Effect of dissolution and precipitation of Nb on the formation of acicular ferrite/bainite ferrite in low-carbon HSLA steels

Effect of dissolution and precipitation of Nb on the phase transformation during cooling was investigated. It is firstly recognized that either the formation of acicular ferrite or the separation of bainite ferrite could be adjusted by the preparation of the steel specimens with different amounts of solute Nb and Nb-precipitates in austenite (isothermally holding at 850 °C for different durations). An increase in isothermal duration at 850 °C would spawn more Nb(CN) precipitates, leading to a microstructural evolution from bainite ferrite to acicular ferrite/bainite ferrite dual phase, and eventually to acicular ferrite in the final microstructure. This could be explained by the solution of Nb in the austenite, due to the solute dragging effect of Nb, can decrease the Ar3 temperature and promote the formation of bainite ferrite, while the precipitation of NbC can increase the Ar3 temperature and promote the formation of acicular ferrite by increasing the nucleation sites of acicular ferrite. Thus, the properties of acicular ferrite/bainite ferrite dual phase steel can generally be improved by appropriately controlling the state of Nb (Nb(CN) as precipitates and Nb in solution) in the austenite before cooling, which provides a new approach to the modification of acicular ferrite/bainite ferrite ratio.