Microstructure development for brittle fracture control in Nb microalloyed line pipe steel

摘要

EBSD characterization of density and dispersion of high angle boundaries was carried out in niobium microalloyed steels of HTP base chemistry with 0.09 wt % Nb, which were thermo-mechanically processed under laboratory conditions. Similar studies were carried out in higher grade (X-100 and above) line pipe steels with different chemistries, which were processed under simulation of industrial rolling conditions. The twin objectives are (i) to understand the effect of chemistry and processing parameters on the density and dispersion of high angle boundaries, and (ii) to correlate the microstructure and density of high angle boundaries with strength and fracture properties.The present studies confirm that refinement of austenite grain size prior to pancaking, large strain accumulation in austenite conditioning, alloy design with high hardenability and high cooling rates are essential to control high density and uniformity of dispersion of high angle boundaries in the final microstructure in order to achieve high strength, toughness, low DBTT and consistently 100% ductile shear in DWTT in thermo-mechanically rolled higher grade line pipe steels.