Authors Accepted Manuscript

Effects of Cr and Nb addition on high-temperature

tensile properties in austenitic cast steels used for
turbo-charger application

Seungmun Jung, Seok Su Sohn, Yong Hee Jo,

Won-Mi Choi, Byeong-Joo Lee, Yong-Jun Oh, Gi-
Yong Kim, Seongsik Jang, Sunghak lee
www.elsevier.com/locate/msea

PII: S0921-5093(16)31111-X
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2016.09.049
Reference: MSA34134
To appear in: Materials Science & Engineering A
Received date: 13 June 2016
Revised date: 13 September 2016
Accepted date: 13 September 2016
Cite this article as: Seungmun Jung, Seok Su Sohn, Yong Hee Jo, Won-Mi Choi,
Byeong-Joo Lee, Yong-Jun Oh, Gi-Yong Kim, Seongsik Jang and Sunghak lee,
Effects of Cr and Nb addition on high-temperature tensile properties in austenitic
cast steels used for turbo-charger application, Materials Science & Engineering
A, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2016.09.049
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Effects of Cr and Nb addition on high-temperature tensile properties in austenitic cast
steels used for turbo-charger application

Seungmun Jung a, Seok Su Sohn a, Yong Hee Jo a, Won-Mi Choi a, Byeong-Joo Lee a,
Yong-Jun Oh b, Gi-Yong Kim c, Seongsik Jang c, and Sunghak Lee a
a
Center for Advanced Aerospace Materials
Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 790-784, Korea
b
Department of Advanced Materials Engineering
Hanbat National University, Daejeon 305-719, Korea
c
Research and Development Center
Key Yang Precision, Gimcheon 740-180, Korea

+82-54-279-2140(Telephone) / +82-54-279-5887(Fax)
*Corresponding Author e-mail: shlee@postech.ac.kr (S. Lee)

Abstract
In automotive turbo-chargers, excellent high-temperature properties are needed for retaining
their structures at extremely high temperature of exhausted gas, and thus austenitic cast steels
have been actively developed. In this study, high-temperature tensile properties of austenitic
cast steels containing different W, Nb, and Cr were interpreted by deformation and fracture
mechanisms related with carbides and austenite matrix. Replacement effects of W by Nb or Cr
were also investigated because of expensive alloying cost of W. The high-temperature tensile
test results revealed that the Cr-added steel containing many M 7C3 carbides showed the
higher strength than the Nb-added steel containing hard MC carbides. This was because the
strength could be enhanced by distributing carbides having slightly lower hardness such as
M7C3 carbides in the strengthened matrix as it could hold hard carbides, like in the Cr-
added steel. The Cr-added steel (1 wt% W) also showed the higher strength and elongation at
900 C than the basic-composition steel (2 wt% W), which indicated that the partly replacement
of W by Cr was successfully achieved.

Keywords: Austenitic cast steel; Turbo-charger; Replacement of W by Nb or Cr; MC and M7C3

carbides

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1. Introduction

Improvement of automotive engine performance has been devoted to increase vehicles fuel
efficiency and to reduce exhaust emission [1-8]. In turbo-chargers and exhaust systems,
excellent high-temperature properties are needed to retain their structures at extremely high
temperatures of exhausted gas, and thus austenitic cast steels have been actively developed as
desirable materials for automotive turbo-chargers. This is because they have excellent high-
temperature strengths and thermal fatigue properties in comparison to commercial cast steels [9-
15]. These steels are highly alloyed ones containing alloying elements of Ni, Cr, W, and Nb.
Here, Ni is added for stabilization of austenite matrix, Cr is added for carbide formation and
reduced oxidation and corrosion, and W and Nb are added for carbide formation and red
hardness [16-23]. In particular, W plays a role in solid-solution strengthening, and beneficially
affects the improvement in high-temperature strength [23-25].

