Abnormal growth of austenite grain of low-carbon steel

Niobium is an important alloying element for the steel. To know further the effect of Nb in the steel, the contrast experiments on the austenite grain growth of the 0.015%Nb and free Nb steels were carried out using Gleeble 1500 thermomechanical simulator. The experimental results indicate that the austenite grain of 0.015%Nb steel is finer than that of Nb free steel at 1150–1230 °C. And when the heating temperature arrives the critical temperature 1240 °C, the austenite grain of Nb steel suddenly grows up, while the austenite grain of Nb free steel changes little. Finally, the austenite grain of Nb steel is obviously coarser than that of Nb free steel. By transmission electron microscopy (TEM) using a carbon extraction replica technique, the precipitates of Nb(C,N) were not observed in the 0.015%Nb steel. It is concluded that the grain-boundary internal adsorption of Nb atoms leads to the result.