Austenite Recrystallization and Ferrite Refinement of a Nb Bearing Low Carbon Steel by Heavy Hot Deformation

강가공에 의한 Nb함유 저탄소강의 오스테나이트 재결정과 페라이트 미세화

Using various thermo-mechanical schedules characterized by varying reheating temperature, deformation temperature and strain, the austenite recrystallization and ferrite refinement of a Nb bearing low carbon steel(0.15C-0.25Si-1.11Mn-0.04Nb) were investigated. For single pass heavy deformations at $800^{\circ}C$, the 40% deformed austenite was not recrystallized while the 80% deformed one was fully recrystallized. Ferrite grains formed in the 80% deformed specimen was not very small compared with those in the 40% deformed specimen, which implied the recrystallized austenite was not more beneficial to ferrite refinement than the non-recrystallized one. In case of deformation in low temperature austenite region, a multi-pass deformation made finer ferrites than a single-pass deformation, as the total reduction was the same, due to more ferrite nucleation sites in the non-recrystallization of austenite for multi-pass deformation. When specimen was deformed at $775^{\circ}C$ that was $10^{\circ}C$ higher than $Ar_3$, the ferrite of about $1{\mu}m$ was formed through deformation induced ferrite transformation(DIFT), and the amount of ferrite was increased with increasing reduction. Dislocation density was very high and no carbides were observed in DIFT ferrites, presumably due to supersaturated carbon solution. By deformation in two phase(50% austenite+50% ferrite) region the very refined ferrite grains of less than $1{\mu}m$ were formed certainly by recovery and recrystallization of deformed ferrites and, a large portion of ferrites were divided by subgrain boundaries with misorientation angles smaller than 10 degrees.