PRETICONTROL Project. Ceit

TXT-procesamiento_termomecanico-preticontrol

PRETICONTROL

Control of precipitation sequences during hot rolling to improve product uniformity of titanium containing high strength steels

Financed by

European Commission

Número de expediente: RFSR-CT-2015-00013
Programa: RFCS

Partners

CRM (Belgique)
Ceit-IK4 (España)
OCAS (Belgique)
TATA STEEL UK (United Kingdom)
TKSE (Germany)
University of Glasgow (UK)

Summary

The project aims to understand how precipitation of Ti, in conjunction with Nb and V, influences microstructure and property development during processing of high titanium (max. 0.15wt%) containing high strength steels (>700MPa) and hence make recommendations for compositions which are relatively insensitive to varying processing conditions. This will be achieved by characterization of precipitation sequences during the main stages of the hot rolling process.

Influence of microalloying elements on austenite recrystallization behaviour and bainite phase transformation will be investigated by thermo-mechanical techniques coupled to high resolution characterization methods. Models will be developed and applied to optimise hot strip rolling strategy.

Ceit's role in the project

Ceit’s role in this project is focused on:

Performing thermomechanical tests to analyse the microstructural evolution of the project steels during hot deformation and phase transformation, using both torsion and dilatometry.
Characterization of the microstructures developed during the different processing periods using conventional metallography and microscopy (optical microscopy, SEM) and more advanced microscopy techniques (FEG-SEM, EBSD and TEM) which allow more detailed analysis as well as characterization of the nanoprecipitates which contribute to steel hardening.
Developing models for predicting the microstructural evolution of these steels including the contribution of high Ti levels.
Validation of these models using data from different trials. Based on the modelling results, suggest processing parameters relatively insensitive to varying conditions while obtaining the aimed mechanical properties.