Since these austenitic cast steels contain a number of coarse carbides in austenite matrix, their
high-temperature properties mainly depend on type and hardness of carbides formed during
casting. Most of coarse carbides are distributed mainly along solidification cell boundaries [23-
26], which may deteriorate high-temperature properties as well as thermal fatigue life. The
addition of Nb promotes the formation of very hard and thermally stable MC-type carbides [18-
22,27-29]. These MC-type carbides generally improve high-temperature hardness and strength,
but their size, shape, and volume fraction and adjacent matrix microstructures can negatively
affect the fracture behavior [30-32]. Cr forms M2C-, M7C3-, and M23C6-type carbides,
depending on chemical compositions and fabrication processes [33-36], but effects of
microstructural evolution due to the Cr addition on high-temperature properties are hardly
investigated.

In the present study, austenitic cast steels were designed by adjusting alloying elements to
improve high-temperature tensile properties according to the optimized formation of
homogeneously distributed hard carbides. A part of W was also replaced by Nb or Cr because of
expensive alloying cost of W. Three austenitic cast steels containing different W, Nb, and Cr
contents were fabricated, and room- and high-temperature tensile properties were investigated.
In addition to the experimental approach, fractions of equilibrium phases existing at high
temperatures, i.e., austenite, ferrite, and carbides, were examined by thermodynamic
calculations, and the quantitative fraction data were compared with experimentally obtained
data to effectively explain the high-temperature performance of the austenitic cast steels.

2. Experimental

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2.1. Austenitic cast steels

Y-block-shaped austenitic cast steel ingots (width: 50 mm, height: 110 mm, length: 180 mm)
were fabricated by a sand casting route at Castec Korea, Busan, Korea, and their compositions
are shown in Table 1. The basic steel was named to be W2, whose composition was
(0.35~0.5)C-(1.3~1.7)Mn-(1.4~1.7)Si-19.1Cr-(9.5~10.5)Ni-1.6Nb-1.9W-(2.2~2.3)Mo (wt%)
together with a small amount of P and S. W activates the carbide formation by bonding with C,
and works for solid solution hardening of austenite[22,25,37]. 1 wt% of W was replaced by 1
wt% of Nb or 2 wt% of Cr to produce W1Nb steel or W1Cr steel, respectively, as designated
in Table 1. Nb, as a strong carbide former, forms very hard and thermally stable MC-type
carbides, and is cheaper than W [20,21,38-41]. Cr, as an important element in austenitic cast
steels, improves the oxidation resistance by forming a Cr2O3 passive film on a steel surface
[19,42], and works as a former of M7C3-type carbides [43,44].

2.2. Microstructural analysis

The steel specimens were collected from the cast steel ingots, and were polished and etched
in a 10 ml HCl + 90 ml ethanol solution. Their microstructures were observed by an optical
microscope and a scanning electron microscope (SEM, model; S-4300E, Hitach, Tokyo, Japan).
Phases were analyzed by electron probe micro analysis (EPMA, model; JXA 8530F
microprobe, JEOL, Japan) and X-ray diffraction (XRD, Cu Ka radiation, scan rate; 2 deg
min-1, scan step size; 0.02 deg), and their volume fractions were measured by an image
analyzer (model; SigmaScan Pro ver. 4.0, Jandel Scientific Co., Erkrath, Germany). Electron
back-scatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis (step size; 0.8 mm) was performed by a field
emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM, model; Quanta 3D FEG, FEI Company,
USA), and the data were interpreted by an orientation imaging microscopy (OIM) analysis
software. Overall bulk hardness and matrix hardness were measured by a Vickers hardness
tester under 2 kg and 50 g loads, respectively.

2.3. Tensile tests

Round-type specimens (gage diameter; 6 mm, gage length; 25 mm) were tested at room
temperature and 900 C at a cross-head speed of 1.5 mm/min by a testing machine (model;
8801, Instron, Canton, MA, USA) of 100 kN capacity. In the 900 C-tensile test, a high-
temperature cylindrical chamber (size; 34 cm diameter 19 cm length) was attached to the
testing machine. The test temperature was measured during tensile tests by using thermocouple
contacted to the specimen. The yield strength was determined as 0.2% offset stress. After the
test, the cross-sectional area beneath the fracture surface was observed by an SEM.

