IMPROVED PROCESSING FOR MICROSTRUCTURES AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF A COMMERCIAL PIPELINE STEEL

The transformation productions of hot-deformation simulation experiments were investigated using a Gleeble-1500 hot simulator for a commercial pipeline steel. Based on the investigation results, the improved thermo-mechanical control processing (TMCP) schedules containing a two stage multi-pass controlled rolling coupled with moderate cooling rates were applied to hot rolling experiments and acicular ferrite dominated microstructure was obtained. Microstructures and mechanical properties of hot rolled plates were related to TMCP processing, and regression equations describing the relation between processing parameters and mechanical properties in the current TMCP were developed, which could be used to predict mechanical properties of the experimental steel during commercially processing. It was found that with an increase in cooling rate after hot rolling, grain size in the microstructure became smaller, the amount of polygonal ferrite decreased and acicular ferrite increased, and accordingly mechanical properties increased.