Effect of electropulsing on the precipitation of NbC_xN_1−x from austenite phase

Abstract

The precipitation of NbC_xN_1−x significantly affects the high-temperature mechanical properties of Nb microalloyed steel. The control of the precipitation behaviour of NbC_xN_1−x is the key, especially the nucleation and precipitation from Nb solid solution. We explore to use electropulsing to promote the precipitation of NbC_xN_1−x through thermodynamic model, chemical phase analysis, XRD and TEM. The modelling research show that electropulsing intensity significantly promotes the nucleation of NbC_xN_1−x in austenite phase. The higher the electropulsing temperature is, the better the promotion effect is. The chemical phase analysis and XRD investigation results show that electropulsing can increase the amount of precipitation of NbC_xN_1−x by 50% at 950°C compared to the precipitation without electropulsing.

KEYWORDS:

• Electropulsing
• microalloyed steel
• NbC_xN_1−x
• precipitation
• nucleation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Acknowledgements

This work was supported financially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Numbers 51974003, 51304003), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant Number 2017YFB0305100) and Open Research Fund from the State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University(Grant Number 2018RALKFKT006).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China: [Grant Numbers 51974003 and 51304003].