Effects of rolling and cooling conditions on microstructure and tensile and Charpy impact properties of ultra-low-carbon high-strength bainitic steels

Six ultra-low-carbon high-strength bainitic steel plates were fabricated by controlling rolling and cooling conditions, and effects of bainitic microstructure on tensile and Charpy impact properties were investigated. The microstructural evolution was more critically affected by start cooling temperature and cooling rate than by finish rolling temperature. Bainitic microstructures such as granular bainites (GBs) and bainitic ferrites (BFs) were well developed as the start cooling temperature decreased or the cooling rate increased. When the steels cooled from 973 K or 873 K (700 °C or 600 °C) were compared under the same cooling rate of 10 K/s (10 °C/s), the steels cooled from 973 K (700 °C) consisted mainly of coarse GBs, while the steels cooled from 873 K (600 °C) contained a considerable amount of BFs having high strength, thereby resulting in the higher strength but the lower ductility and upper shelf energy (USE). When the steels cooled from 673 K (400 °C) at a cooling rate of 10 K/s (10 °C/s) or 0.1 K/s (0.1 °C/s) were compared under the same start cooling temperature of 873 K (600 °C), the fast cooled specimens were composed mainly of coarse GBs or BFs, while the slowly cooled specimens were composed mainly of acicular ferrites (AFs). Since AFs had small effective grain size and contained secondary phases finely distributed at grain boundaries, the slowly cooled specimens had a good combination of strength, ductility, and USE, together with very low energy transition temperature (ETT).