Continuous Cooling Transformation Temperature and Microstructures of Microalloyed Hypereutectoid Steels

Abstract

The transformation behavior under continuous cooling conditions was investigated for four hypereutectoid steels of 1% carbon with different microalloying additions of vanadium and silicon. Continuous cooling compression testing of the hypereutectoid steels was employed to study the influence of processing conditions (re-heat temperature), microstructure (prior-austenite grain size) and chemical composition (vanadium and silicon) on the critical transformation temperature (Ar3). Overall, for the hypereutectoid steel compositions examined, the transformation temperatures were determined to be relatively stable, with a variation of roughly 15°C when the reheat temperature was changed from 1000 to 1200°C. The addition of microalloying elements such as vanadium and silicon was determined to increase the austenite-to-pearlite transformation start temperature of the hypereutectoid steels by about 10–30°C. These changes in the transformation behavior observed with decreasing re-heating temperature and microalloying additions were related to microstructural changes in the hypereutectoid steels, such as prior-austenite grain size refinement, carbide precipitation and grain boundary cementite fragmentation.