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3. Results

3.1. Equilibrium phase diagrams

Thermodynamic calculations were adopted to examine fractions of equilibrium phases by

using ThermoCalc program [45] and an upgraded version of TCFE2000 [46,47]. Fig. 1(a)-(c)
show fractions of equilibrium phases present in the temperature range of 400 C~1400 C of the
W2, W1Nb, and W1Cr steels. The three steels show the similar thermodynamic behavior. In the
W2 and W1Cr steels, the austenite, ferrite, and MC carbide form from the liquid at
1330 C~1350 C, and their fractions increase steadily as the temperature decreases to
1240 C~1250 C (Fig. 1(a)-(c)), while the MC carbide start form above 1400 C in the W1Nb
steel because of the increased amount of Nb which is a strong MC-type carbide former (Fig.
1(b)). At inter-dendritic regions of cast structures, rest of liquid is remained, while reactions
between residual liquid and solid phases occur to form M7C3 carbides. However, equilibrium
phase diagrams are not basically applicable for as-cast structures because diffusion does not
completely occur inside solid phases [48]. Thus, solid phases formed from the C-segregated
liquid need to be calculated again below liquid dissolution temperature.

Phase fractions formed from the liquid (at black-dashed lines of Fig. 1(a)-(c)) and residual
liquid (at black-dashed lines of Fig. 1(d)-(f)) are summarized in Table 2. Detailed descriptions
of phase calculation method are provided in references [23]. In the W2 steel, fractions of
austenite, ferrite, and MC and M7C3 carbides at the black-dashed line of Fig. 1(a) are added with
those at the black-dashed line of Fig. 1(d). The fractions of ferrite and total carbide are highest
in the W1Cr steel, and decrease in the order of the W1Nb and W2 steels. The fractions of MC
and M7C3 are highest in the W1Nb and W1Cr steels, respectively, because additional contents of
Nb and Cr greatly affect the formation of MC and M7C3 carbides, respectively.

3.2. Microstructure

Optical micrographs of the as-cast W2, W1Nb, and W1Cr austenitic cast steels are shown in
Fig. 2(a)-(c). The three steels basically contain two types of carbides, i.e., brown- and gray-
colored ones, mostly distributed along solidification cell boundaries. Fig. 3(a)-(c) show the
XRD analysis data. Peaks of MC-type and M7C3-type carbides as well as austenite are found
without peaks of ferrite. These carbides are identified by an SEM micrograph and EPMA maps
in the W1Nb steel, as shown in Fig. 4. MC-type carbides are Nb-rich ones, and M7C3-type
carbides are Cr-, W-, and Mo-rich ones [22,40,49]. Thus, light-gray-colored Nb-rich regions and
dark-gray-colored Cr-rich regions indicate MC- and M7C3-type carbides, respectively, as
marked by arrows in Fig. 4. From the detailed microstructural analyses coupled with EPMA
mapping, brown-colored MC carbide, gray-colored M7C3 carbide, and austenite are marked by
arrows in Fig. 2(a)-(c). It is interesting to note that a considerably number of needle-shaped MC

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carbides are located inside cells in the W1Nb steel (Fig. 2(b)), whereas most of MC carbides are
mixed with M7C3 carbides in cell boundary regions in the W2 and W1Cr steels (Fig. 2(a) and
(c)). This is because MC carbides are early precipitated at the higher temperature prior to the
precipitation of M7C3 carbides in the W1Nb steel than in the W2 and W1Cr steels, as confirmed
by the thermodynamic calculation results (green arrow mark) in Fig. 1(b).

Inverse pole figure. (IPF) and phase maps of the W1Nb and W1Cr steels are shown in Fig.
5(a)-(d). Here in these maps, a few ferrites are observable, although they are not found in optical
micrographs, XRD data, and EPMA data (Fig. 2-4). Their volume fractions are 1.2% and 1.7%
in the W1Nb and W1Cr steels, respectively.

