UNDERSTANDING

DUAL PRECIPITATION
STRENGTHENING IN LOW CARBON
STEEL
MINI PROJECT
PREPARED BY: SAURABH KAUSAL (111511021)
KIRAN KHARTODE (111511022)

GUIDED BY: DR. J K CHAKRAVARTTY

STEEL CHAIR PROFESSOR
INTRODUCTION

• Low Carbon Steel is alloyed with Cu and Ti/Mo

• To synergize the effect on Mechanical Properties
• Dual precipitation of (Ti,Mo)C and Copper
OBSERVED PROBLEM

• Difficult to quantify precipitation hardening

• Nanometer size and poor diffraction contrast of Cu precipitates
• SANS analysis shows precipitates with a bimodal size distribution which cannot
distinguish between Copper and Carbide precipitates
• Difficulty in analysing the steels forming multiple precipitates of similar size
OBJECTIVES

1. To prepare 3 low C steels by subjecting them to Hot Rolling and Interrupted

Cooling
2. Microstructure characterization of these samples using SEM, TEM and SANS
3. Mean size calculation of Cu precipitates by TEM and SANS analysis
4. Calculations of precipitation strengthening contributions
5. Determination of Mechanical Properties
 Literature Review
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF STEEL
EFFECT OF TITANIUM ON MECHANICAL
PROPERTIES OF FERRITIC STEEL
EFFECT OF TITANIUM/MOLYBDENUM ATOMIC
CONCENTRATION RATIO ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES

The yield strength and tensile strength and % elongation for the steels from the
tensile tests are given in the following Table .
The yield strength increases by ~70% after alloying with copper and with
further addition of Ti-Mo increases by ~185%.
CHARACTERIZATION OF NANOMETER-SIZED CARBIDES
SMALL ANGLE NEUTRON SCATTERING (SANS)

• Dual nature of Neutron

• Nuclear Scattering and Magnetic Scattering
• Scattering length density
ρ(r) = biδ(r − ri)
Or ρ = (Σin bi/ V)
• Coponents of macroscopic cross-section:
 MICROSTRUCTURE OF STEELS

a) Plain C
b) 1.7Cu
c) TiMo
d) CuTiMo
TEM MICROGRAPH OF PRECIPITATES

Bright Field Image from

a) Cu ppts (1.7 Cu)
b) Carbide ppts (TiMo)
c) Both carbide and Cu
ppts (CuTiMo)
ESTIMATING PRECIPITATION STRENGTHENING
CONTRIBUTION

1. Linear superposition
2. Pythagorean Superposition
3. Ashby- Orowan Relation
1. LINEAR SUPERPOSITION
Assumptions
• The Cu and CuTiMo steels have base composition similar to plain carbon steel .
• The solubility of titanium and molybdenum in ferrite is low and thus it will have negligible
solid solution strengthening effect

• where , Δσg = increment in the strength because of the slightly finer grain size of CuTiMo
σCu = the contribution from solid solution strengthening by copper
2. THE PYTHAGOREAN SUPERPOSITION

• By contrast, Here the increment in yield stress due to precipitation is considered in terms of the
individual incremental increases in the yield stress.

i.e

where σ ppt is the increment in yield stress due to precipitation strengthening in CuTiMo.

• Using above equation the increment in strengthening in CuTiMo was calculated to be 387.6 MPa which
is in good agreement with the value derived from the measured yield strength viz. 380 MPa.
• The effectiveness of the Pythagorean superposition for dual nanoprecipitation strengthening can be
supported by SANS measurement
ASHBY-OROWAN RELATIONSHIP

• The precipitation strengthening contribution can also be estimated directly from the Ashby–
Orowan relationship using the precipitate diameter and volume fraction.

• where K is a constant = 5.9 N/m , b is the burgers vector , d and f are the diameter and
volume fraction of precipitates.
• Above equation is derived based on the assumption that the precipitates are incoherent,
spherical and randomly dispersed on the slip plane.
CONCLUSION
• Alloying with Cu, Ti and Mo increased the yield and tensile strength of the hot rolled
and interrupt cooled low carbon steel .
• TEM and SANS analysis can be used to get mean size of nano sized copper
precipitates
• The Pythagorean superposition gives a good estimate of the combined increment in
precipitation strengthening due to (Ti,Mo)C carbides and copper precipitates.
• The precipitation strengthening contribution calculated using the Ashby–Orowan
equation with volume fraction and size from SANS analysis is in reasonable
agreement with the measured values.
Any Questions ??