In this study, the effect of tempering on the stretch-flangeability is investigated in 980 MPa grade dual-phase steel consisting of ferrite and martensite phases. During tempering at 300 oC, the strength of ferrite increases due to the pinning of dislocations by carbon atoms released from martensite, while martensite is softened as a consequence of a reduction in its carbon super-saturation. This strength variation results in a considerable increase in yield strength of the steel, without loss of tensile strength. The hole expansion test shows that steel tempered for 20 min (T20 steel) exhibits a higher hole expansion ratio than that of steel without tempering (T0 steel). In T0 steel, severe plastic localization in ferrite causes easy pore formation at the ferrite-martensite interface and subsequent brittle crack propagation through the highly deformed ferrite area during hole expansion testing; this propagation is mainly attributed to the large difference in hardness between ferrite and martensite. When the difference in hardness is not so large (T20 steel), on the other hand, tempered martensite can be considerably deformed together with ferrite, thereby delaying pore formation and hindering crack propagation by crack blunting. Eventually, these different deformation and fracture behaviors contribute to the superior stretch-flangeability of T20 steel.

This study deals with the microstructure and tensile properties of 600 MPa-grade seismic reinforced steel bars fabricated by a pilot plant. The steel bar specimens are composed of a fully ferrite-pearlite structure because they were air-cooled after hot-rolling. The volume fraction and interlamellar spacing of the pearlite and the ferrite grain size decrease from the center region to the surface region because the surface region is more rapidly cooled than the center region. The A steel bar specimenwith a relatively high carbon content generally has a higher pearlite volume fraction and interlamellar spacing of pearlite and a finer ferrite grain size because increasing the carbon content promotes the formation of pearlite. As a result, the A steel bar specimen has a higher hardness than the B steel bar in all the regions. The hardness shows a tendency to decrease from the center region to the surface region due to the decreased pearlite volume fraction. On the other hand, the tensile-to-yield strength ratio and the tensile strength of the A steel bar specimen are higher than those of the B steel bar with a relatively low carbon content because a higher pearlite volume fraction enhances work hardening. In addition, the B steel bar specimen has higher uniform and total elongations because a lower pearlite volume fraction facilitates plastic deformation caused by dislocation slip.

This study deals with the microstructure and tensile properties of 700 MPa-grade high-strength and seismic reinforced steel bars. The high-strength reinforced steel bars (600 D13, 600 D16 and 700 D13 specimens) are fabricated by a TempCore process, while the seismic reinforced steel bar (600S D16 specimen) is fabricated by air cooling after hot rolling. For specimens fabricated by the TempCore process, the 600 D13 and 600 D16 specimens have a microstructure of tempered martensite in the surface region and ferrite-pearlite in the center region, while the 700 D13 specimen has a microstructure of tempered martensite in the surface region and bainite in the center region. Therefore, their hardness is the highest in the surface region and shows a tendency to decrease from the surface region to the center region because tempered martensite has a higher hardness than ferrite-pearlite or bainite. However, the hardness of the 600S D16 specimen, which is composed of fully ferritepearlite, increases from the surface region to the center region because the pearlite volume fraction increases from the surface region to the center region. On the other hand, the tensile test results indicate that only the 700 D13 specimen with a higher carbon content exhibits continuous yielding behavior due to the formation of bainite in the center region. The 600S D16 specimen has the highest tensile-to-yield ratio because the presence of ferrite-pearlite and precipitates caused by vanadium addition largely enhances work hardening.

The microstructural evolution of Grade 91 tempered martensite ferritic steels heat treated at 760~1000 oC for two hours was investigated using scanning electron microscopy(SEM), energy disperse spectroscopy(EDS), electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD), and transmission electron microscopy(TEM); a microhardness tester was also employed, with a focus on the grain and precipitate evolution process as well as on the main hardening element. It was found that an evolution of tempered martensite to ferrite(760~850 oC), and to fresh martensite(900~1000 oC), occurred with the increase of temperature. Simultaneously, the parabolic evolution characteristics of the low angle grain boundary(LAGB) increased with the increase of the heating temperature(highest fraction of LAGB at 925 oC), indicating grain recovery upon intercritical heating. The main precipitate, M23C6, was found to be coarsened slightly at 760~850 oC; it then dissolved at 850~1000 oC. Besides this, M3C cementite was formed at 900~1000 oC. Finally, the experimental results show that the hardness of the steel depended largely on the matrix structure, rather than on the precipitates, with the fresh martensite showing the highest hardness value.