Table 3 shows the size of solidification cells and volume fractions of austenite, ferrite, and
carbide. Cell sizes of the W2, W1Nb, and W1Cr steels are 43 m, 45 m, and 40 m,
respectively, which are similar in the three steels. The total carbide volume fractions of the
W1Nb and W1Cr steels are higher than those of the W2 steel because many MC and M7C3
carbides are formed in the W1Nb and W1Cr steels, respectively. When the quantitative results
are compared with the thermodynamically calculated results, the calculated volume fractions are
somewhat underestimated, although these two results are almost matched. According to the
EBSD data (Fig. 5(a)-(d)), 1.2 and 1.7 vol.% of ferrite is observed in the W1Nb and W1Cr
steels, respectively, whereas it is not found in the W2 steel. In the case of ferrite, the measured
volume fractions are much lower than the calculated ones, but their trends are correlated.

3.3. Room-temperature Vickers hardness

Room-temperature overall bulk hardness and matrix hardness are shown in Table 4. The three
steels show similar overall hardness values when considering standard deviations. The overall
hardness is slightly higher than the matrix hardness as the volume fractions of hard carbides are
relatively low (3~5%) (Table 3). It is noted that the matrix hardness of the W1Nb steel is much
lower than that of the other steels, although its overall hardness is similar. This is because more
MC carbides reduce the hardness of austenite matrix in the W1Nb steel as the formation of MC
carbide needs more C than that of M7C3 carbide.

3.4. Room- and high-temperature tensile properties

Fig. 6(a) and (b) show engineering tensile stress-strain curves tested at room temperature and
900 C. The yield strength, tensile strength, and elongation were measured from these curves,
and the results are summarized in Table 5. The W2 steel shows the yield strength, tensile
strength, and elongation of 358 MPa, 570 MPa, and 5.2%, respectively, at room temperature,
together with a relatively high strain hardening (Fig. 6(a)). The W1Nb steel shows the similar
tensile deformation behavior to the W2 steel. Both the tensile strength and elongation of the

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W1Cr steel are higher than those of the other steels. The 900 C-yield and tensile strengths are
lower than the room-temperature ones, whereas the elongation is higher (Fig. 6(b)). Strain
hardening exists up to a strain of 3% in the three steels, and then disappears completely. The
strength of the W1Nb steel is much lower than those of the other steels, while the elongation is
higher. The W1Cr steel shows the higher strengths and elongation than the W2 steel.

3.5. Room- and high-temperature tensile deformation behavior

Optical micrographs of the cross-sectional area beneath the fracture surface for the tensile
specimen fractured at room temperature are shown in Fig. 7(a)-(c). In the three steels, the
fracture occurs mainly along the carbide-populated intercellular region. Since the three steels
are slightly elongated (elongation; ~5%, Table 5), a few microcracks are observed in the
intercellular region. Voids or cracks are hardly found at particle-shaped ferrites.

Optical micrographs of the cross-sectional area beneath the fracture surface for the tensile
specimen fractured at 900 C are shown in Fig. 8(a)-(c). Here, brown-colored MC carbides can
be differentiated from gray-colored M7C3 carbide, as marked by arrows. Beneath the fracture
surface, microcracks and cracks are frequently found (Fig. 8(a)-(c)). In the W2 and W1Cr steels,
most of cracks are found in cell boundary regions as indicated by arrows in Fig. 8(a) and (c),
along which they are connected. In the W1Nb steel, the fracture path follows mainly through
cracked MC carbides inside cells rather than M7C3 carbides in cell boundary regions (Fig. 8(b)).
In order to investigate the deformation initiation behavior, areas far from the fracture surface
were observed, the results are shown Fig. 8(d)-(f). In the W1Cr steel, some microvoids are
initiated in intercellular regions composed of MC and M7C3 carbides (Fig. 8(d)). When cell
boundary regions are magnified, microvoids are initiated mainly at MC carbides rather than
M7C3 carbides (Fig. 8(e)). In the W1Nb steel, microcracks are initiated at long-needle-shaped
MC carbides, and are readily developed into long cracks, while M7C3 carbides are hardly
cracked (Fig. 8(f)).

