This study investigates the effects of isothermal holding temperature and time on the microstructure, hardness and Charpy impact properties of medium-carbon bainitic steel specimens. Medium-carbon steel specimens with different bainitic microstructures are fabricated by varying the isothermal conditions and their microstructures are characterized using OM, SEM and EBSD analysis. Hardness and Charpy impact tests are also performed to examine the correlation of microstructure and mechanical properties. The microstructural analysis results reveal that granular bainite, bainitic ferrite, lath martensite and retained austenite form differently in the specimens. The volume fraction of granular bainite and bainitic ferrite increases as the isothermal holding temperature increases, which decreases the hardness of specimens isothermally heat-treated at 300 ℃ or higher. The specimens isothermally heat-treated at 250 ℃ exhibit the highest hardness due to the formation of lath martensite, irrespective of isothermal holding time. The Charpy impact test results indicate that increasing isothermal holding time improves the impact toughness because of the increase in volume fraction of granular bainite and bainitic ferrite, which have a relatively soft microstructure compared to lath martensite for specimens isothermally heat-treated at 250 ℃ and 300 ℃.

In this study, mechanical tests and microstructural analyses including TEM analyses with EDX of precipitates in modified 9Cr-1Mo steel were carried out to determine the cause of embrittlement observed after heat-treatment, which limits the usage of the alloy for power plants. Mod. 9Cr-1Mo steel specimens at austenite temperature were quenched to the molten salt baths at 760˚C and 700˚C, in which the specimens were kept for 10 min ~ 10 hr with subsequent air-cooling. Impact tests showed that the impact value dropped abruptly when the specimens were kept longer than 30 min at ~760˚C reaching to minima in about 1 hr, and then increasing at further retention. The tensile strength of the specimens reached the minimum value without much change afterward, whereas the values of elongation showed the same trend as that of the impact value. The isothermally heat-treated steel at 700˚C also showed a minimum impact value in about 1 hr. These results suggest that the isothermal heattreatment at 760 and 700˚C for about 1 hr induces temporal embrittlement in Mod. 9Cr-1Mo steel. The microstructural examination of all the specimens with extraction replica of the carbides revealed that the specimens with temporal embrittlement had Cr2C, indicating that the cause of the embrittlement was the precipitation of the Cr2C. In addition, TEM/EDX results showed that the Fe/Cr ratio was 0.033 to 0.055 for Cr2C, whereas it was 0.48 to 0.75 for Cr23C6, making the distinction of the Cr2C and Cr23C6 possible even without direct electron diffraction analyses.