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Ultra-Fine-Grained Steel: Relationship Between Grain Size and Impact Properties

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Analysis of Fracture Toughness Mechanism in Ultra-fine-grained Steels

Part of the book series: NIMS Monographs ((NIMSM))

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Abstract

The study on the relationship between the effective grain size, d EFF, and ductile-to-brittle transition temperature in impact tests indicated that the microstructure of ultra-fine-grained ferrite/cementite (F/C) belongs to the same group composed of quenched (Q) and quench-and-tempered (QT) microstructures, while the microstructures of ferrite/pearlite (F/P) belongs to a different group. According to the estimated fracture stress, ultra-fine- grained ferrite/cementite (UGF/C) exhibited the highest fracture stress among the four microstructures. The UGF/C steel has excellent fracture toughness because of its characteristic small d EFF and high surface energy of fracture in comparison to other steel structures. The low absorbed energy with a ductile dimple fracture in the lower shelf region was found to be a characteristic feature of the UGF/C steel. In ultra-fine-grained steel, a transition from an energy-absorbent ductile mode to an energy-absorbent brittle mode existed in impact tests and some dense and small-sized dimples were observed in the lower shelf energy region.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan

    Toshihiro Hanamura & Hai Qiu

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  1. Toshihiro Hanamura
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  2. Hai Qiu
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Correspondence to Toshihiro Hanamura .

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© 2014 National Institute for Materials Science, Japan. Published by Springer Japan

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Hanamura, T., Qiu, H. (2014). Ultra-Fine-Grained Steel: Relationship Between Grain Size and Impact Properties. In: Analysis of Fracture Toughness Mechanism in Ultra-fine-grained Steels. NIMS Monographs. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54499-9_3

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