4. Discussion

Phase diagrams based on thermodynamic calculations (Fig. 1(a)-(f)) are useful for
investigating alloying effects on equilibrium phases [50,51]. The good correspondence exists
between actual microstructures and phase diagrams (Fig. 2(a)-(c)). It is interesting that the
ferrite is present in actual microstructures and phase diagrams. About 30% of ferrite exists at
room temperature in the equilibrium phase diagram of the W1Cr steel (Table 2) because Cr
works as a ferrite stabilizer, but only 1.7% of ferrite is present in the actual microstructure
(Table 3). The W1Nb steel also contains 1.2% and 24% of ferrite in actual microstructures and

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phase diagrams, respectively. Since the equilibrium state cannot be achieved during the casting,
there exists a gap in the measured and calculated ferrite fractions. The ferrite is not found in the
W2 steel, although the calculated ferrite fraction reaches 22%. Thus, the ferrite exists in the
actual microstructure when the ferrite fraction exceeds 22% in the phase diagrams.

Tensile properties might be affected by the ferrite. Room-temperature tensile properties of the
non-ferrite-containing W2 steel are almost same to those of the ferrite-containing W1Nb and
W1Cr steels (Fig. 6(a)) because properties of ferrite are not much different from those of
austenite at room temperature [52,53]. At 900 C, the ferrite deteriorates the strength because
properties of ferrite are worse than properties of austenite [52,53]. Fig. 9(a) and (b) show IPF
and phase maps of the W1Nb steel quenched from 900 C (approximately equal condition to the
high-temperature tensile test). According to these maps, the ferrite appears at 900 C, although
the ferrite fraction is lower (0.8%) than that measured at room temperature (1.7%) as expected
from the equilibrium phase diagram of Fig. 1(b). It is likely that tensile properties are not
influenced by only 1~2% of ferrite because voids or cracks at ferrites are not initiated (Fig. 8(a)-
(c)).

The precipitation behavior of MC and M7C3 carbides, which are present in the actual
microstructures (Fig. 2(a)-(c)) can also be estimated from thermodynamically calculated phase
diagrams (Fig. 1(a)-(f)). The fraction ranges of MC carbide in the phase diagrams (1.8~2.7%,
Table 2) are somewhat different from those in the optical micrographs (1.7~3.7%, Table 3), but
overall trends including M7C3 carbide fraction are corresponded in the measured and calculated
results. In the case of carbide formation, the casting state might be similar to the equilibrium
state.

MC and M7C3 carbides are populated in the W1Nb and W1Cr steels, respectively, while the
total carbide faction is almost same (Table 3). However, high-temperature yield and tensile
strengths are much higher in the W1Cr steel than in the W1Nb steel, which is not readily
explained by the difference in carbide volume fraction. In addition, when considering that the
hardness of MC carbide (2740 VHN) is higher than that of M7C3 carbide (2380 VHN) and
austenite matrix (200~220 VHN) [22], it can be expected that the W1Nb steel has the higher
strength than the W1Cr steel, but the high-temperature strength results (Table 5) are opposite to
the expectation.

Very hard MC carbides may negatively work for the strength because they can readily
act as void or crack initiation sites during the high-temperature deformation because the
hardness difference between carbide and matrix is quite large. The Vickers hardness of
austenite matrix of the W1Nb steel is lower than that of the W1Cr steel (Table 4). This is
because most of MC carbides are early precipitated inside cells at the higher temperature by

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consuming a considerable amount of C in the W1Nb steel than M7C3 carbides (Fig. 2(b)). In the
W1Cr steel containing more M7C3 carbides, the hardness gap between M 7C3 carbide and
matrix is decreased by a harder matrix because most of MC carbides are precipitated in cell
boundary regions, as shown in Fig. 2(c). Thus, M7C3 carbides having lower hardness than
MC carbides can be primarily in charge of strength at high temperatures.

