In this study, three kinds of bainitic steels are fabricated by controlling the contents of vanadium and boron. High vanadium steel has a lot of carbides and nitrides, and so, during the cooling process, acicular ferrite is well formed. Carbides and nitrides develop fine grains by inhibiting grain growth. As a result, the low temperature Charpy absorbed energy of high vanadium steel is higher than that of low vanadium steel. In boron added steel, boron segregates at the prior austenite grain boundary, so that acicular ferrite formation occurs well during the cooling process. However, the granular bainite packet size of the boron added steel is larger than that of high vanadium steel because boron cannot effectively suppress grain growth. Therefore, the low temperature Charpy absorbed energy of the boron added steel is lower than that of the low vanadium steel. HAZ (heat affected zone) microstructure formation affects not only vanadium and boron but also the prior austenite grain size. In the HAZ specimen having large prior austenite grain size, acicular ferrite is formed inside the austenite, and granular bainite, bainitic ferrite, and martensite are also formed in a complex, resulting in a mixed acicular ferrite region with a high volume fraction. On the other hand, in the HAZ specimen having small prior austenite grain size, the volume fraction of the mixed acicular ferrite region is low because granular bainite and bainitic ferrite are coarse due to the large number of prior austenite grain boundaries.

This paper presents a study on the room- and low-temperature impact toughness of hypoeutectoid steels with ferritepearlite structures. Six kinds of hypoeutectoid steel specimens were fabricated by varying the carbon content and austenitizing temperature to investigate the effect of microstructural factors such as pearlite volume fraction, interlamellar spacing, and cementite thickness on the impact toughness. The pearlite volume fraction usually increased with increasing carbon content and austenitizing temperature, while the pearlite interlamellar spacing and cementite thickness mostly decreased with increasing carbon content and austenitizing temperature. The 30C steel with medium pearlite volume fraction and higher manganese content, on the other hand, even though it had a higher volume fraction of pearlite than did the 20C steel, showed a better low-temperature toughness due to its having the lowest ductile-brittle transition temperature. This is because various microstructural factors in addition to the pearlite volume fraction largely affect the ductile-brittle transition temperature and lowtemperature toughness of hypoeutectoid steels with ferrite-pearlite structure. In order to improve the room- and low-temperature impact toughness of hypoeutectoid steels with different ferrite-pearlite structures, therefore, more systematic studies are required to understand the effects of various microstructural factors on impact toughness, with a viewpoint of ductile-brittle transition temperature.

Effects of Cu and B on effective grain size and low-temperature toughness of thermo-mechanically processed high-strength bainitic steels were investigated in this study. The microstructure of the steel specimens was analyzed using optical, scanning, and transmission electron microscopy; their effective grain size was also characterized by electron back-scattered diffraction. To evaluate the strength and low-temperature toughness, tensile and Charpy impact tests were carried out. The specimens were composed of various low-temperature transformation products such as granular bainite (GB), degenerated upper bainite (DUB), lower bainite (LB), and lath marteniste (LM), dependent on the addition of Cu and B. The addition of Cu slightly increased the yield and tensile strength, but substantially deteriorated the low-temperature toughness because of the higher volume fraction of DUB with a large effective grain size. The specimen containing both Cu and B had the highest strength, but showed worse low-temperature toughness of higher ductile-brittle transition temperature (DBTT) and lower absorbed energy because it mostly consisted of LB and LM. In the B-added specimen, on the other hand, it was possible to obtain the best combination of high strength and good low-temperature toughness by decreasing the overall effective grain size via the appropriate formation of different low-temperature transformation products containing GB, DUB, and LB/LM.