]. The attack to reveal the
of boron and niobium or titanium increases Recrystallization microstructure was performed with Nital reagent (HNO3 +
Stop Temperature (RST) of the austenite more than the sep- ethyl alcohol). The photographs refer to specimens taken
arate addition since the addition of niobium or titanium to at ¼ thickness and 500 times magnification. A Carl Zeiss
the boron steel may increase the amount of boron in solution. Imager M2M Microscope was used;
Please cite this article in press as: Oliveira AP, Gonzalez BM. The engineering behind the mechanical properties enhancement on HSLA steels,
microalloyed with niobium: Effects of boron and titanium. J Mater Res Technol. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2020.05.075
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Table 1 – Actual chemical composition of the steels used in the study, wt. %.
Steel C Mn Si P S Ti Al N2 Nb B
A: Standard 0.08 1.21 0.16 0.015 0.007 0.002 0.029 0.0041 0.035 0.0000
B: B + Ti 0.09 1.23 0.20 0.015 0.004 0.025 0.025 0.0063 0.041 0.0027
Table 2 – Planned and actual Parameters for Rolling. Table 3 – Thickness reduction of rolling passes between
o o Tnr and Ar3 , %.
Steel Parameters Furnace FT, C CT, C
o
temperature, C Steel Pass F7 Pass F8
Please cite this article in press as: Oliveira AP, Gonzalez BM. The engineering behind the mechanical properties enhancement on HSLA steels,
microalloyed with niobium: Effects of boron and titanium. J Mater Res Technol. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2020.05.075
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ANOVA
Fig. 1 – Microphotographs of steels A and B. A: Steel without boron and titanium. B: Steel with boron and titanium.
(+0.30 m) due to the suppression of ferrite grain nucleation 3.4. Hardness
provided by boron.
Boron increases the mechanical strength of steel by shifting
the ferrite and bainite curves to the right, producing higher
3.3. Mechanical properties hardness values. Fig. 5 illustrates the average hardness val-
ues, calculated from 12 individual measurements through the
These results show that steel with boron and titanium (Steel B) thickness of the specimens of each steel. Four individual mea-
has higher mechanical properties compared to steel without surements for each region of the sample: The center, near the
boron and titanium (Steel A). The microstructure of steel B was top surface and near the bottom surface. Steel B, with boron
more acicular if compared to the more polygonal steel A, as and titanium, has higher hardness values. Variance analysis,
can be seen in Fig. 1, thus a structure with higher mechanical ANOVA, was performed for the hardness results to determine
properties and lower elongation is obtained. if there are differences between the means for the two groups,
Figs. 2–4 shows the results for yield strength, tensile steels A and B. The results are shown in Table 4. The values
strength and elongation, respectively. Steel B, with boron and from the analysis of variance show that the hardness aver-
titanium addition, has a higher yield strength result com- ages per group of steel, A and B, are different, and steel B has
pared to steel A, without boron and titanium addition, at higher hardness than steel A, around 13 HV. The P value is
around 17 MPa. The steel B has a higher tensile strength result lower than the significance level adopted (␣ = 0.05) so we can
compared to steel A, around 31 MPa. The steel B has a lower reject the null hypothesis, which states that the means are
elongation result compared to steel A, with a difference of equal. It is expected that the steel B, because it presents an
2%. acicular microstructure, has a higher hardness if compared to
The microstructure of the steel B (B + Ti) presents higher steel A.
fraction of acicular components This fact reflects on higher
yield strength and tensile strength for this steel. Because 3.5. Hot-Torsion tests
this steel is boron added it is possible to hypothesize that
the diffusion of boron towards the austenite grain bound- The Fig. 6 and Table 5 illustrate the results for the hot torsion
aries accelerates the growth of niobium composites (NbC and tests. It is noticed that the Tnr of steel with boron (B) is 30 ◦ C
TiN-NbC). This causes a loss of carbon in solution near the higher than that of steel without boron (A). The Ar1 and Ar3
boundaries what helps to promote the nucleation of acicular temperatures for steel with boron (B) are the same as for steel
ferrite. without boron (A). These data indicate a larger processing win-
Please cite this article in press as: Oliveira AP, Gonzalez BM. The engineering behind the mechanical properties enhancement on HSLA steels,
microalloyed with niobium: Effects of boron and titanium. J Mater Res Technol. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2020.05.075
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Fig. 2 – Yield Strength results for steels without boron and titanium (A) and with boron and titanium (B).
Fig. 3 – Tensile Strength results for steels without boron and titanium (A) and with boron and titanium (B).
Fig. 4 – Elongation results for steels without boron and titanium (A) and with boron and titanium (B).
dow for steel with boron (B), which allows greater flexibility in contribution may also be due to segregation under conditions
the pancaking stage, leading to greater microstructural refin- of non-equilibrium of boron in the grain boundaries of austen-
ing which in theory improves the mechanical properties in ite. Tnr is increased with the addition of boron as it accelerates
traction. The increase in Tnr can be explained, in part, by the precipitation kinetics [14]. The suppression, or reduction of
influence of boron on the precipitation kinetics of Nb(C,N). A the transformation from austenite to ferrite, with a conse-
Please cite this article in press as: Oliveira AP, Gonzalez BM. The engineering behind the mechanical properties enhancement on HSLA steels,
microalloyed with niobium: Effects of boron and titanium. J Mater Res Technol. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2020.05.075
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Fig. 5 – Hardness (HV) results for steels without boron and titanium (A) and with boron and titanium (B).
Fig. 6 – Results for Mean Flow Square (MPa) for the steels without boron and titanium (A), left, and with boron and titanium
(B), right.
Table 5 – Results of hot-torsion test for steels without Table 6 – Summary of results obtained for steels without
boron and titanium (A) and with boron and titanium (B). boron and titanium (A) and with boron and titanium (B).
o o o o
Aço Ar1 , C Ar3 , C Tnr , C Tnr – Ar3 , C Tests Characteristic Transversal Longitudinal
Please cite this article in press as: Oliveira AP, Gonzalez BM. The engineering behind the mechanical properties enhancement on HSLA steels,
microalloyed with niobium: Effects of boron and titanium. J Mater Res Technol. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2020.05.075
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Please cite this article in press as: Oliveira AP, Gonzalez BM. The engineering behind the mechanical properties enhancement on HSLA steels,
microalloyed with niobium: Effects of boron and titanium. J Mater Res Technol. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2020.05.075
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Please cite this article in press as: Oliveira AP, Gonzalez BM. The engineering behind the mechanical properties enhancement on HSLA steels,
microalloyed with niobium: Effects of boron and titanium. J Mater Res Technol. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2020.05.075