The observation of crack initiation and propagation processes (Fig. 8(a)-(f)) as well as
high-temperature tensile test results (Table 5) indicates that the possibility of cracking at
carbides should also be taken into account in reasonably evaluating high-temperature
tensile strength. Thus, a different interpretation on cracking mechanism is needed. In the
W1Nb steel, the early precipitation of MC carbide inside cells reduces the matrix hardness,
which expands the hardness gap between carbide and matrix (Table 4). In the deformed
region of the 900 C-tensile specimen, microcracks are easily initiated at MC carbides, while
M7C3 carbides are hardly cracked (Fig. 8(f)). Since many MC carbides have a long needle shape,
microcracked MC carbides are readily propagated into nearby MC carbides to form long cracks
and to reach the final failure (Fig. 8(b)). These crack initiation and propagation are activated
by the large hardness gab between MC carbide and matrix. Thus, cracked microstructures
cannot sufficiently take over applied stresses, thereby leading to the deterioration of
strength. The ample formation of MC carbides in the W1Nb steel has a negative effect on
high-temperature tensile strength.

In the W1Cr steel whose matrix hardness is much higher than that of the W1Nb steel
(Table 4), the hardness gap between M 7C3 carbide and matrix is smaller than that between
MC carbide and matrix in the W1Nb steel. The observation results of the deformed region
(Fig. 8(c)-(e)) indicate that most of cracks are found in cell boundary regions composed of MC
and M7C3 carbides, while hard MC carbides in cell boundary regions play a role in initiating
microvoids in the initial stage of deformation (Fig. 8(c) and (d)). These crack initiation and
propagation processes are rather slow and steady because of the high matrix hardness as
well as small hardness gap between carbide and matrix, and thus the higher stress is
required for the further deformation even in the already cracked microstructures, thereby
leading to the higher strength than that of the W1Nb steel. In addition, the crack
propagation is rather difficult than that of the W1Nb steel because MC carbides formed in
the W1Cr steel are not long-needle-shaped and are mixed with M7C3 carbides. In order to
improve high-temperature strength, therefore, the strengthening of the matrix is quite
important for holding carbides rather than carbides themselves.

As aforementioned above, understanding of microstructural parameters gives a basic idea

required for improving tensile properties of the austenitic cast steels. High-temperature

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strengths are enhanced by distributing carbides having slightly lower hardness such as M 7C3
carbides in the strengthened matrix because it can hold hard carbides. Since the W1Cr steel
shows the higher strengths and elongation at 900 C than the W2 steel, it is believed that the
partly replacement of W by Cr is successfully achieved in this study. In the W1Nb steel
showing increased formation temperature and fraction of MC carbide by the Nb addition,
on the other hand, hard MC carbides reduce the hardness of austenite matrix, and the hardness
gab between carbide and matrix promotes the microcracking at MC carbides. This reduces
a reinforcing role of carbides, and deteriorates the high-temperature strength. In order to
improve high-temperature tensile properties, the distribution of carbides having rather lower
hardness inside the more strengthened matrix is desirable, and thus microstructural
conditions and alloy designs enabling to enhance the matrix property are needed in the
future. The fatigue data, e.g., thermo-mechanical fatigue properties, are also necessary for
austenitic cast steels to be applied to turbo-chargers because turbo-chargers are practically used
under thermo-mechanical environments at high temperatures. However, it is believed that the
present high-temperature tensile test data would be enough to evaluate basic mechanical
properties of austenitic cast steels because high-temperature tensile properties are generally
correlated with thermo-mechanical fatigue properties.

5. Conclusions

Room- and high-temperature tensile properties of three austenitic cast steels containing
different W, Nb, and Cr contents were interpreted by deformation and fracture mechanisms
related with carbides and austenite matrix.

1) In order to investigate alloying effects on equilibrium phases, phase diagrams based on

thermodynamic calculations were used. Two-step calculations were adopted to obtain phase
fractions because the equilibrium state could not be achieved during the casting. Calculated
phase fractions were corresponded with experimentally measured fractions, although the former
was somewhat overestimated.

2) 22~30% of ferrite was estimated in the equilibrium phase diagrams, but only 0~1.7% of
ferrite existed in the actual microstructures, which was basically associated with equilibrium
and non-equilibrium states. The microstructural observation of the tensile-deformed region
indicated that voids or cracks were not initiated at ferrites, and that overall tensile properties
were hardly influenced by the existence of 0~1.7% of ferrite.

