Microstructures of lath martensite have been studied intensively to understand their effect on the mechanical properties of steels. It is, however, said that the relation between microstructural factors and mechanical properties has not been clarified yet. The plastic deformation behavior of fully lath martensitic steels has become important because they are applied to automobile body structures such as bumper reinforcement. It is, therefore, important to understand the microstructural factors that control the work-hardening behavior of fully martensitic steels. Although we could not clarify differences in microstructural factors when manganese (Mn) concentrations of steels are altered, the work-hardening of 8 mass%Mn martensitic steel is much higher than that of 5 mass%Mn martensitic steel. It was found using the digital image correlation (DIC) method, that the strain concentration due to the in-lath-plane slip deformation is more developed in 5 mass%Mn martensitic steel than 8 mass%Mn martensitic steel. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) observations revealed the existence of two types of fine twins inside laths. Long twins that are parallel to the longitude of the lath are observed both in 5 mass%Mn and 8 mass%Mn martensitic steels. Short twins that partially cross the laths, on the other hand, can only be found in 8 mass%Mn martensitic steel. Since twin boundaries are high angle boundaries, the short twins are supposed to prevent the development of in-lath-plane slip deformation. This seems to be the mechanism of higher work-hardening behavior observed in 8 mass%Mn martensitic steel.

In the lower part of the blast furnace, molten slag and iron accumulate in the coke packed bed and is drained from the tapping hole. However, if tapping rate is reduced, these melts accumulate and an increase in the gas pressure drop occurs. This leads to the furnace troubles such as raw materials hanging.

In this paper, the cause of the increase in gas pressure drop by the accumulation of melt was clarified phenomenologically using experiments of cold model and numerical simulation.

As the result, it was proven that the gas flow region shrinks due to the accumulation of the melt, and the gas flow velocity near the tuyere increases. In addition, a numerical simulation of an actual blast furnace showed that gas pressure drop increased rapidly when average liquid level was within 1 m from the tuyere. If average liquid level increases to the vicinity of the tuyere, the shape of molten slag surface changes by gas pressure gradient, and liquid level on the tuyere side descends. In other words, when gas pressure drop due to the accumulation of molten slag is rapidly increased in the actual blast furnace, it is preferable to reduce the blast volume and increase the amount of tapping rate as soon as possible.

A cell structure development and a crack initiation during a fatigue of an Fe-3 mass%Si alloy was investigated through electron channeling contrast imaging in a scanning electron microscope and electron back-scatter diffraction analysis. The crystal rotation regions (CRRs), deformation bands (DBs), and cell bands (CBs) together formed a hierarchy in the dislocation structures. In the early stage of fatigue, deformation is constrained near grain boundaries; this impedes further dislocation propagation. This restriction is attributed the formation of CRRs with a width of several hundred micrometers. Further, DBs that were several microns wide were developed inside the CRRs, and CBs with a width of several hundred nanometers were formed inside the DBs. Meanwhile, a crack was initiated from a CRR near a grain boundary. At the crack tip, a DB penetrating the CRR was formed parallel to the crack-propagation direction. It was elucidated that the cell boundary in the DB had a high misorientation angle of approximately 10 degrees, which greatly affected to the crack initiation. In addition, the penetrating DB was composed of elongated cells and cell bands. Prior to crack initiation, the boundaries of the cell bands evolved in proportion to the increasing dislocation density during fatigue. The elongated direction of the cell boundary, which was almost parallel to the {110} plane with a tilt boundary feature, dominated the crack-propagation direction. The formation plane and the cell boundary development process can be explained by analyzing the geometrical relationship of the activated slip systems between adjacent cells.

In continuous casting, molten steel is fed from the tundish into the mold through the immersion nozzle. In the immersion nozzle, inclusions mainly composed of alumina present in the molten steel adhere and accumulate, it causes limitation of continuous castings. To prevent the nozzle clogging, Ar gas is blown into the immersion nozzle. However, Ar bubbles flow into the mold along with the molten steel and become trapped in the solidifying shell, causing bubbling defects of the slab. To suppress bubbling defects, it is effective to keep Ar bubbles away from the solidification interface or to use molten steel to wash away Ar bubbles that have adhered to the solidification interface. The molten steel flow in the mold is greatly affected by the shape of the immersion nozzle. In this paper, we consider the optimization of the shape of the immersion nozzle to reduce Ar bubbles trapped in the solidifying shell. A numerical model of molten steel flow and heat transfer solidification in the mold is combined with an optimization method. In the optimization process, Ar bubbles trapped in the solidifying shell are evaluated by a neural network to improve the calculation speed. The application of this method to the search for immersion nozzle shape is also reported, and the effectiveness of the obtained nozzle shape in reducing Ar bubbles is discussed.