Materials Science and Engineering A319 321 (2001) 316 320

www.elsevier.com/locate/msea

A study on the mechanical strength change of 2.25Cr1Mo steel

by thermal aging
Hyuntae Yang *, Sangtae Kim
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yeungnam Uni6ersity, Oyongsan, 712 -749, South Korea

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the thermal embrittlement and the mechanical properties of 2.25Cr 1Mo steel aged
at high temperature for extended periods. Original and aged materials were tested to obtam the tensile strength, hardness and
impact-absorbed energy. The tensile strength, hardness and impact-absorbed energy decreased as aging time was increased. X-ray
dirtraction was used to study changes in carbide structure. These changes lead to thermal embrittlement. 2001 Elsevier Science
B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Carbide extract; Energy transition temperature; Fatigue test; High temperature tensile test; Thermal embrittlement

1. Introduction
Structural steel components should have good toughness even after being subjected to elevated temperatures
for extended periods, a process that can cause temper
embrifflement. However, material degradation such as
thermal embrittlement occurs during prolonged service
at the working temperature range of steel power plant
steam pipes. Previous research on thermal embrittlement has addressed the following subjects:
1. the embrittlement mechanism and fracture morphology [1,2],
2. heat treatment for preventing brittle fractures,
3. the effect of microelements on degradation [35],
4. the correlation between impact energy and fracture
toughness [6 9].
The embrifflement mechanism has not been clearly
examined until recently. Now the embrittlement due to
grain-boundary carbide precipitation and the equivalent segregation can be exammed with the advent of
better analytical equipment.
This study was conducted to examine changes in the
strength of 2.25Cr 1Mo steel caused by high-temperature aging and to determine the characteristics of the
* Corresponding author. Tel.: + 82-53-8102456; fax: +82-538133703.
E-mail address: stkim@yu.ac.kr (H. Yang).

change with different aging time and temperature. This

alloy is used extensively in the steam pipes and pressure
vessels of power plants.

2. Experimental procedure
The steel used in the experiments was 2.25Cr 1Mo
steel. The mechanical properties and chemical composition of 2.25Cr 1Mo steel are listed elsewhere [1,2]. The
test specimens for investigating the degree of thermal
embrittlement were made from artificially aged and
in-service-aged materials. The artificially aged specimens were annealed for 500, 1000, and 5000 h at
530 C. The in-service-aged materials came from the
elbow tube of a steel pipe, which had been used for
about 10 000 h at 530 C. These specimens were cut as
shown in Fig. 1.
All specimens were tested to obtain the impact-absorbed energy, high-temperature tensile strength, and
hardness. The effect of fatigue crack growth with increasing aging time was also investigated. After each
test, the specimen was examined to compare the morphology of the carbides. For this, the carbide particles
were extracted by electrolytic dissolution.
Concerning the tensile test at the elevated temperature, tests were periormed up to 600 C at intervals of
100 C and the tensile strength was measured at each

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H. Yang, S. Kim / Materials Science and Engineering A319321 (2001) 316320

317

temperature. We also performed Rockwell hardness

tests, micro-Vickers hardness tests, and impact tests.
Chevron V-notched (CVN) specimens were used for the
impact tests. The impact test data were assumed to be
represented by the following equation [10]
E =A+ Btanh

T T0
C

(1)

where A, B, and C are parameters, T is the temperature

of the impact test, E is the CVN impact-absorbed
energy, and T0 is the energy transition temperature.

Fig. 4. Temperature dependence of the CVN impact-absorbed energy

of 2.25Cr 1Mo steel.

Fig. 1. Schematic for the location of the tensile and impact test
specimens.

Fatigue crack growth rates in the Paris region were

measured. The specimens with different aging conditions were tested under load control, using a sine wave
load form, with a load ratio of 0.1 and a frequency of
10 Hz. The crack length was monitored continuously
using a traveling microscope.
Carbide morphology following thermal embrittlement was studied on the extracted carbides. The electrolyte used was a mixture of 95% methanol and 5%
muriatic acid. X-ray diffraction was used to identify the
morphology of the carbides.

3. Experimental results

Fig. 2. Temperature dependence of the tensile strength of virgin and

used tube material.

Fig. 3. Rockwell and micro-Vickers hardness as a function of aging

time.

The tensile strengths of 2.25Cr1Mo steels in the

original and the in-service-aged conditions are shown in
Fig. 2. The tensile strength of the aged steel is lower
than that of the original material. At 530 C, this
difference is about 150 C. Generally the tensile
strength at high temperatures relates directly to the
alloy composition. Typically, temperatures between 400
and 500 C affect the tensile strength of steels containing C, Cr and Mo. In case of C, this effect starts at
200 C. The strengthening effect decreases with the
change of carbide morphology caused by a long exposure at high temperature.
In the case of the original material, secondary hardening is clearly seen near 400 C. However, in the case
of the used material, there is a weaker effect. This
reduction of secondary hardening is due to the formation of Cr-rich carbides during the long time in use.
The Rockwell and Vickers hardness tests results are
shown in Fig. 3. A clear difference in hardness is seen
between the original and used material. As the heating
time increased, both hardnesses decreased almost
linearly.

