Austenite Grain Growth Kinetics after Isothermal Deformation in Microalloyed Steels with Varying Nb Concentrations

Abstract

Grain growth equation constants n, Q and A for Nb bearing steels with the Nb varying from 0.002 wt% to 0.1 wt%, were experimentally determined under reheating and high temperature hot rolling roughing conditions. The constants from these treatments were then used to develop constitutive equations that incorporate the initial grain size D_o and a Nb-effect for grain growth predictions in these steels. Comparative analysis of the results showed that the values of the constants generated under rough rolling deformation conditions were slightly higher than those generated under reheating conditions. The activation energy for grain boundary migration Q was found to be in the range of 256 to 572 kJ/mol, the exponential constant n ranged from 2.6 to 6.5 and the material and processing condition’s constant A was found to range from 5.23 × 10¹¹ to 4.96 × 10²⁸ in all cases as a function of the Nb content. Analysis of the influence of the initial grain size D_o showed that any contribution of D_o can be neglected unless it is equal or more than 70 percent of the average size of the measured austenite grain size D. A logical degree of precision in predicting austenite grain growth in microalloyed steels with different Nb contents, has been achieved in the current work.