3) The possibility of cracking at carbides should be taken into account in evaluating high-
temperature tensile strength. In the W1Nb steel, the early precipitation of hard MC carbides

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inside solidification cells reduced the matrix hardness, and expanded the hardness gap
between MC carbide and matrix. Since microcracks were easily initiated at these MC carbides
by the large hardness difference, the W1Nb steel could not sufficiently take over applied
stresses, thereby leading to the deterioration of strength.

4) In the W1Cr steel whose matrix hardness was much higher than that of the W1Nb steel,
most of cracks were found in cell boundary regions composed of M7C3 and MC carbides. Since
these crack initiation and propagation processes were rather slow and steady, the higher
stress was required for the further deformation even in the already cracked microstructure,
thereby leading to the higher high-temperature strength than that of the W1Nb steel. The
W1Cr steel also showed the higher strengths and elongation at 900 C than the W2 steel, which
indicated that the partly replacement of W by Cr was successfully achieved.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the World Class 300 Project R&D Program under a grant No.
10050290-2013-39 and by Brain Korea 21 PLUS Project for Center for Creative Industrial
Materials. Authors are grateful to Mr. Hyeungjun Kim of Key Yang Precision for the
fabrication of austenitic cast steels.

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Table 1.
Compositions of the austenitic cast steels. (unit; weight %)

Steel C Si Mn P S Ni Cr Nb W Mo

W2 0.35~0.5 1.4~1.7 1.3~1.7 0.01~0.03 0.10~0.25 9.5~10.5 19.1 1.6 1.9 2.2~2.3
W1Nb 0.35~0.5 1.4~1.7 1.3~1.7 0.01~0.03 0.10~0.25 9.5~10.5 19.5 2.3 1.2 2.2~2.3
W1Cr 0.35~0.5 1.4~1.7 1.3~1.7 0.01~0.03 0.10~0.25 9.5~10.5 21.7 1.5 1.1 2.2~2.3

Table 2.
Thermodynamic calculated fractions of equilibrium phases in the austenitic cast steels. (unit: %)

Steel Austenite Ferrite MC M7C3 Total Carbide

W2 Bal. 22.02 1.84 0.21 2.05
W1Nb Bal. 24.02 2.67 0.34 3.01
W1Cr Bal. 29.98 1.77 2.06 3.83

Table 3.
Quantitative results (solidification cell size and volume fractions of ferrite and carbides) in the
austenitic cast steels.

Solidification Volume Fraction (%)

Steel
Cell Size (m) Ferrite* MC M7C3 Total Carbide
W2 43 3.9 - 2.0 0.2 1.4 0.4 3.4 0.8
W1Nb 45 5.4 1.2 1.5 3.7 0.5 1.4 0.5 5.1 1.1
W1Cr 40 2.1 1.7 0.7 1.7 0.7 3.6 0.7 5.3 0.7

* Volume fraction of ferrite was measured from EBSD maps in Fig. 5(a)-(d).

TGX\GTG
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Table 4.
Room-temperature Vickers hardness test data of the austenitic cast steels.

Steel Overall Bulk Hardness (VHN) Matrix Hardness (VHN)

W2 202 6 201 4
W1Nb 208 8 170 2
W1Cr 212 4 206 12

Table 5.
Room-temperature- and 900 C-tensile test data of the austenitic cast steels.

Room Temperature 900 C

Yield Tensile Yield Tensile
Steel Elongation Elongation
Strength Strength Strength Strength
(%) (%)
(MPa) (MPa) (MPa) (MPa)
W2 358 7 570 2 5.2 1.4 149 2 172 4 24.1 6.1
W1Nb 332 4 557 3 5.0 3.3 133 2 156 1 34.9 5.2
W1Cr 373 8 604 1 5.5 2.1 154 5 180 8 33.4 8.4

TGX]GTG
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 Figure Caption
Fig. 1. Fractions of equilibrium phases present in the temperature range of 400 C~1400 C of
the (a) and (d) W2, (b) and (e) W1Nb, and (c) and (f) W1Cr steels. According to fractions of
residual liquid (fLresidue) at inter-dendritic areas (blue-dashed circles in (a)-(c)), phase fractions
are calculated again as shown in (d)-(f).