For the purpose of investigating the effect of sintering atmosphere and carbon addition on sintered density and microstructural characteristics, the M3/2 grade high speed steel powders with the addition of carbon are sintered in vacuum and gas atmosphere. With the addition of 0 wt%C, 0.45wt%C and 1.15 wt%C the optimum sintering temperatures decrease down to , and respectively for the vacuum sintered specimen, and also decrease down to , and for the gas sintered specimen. The threshold temperatures for full densification decrease steeply with increasing carbon content of the sintered specimen, while this temperatures are slowly decreased at high carbon content. The vacuum sintered specimen shows the primary carbides of MC and type at the optimum sintering temperature, and eutectic carbides of and Fe-Cr type are produced in the oversintered specimen. The gas sintered specimen exhibits M6C and Fe-Cr type primary carbides at the optimum sintering temperature. The eutectic carbides of and Fe-Cr type and MX type carbonitride are shown for the oversintered specimen in the gas atmosphere. The hardness of gas sintered specimen shows high value of 830-860 Hv due to the increment of carbide precipitation.

An investigation was performed to apply the M3/2 grade high speed steel for metal injection molding using both prealloyed and elementally blended powders. The injected samples were subjected to a debinding step in gas atmosphere at a ratio that affected the carbon content of the material. The carbon content ranged from 1.4wt.% to 1.43wt%. with increasing content up to 80% in atmosphere for the prealloyed powders. The carbon contents of the elementally blended powders exhibited 1.44wt.% and 1.62wt.% at 10% and 20% gas, respectively. This level decreased to 0.17wt.% upon increasing the content. The sintered density of both powders increased rapidly as the temperature reached the liquid phase forming temperature. After forming the liquid phase, the density rapidly increased to the optimum sintering temperature for the prealloyed powders, whereas the density of mixed elemental powders goes up slowly to the optimum sintering temperature. The optimum sintering temperature and density are 126 and 97.3% for the prealloyed powders and 128 and 96.9% for the elementally blended powders, respectively. The microstructure of the specimen at the optimum sintering temperature consisted of fine grains with primary carbides of MC and type for the prealloyed powders. The elementally blended powders exhibited coarse grains with eutectic carbides of MC, and type.

Airborne chlorides, sulfur dioxide and humidity are the most important causes and acceleration factors of corrosion of the steel member. In this study, such acceleration factors are quantified by analysis of reference data about velocity on corrosion for the determination of durability grade of steel member.

The correlation between the degradation scores and service life of the coating is derived by tests and inspection for the coated steel member according to each service environment of several facilities. This correlation called to as the deterioration model can be used to determine the performance grade for the durability of coated steel member of facilities under each service environment, for example, atmospheric, fluvial and marine environment.

In this study, It was purpose to provide preliminary data for extension of the applicability of deep corrugated steel plate composite members by steel grade and shear reinforcement method. From the result of flexural test on deep corrugated plates composite members using GR40 and SS590, positive moment capacity was increased about 28% by SS590 steel. But to change steel grade was proved to have insignificant effects for increasement of negative moment capacity. In the moment test result of same overlapping length, Increasement rate of positive and negative moment capacity was not significantly improved by increasing the number of bolt. It was estimated to be due to the characteristics of bolt connection such as distance between centers of bolts, edge distance of bolt. In the test result on the spacing of shear reinforcement, positive moment capacity was increased and deformation of negative moment was reduced as the distance decrease. In the test result on the shape of shear reinforcement, positive and negative moment resistance was increased about 2% ~ 7% by U shaped shear reinforcement. In conclusion It was estimated that moment capacity of deep corrugated steel plate composite members are depend on steel grade of deep corrugated steel plate, spacing of shear reinforcement and reinforcing bar.

Indices are selected for the evaluation of deterioration of coated steel, and an evaluation method is proposed for each index. The evaluation methods proposed in this study are then applied on the existing inspection data measured on site, and the correlation between the resulting evaluation scores and service life of the coating is derived statistically. This correlation called to as the deterioration model can be used to determine the performance grade for the durability of coated steel.