THE EFFECTS OF TiN PARTICLES ON THE HAZ MICROSTRUCTURE AND TOUGHNESS IN HIGH NITROGEN TiN STEEL

In the coarse grain HAZ adjacent to the fusion line, most of the TiN particles in conventional Ti added steel are dissolved and austenite grain growth is easily occupied during welding process. To avoid this difficulty, thermal stability of TiN particle is improved by increasing the nitrogen content in steel. In this study, the effect of high nitrogen TiN particle on preventing austenite grain growth in HAZ was investigated. Increased thermal stability of TiN particle is helpful for preventing the austenite grain growth by pinning effect. High nitrogen TiN particle in simulated HAZ were not dissolved even at high temperature such as 1400 C and prevented the austenite grain growth in simulated HAZ. Owing to small austenite grain size in HAZ the width of coarse grain HAZ in high nitrogen TiN steel was decreased to 1/10 of conventional TiN steel. Even high heat input welding, the microstructure of coarse grain HAZ consisted of fine polygonal ferrite and pearlite and toughness of coarse grain HAZ was significantly improved.