Factors Limiting the Achievable Ferrite Grain Refinement in Hot Worked Microalloyed Steels

Abstract

Nb is added to C-Mn steels in order to use the solute drag and/or strain induced precipitation as a useful tool to condition the austenite in the hot rolling mill and produce during the subsequent cooling a refined ferrite grain size. The highest degree of refinement is obtained in conventional rolling mills by accumulating the deformation in austenite during the last passes, followed by early cooling in the run out table to produce a high density of nucleated ferrite grains. However, the maximum refinement is to a certain extent attenuated due to the ferrite grain coarsening taking place during the transformation. The present work analyses the different aspects limiting the final achievable ferrite grain refinement.