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H. Yang, S. Kim / Materials Science and Engineering A319321 (2001) 316320

Fig. 4 shows CVN impact test results and approximate curves for materials artificially aged at the different aging times. Fig. 5 shows the approximate absorbed
energy transition temperature obtained from the data in
Fig. 4. The energy transition temperature can be represented by the following equation, which was obtained
by curve fitting the data in Fig. 5.
T0 = 37+0.1027 t 0.574

(2)

Here T0 is the energy transition temperature (C) and

t is the thermal aging time (h). This equation can be
used to estimate the degradation of structural steels
after a long exposure to high temperatures.
Fig. 6 shows the result of fatigue crack growth rate
versus the stress intensity factor during fatigue cyclic
tests. There is no clear difference between the growth

Fig. 5. Energy transition temperature as a function of thermal aging

time.

Fig. 7. X-ray diffraction patterns (Cu Ka radiation) of the carbides

extracted from 2.25Cr 1Mo steel in the original condition and from
steel aged for various times.

rates of the original and aged specimens, but a somewhat different growth rate is observed in the used
material. In spite of the fact that the morphology and
distribution of the carbides changes with aging time,
the behavior of the carbide does not show any change
during the fatigue cycling. This means that the behavior
of the carbide is not relevant to fatigue cycling.
The carbide precipitation obtained by bulk electrolytic extraction was analyzed by X-ray diffraction, as
shown in Fig. 7. M23C6, M2C and M3C were found
both in the original and aged specimens. With increasing aging time, the amount of M23C6 increased. For the
material used for a long time at high temperature, the
X-ray analysis showed different types and quantities of
carbides. In particular, the amount of M7C3 increased
with increasing aging time. Generally the behavior of
carbides for the 2.25Cr1Mo steel used at high temperatures for a long period evolved with time as follows
[11]:
e-Carbide
+
M3C

Fig. 6. Crack elongation rate, da/dN, as a function of the stress

intensity factor for virgin and aged 2.25Cr 1Mo steel.

M3C

M3C
+
M2C

M7C3
.

M23C6 M6C

It is known that M6C stabilizes at temperatures

between 815 and 980 C, which is higher than the
stabilizing temperature of M23C6, around 760 to
850 C. Actually, the temperature of heat treatment
and the in-service temperature were about 530 C.
Therefore, M23C6 and M6C carbides could not be identified in specimens aged for a long period at a temperature of 530 C. It thus seems that M23C6 carbides had
already precipitated during the steel manufacturing
process. The M7C3 carbides identified in Fig. 7 would
originate from the transformation of M23C6, M2C, and
M3C. Similar observations have been documented elsewhere [12].

H. Yang, S. Kim / Materials Science and Engineering A319321 (2001) 316320

2.25Cr1Mo steel has ferrite and pearlite phases. As

shown in Fig. 8, the ferrite phase transformed to
pearlite by exposure at high temperature. It is due to
the fact that Fe3C in the ferrite was combined with
other components during the heat treatment. Fig. 9
shows the microstructures of different sections of the
in-service-aged steel tube. Micrographs of the lateral
side, inside, and outside section show long grains having shapes like rugby balls. However, the front section
has spherical grains. During operation at high temperatures for a long period, the elongated grains become
more spherical and carbides grow at the grain
boundaries. These became very sensitive to crack initiation and the steel becomes brittle.

4. Conclusions
The purpose of this study was to investigate the
thermal embrittlement and the mechanical properties of
2.25Cr1Mo steel after different aging conditions. The
results are summarized as follows.

319

1. The difference between the tensile strength of the

original and in-service-aged steel is larger at the test
temperature of 530 C than at room temperature.
The tensile strength of used material is about 150
MPa less than the original material.
2. Energy transition temperatures and hardness can be
described as a function of aging time. However,
there was no apparent dependence of fatigue crack
growth rate on aging time.
3. Several carbides were observed in the original and
the aged steel and some carbides were transformed
during high-temperature aging.
4. The 2.25Cr1Mo steel contains both ferrite and
pearlite phases, and the pearlite phase increased
with increasing aging time. The microstructure of
the used material shows crystalline elongated grain
along the longitudinal direction of the tube. During
operation at high temperatures for long period, the
elongated grains become more spherical and carbides grow at the grain boundaries. These became
very sensitive to crack initiation and the steel becomes brittle.

Fig. 8. Microstructure of 2.25Cr 1Mo steel, (a) original (b) used material.

Fig. 9. Microstructures of used 2.25Cr 1Mo steel tube, (a) axial cross section, (b) diagonal cross section, (c) outside surface, and (d) inside surface.

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H. Yang, S. Kim / Materials Science and Engineering A319321 (2001) 316320

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