Effects of tantalum content on the microstructure and mechanical properties of low-carbon RAFM steel

In order to explore the influence of tantalum content on the microstructure and mechanical properties of low carbon RAFM (reduced activation ferritic/martensitic) steels, three low carbon RAFM steels with different tantalum contents (0%, 0.027%, 0.073%) were designed. The precipitation behavior and effect of precipitates on the mechanical properties of the Low-C RAFM steel were investigated. The results indicate that increase of tantalum content causes decrease of the prior austenite grain size and the amount of M23C6 carbides precipitated along prior austenite grain boundaries and packet boundaries as well as increase of the amount of MX nano-sized particles within intragranular regions. The impact properties of low carbon RAFM steels are excellent regardless of the tantalum content. The impact properties and hardness are obviously improved by increasing tantalum content, which may be related to increase of the number of MX and decrease of M23C6. Furthermore, the tensile properties at elevated temperature below 600 °C are hardly changed with increase of tantalum content, yet those at 800 °C are improved with increasing tantalum content. This implies that MX carbides would be more important for tensile properties at higher temperature.