In the current steel structures of high-rise buildings, high heat input welding techniques are used to improve productivity in the construction industry. Under the high heat input welding, however, the microstructures of the weld metal (WM) and heat-affected zone (HAZ) coarsen, resulting in the deterioration of impact toughness. This study focuses mainly on the effects of fine TiN precipitates dispersed in steel plates and B addition in welding materials on grain refinement of the HAZ microstructure under submerged arc welding (SAW) with a high heat input of 200 kJ/cm. The study reveals that, different from that in conventional steel, the γ grain coarsening is notably retarded in the coarse grain HAZ (CGHAZ) of a newly developed steel with TiN precipitates below 70 nm in size even under the high heat input welding, and the refinement of HAZ microstructure is confirmed to have improved impact toughness. Furthermore, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) analyses demonstrate that B is was identified at the interface of TiN in CGHAZ. It is likely that B atoms in the WM are diffused to CGHAZ and are segregated at the outer part of undissolved TiN, which contributes partly to a further grain refinement, and consequently, improved mechanical properties are achieved.

This study evaluated the enhancement of microstructural and mechanical properties of a cross rolled Ni-10Cr alloy, comparing with conventionally rolled material. Cold rolling was carried out to 90% thickness reduction and the specimens were subsequently annealed at 700˚C for 30 min to obtain a fully recrystallized microstructure. Cross roll rolling was carried out at a tilted roll mill condition of 5˚ from the transverse direction in the RD-TD plane. In order to observe the deformed microstructures of the cold rolled materials, transmission electron microscopy was employed. For annealed materials after rolling, in order to investigate the grain boundary characteristic distributions, an electron back-scattering diffraction technique was applied. Application of cold rolling to the Ni-10Cr alloy contributed to notable grain refinement, and consequently the average grain size was refined from 135 μm in the initial material to 9.4 and 4.2 μm in conventionally rolled and cross rolled materials, respectively, thus showing more significantly refined grains in the cross rolled material. This refined grain size led to enhanced mechanical properties such as yield and tensile strengths, with slightly higher values in the cross rolled material. Furthermore, the<111>//ND texture in the CRR material was better developed compared to that of the CR material, which contributed to enhanced mechanical properties and formability.

Titanium alloys have been attractive due to a high ratio of strength to weight as well as good corrosion resistance. However, strengthening causes a decrease in ductility in Ti alloys, as is usual in other alloys. For enhanced strength without ductility reduction, grain refinement and tensile properties were investigated as functions of thickness reduction of cold rolling and annealing condition in Ti-15V-3Cr-3Sn-3Al alloy with a β single phase. The average grain size of the specimen, which was cold-rolled by 90% and annealed at 700˚C for 5 min, was decreased to approximately 19 μm. The grain refinement of 63 μm to 19 μm increased yield stress by 90 MPa without a significant decrease in total elongation. The Ti-15-3 alloy exhibited very low work hardening during tensile test at a crosshead speed of 2 mm/min. This result was discussed based on dynamic recovery associated with dislocation annihilation in grain boundaries.