Fig. 2. Optical micrographs of the as-cast (a) W2, (b) W1Nb, and (c) W1Cr steels, showing two
types of carbides, i.e., brown-colored MC carbide and gray-colored M7C3 carbide, in the
austenite matrix.

Fig. 3. X-ray diffraction data of the (a) W2, (b) W1Nb, and (c) W1Cr steels, showing peaks of
austenite and carbides.

Fig. 4. SEM micrograph and EPMA maps of the W1Nb steel, showing MC- and M7C3-type
carbides as indicated by arrows.

Fig. 5. EBSD inverse pole figure (IPF) and phase maps of the (a) and (b) W1Nb and (c) and (d)
W1Cr steels. Ferrite particles are as marked by arrows.

Fig. 6. Room-temperature- and 900 C-tensile stress-strain curves.

Fig. 7. Optical micrographs of the cross-sectional area beneath the fracture surface for the
tensile specimen fractured at room temperature of the (a) W2, (b) W1Nb, and (c) W1Cr steels.
The fracture occurs mainly along the intercellular region populated with carbides

Fig. 8. Optical micrographs of the cross-sectional area beneath the fracture surface for the
tensile specimen fractured at 900 C of the (a) W2, (b) and (f) W1Nb, and (c)-(e) W1Cr steels,
showing many cracks formed in highly deformed areas.

Fig. 9. (a) EBSD inverse pole figure (IPF) and (b) phase maps of the 900 C-quenched W1Nb
steel (approximately equal condition to the high-temperature tensile test). The ferrite appears at
900 C, although its volume fraction is lower (0.8%) than the room-temperature ferrite fraction
(1.7%).

TGX^GTG
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 (a) W2 (b) W1Nb (c) W1Cr
1 1 1
g L g fLa L g fLa L
fLa

0.1 a fL_residue 0.1 a 0.1 a

M7C3 fL_residue
M7C3 fL_residue
MC
0.01 MC 0.01 0.01 MC

Fraction of Phase
M7C3
0.001 0.001 0.001
400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400

Temperature (C)
(d) W2 (e) W1Nb (f) W1Cr
1 1 1

0.1 L 0.1 0.1 fL_residue

fL_residue a g
fL_residue g
a g
0.01 0.01 a 0.01 M7C3

Fraction of Phase
M7C3
M7C3
0.001 0.001 0.001
400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400

Temperature (C)

Fig. 1.
(a) W2 (b) W1Nb (c) W1Cr
M7C3
Austenite MC

Austenite
Austenite
M7C3
MC
MC
M7C3

50 m 50 m 50 m

Fig. 2.
 Austenite Ferrite M7C3 MC

(a) W2 (b) W1Nb (c) W1Cr

Intensity
30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

2q (degree) 2q (degree) 2q (degree)

Fig. 3.
 W1Nb SEI Nb (MC Type) Cr (M7C3 Type)
MC

Austenite

W (M7C3 Type) Mo (M7C3 Type)

M7C3

10 m

Fig. 4.
 Va : 1.2% Va : 1.7%
(a) W1Nb (b) W1Nb (c) W1Cr (d) W1Cr

50 m 50 m 50 m 50 m

Fig. 5.
 700 250
(a) (b)
25 C 900 C
600 W1Cr
200
500
W2
400 150 W1Cr
W1Nb
300 100 W1Nb
W2

Stress (MPa)
Stress (MPa)
200
50
100

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 0 10 20 30 40
Tensile Strain (%) Tensile Strain (%)

Fig. 6.
 W2 W1Nb W1Cr

Microcrack
Microcrack
Microcrack

100 m 100 m 100 m

Fig. 7.
(a) W2 (b) W1Nb (c) W1Cr

M7C3
Microcrack
Microcrack MC
M7C3

MC M7C3 Microcrack
MC 50 m 50 m 50 m

(d) W1Cr (e) W1Cr (f) Microcrack at

W1Nb
MC MC carbide

MC Microvoid at
MC carbide M7C3
Microvoid

M7C3

M7C3
50 m 25 m 50 m

Fig. 8.
 Va : 0.8%
(a) (b) W1Cr

50 m 50 m

Fig. 10.