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Introduction
The commercial
ultrahigh
strength
low alloy steel
AISI300M, the mechanical properties of which have been
modified by the addition of silicon and vanadium alloying
elements to AISI 4340 steel, has been extensively employed
in critical structural components for aircraft and aerospace
vehicles. 1 The 300M steel has a slightly higher carbon
content than 4340 steel and has high silicon content and a
small amount of vanadium. The silicon addition allows the
steel to be hardened at a tempering temperature
well
outside the brittle temper region. The vanadium addition
serves to restrict austenite grain growth during austenitising
treatment. These alloy modifications, together with vacuum
induction melting and vacuum arc remelting, give the steel
higher strength than 4340 steel. Therefore, if strength were
the only criterion, the steel could be used in preference to
other ultrahigh strength steels. Unfortunately,
the fracture
toughness of the steels is not improved compared with
4340 steel. In addition, the steel is highly susceptible to
hydrogen embrittlement
and stress corrosion cracking.2
For this reason, manufacturers and designers have focused
on the further improvement
of fracture toughness and
environmental properties for an equivalent tensile strength
level or tolerable loss of strength.
One potential approach to developing the mechanical
properties of the steel is the use of a beneficial property of
the mixed structure in which separate constituents
are
responsible for the different property requirements.
The
obvious choice of constituent for improving the mechanical
properties is austenite, which results in improved toughness
and good environmental
properties.3-s Fortunately,
previous investigations9-12
have shown that for a low alloy
steel having a high silicon content such as 300M steel,
isothermal
transformation
in the bainitic temperature
region (593-673 K) encouraged the retention of a large
amount of carbon enriched austenite in conjunction with
carbon free upper bainite ferrite. This is because silicon
severely retards the precipitation
of cementite from the
residual austenite during bainitic transformation.
In a
previous paper,!3 the present authors investigated the effect
of the microstructure
on the mechanical
properties
of
isothermally
bainite transformed
300M steel having a
mixed structure of bainite and retained austenite. The
results show that compared with conventional
quenched
Experimental procedure
A commercial aircraft quality 300M steel, vacuum induction
melted and vacuum arc remelted, was used in this
investigation. The steel was obtained in the form of hot
rolled bars 130 mm in diameter. The chemical composition
(wt-%) of the steel was Fe-0'42C-1'70Si-0'80Mn-0'80Cr0'41Mo-1'76Ni-0'08V
and the martensite start temperature
Ms (measured by dilatometry) was 558 K. Test specimens
with their longitudinal axes parallel to the rolling direction
were machined from the bar. Each specimen was fully
annealed.
The heat treatment schedules used in this investigation
are given in Table 1. All the specimens were austenitised in
an argon atmosphere furnace, and isothermal. transformation was carried out in a Pb-Sn bath'that
had sufficient
thermal capacity to avoid appreciable temperature change
during operation. Tempering was carried out in an oil bath.
The tensile properties were determined at room temperature (293 K) using an Instron machine, at a constant
strain rate of 670 x 10- 4 S - 1 and tensile specimens had a
March 1995
Vol. 11
245
246
on mechanical
properties
of 300M steel
100
l!Jil
(a)
S
80
:>
.-:"
.-
ffi 60
=-i=
~o 40
(.)
5 20
2
o (DQ)
500
1000
1500
TRANSFORMATION TIME, S
100
(b)
l:Jil
S
80
:>
.-:"
60
40
fi
20
.-
=i=
o
(.)
o
o (DQ)
500
1000
TRANSFORMATION TIME, S
100
(c)
l:Jil
S
80
:>
.-:"
Heat treatment
schedules
Heat treatment
593 K-MHT
623 K-MHT
623 K-IT
673 K-MHT
673 K-IT
COT
March 1995
=.-
o
(.)
o
40
c:::
(.)
ii
o (OQ)
500
1000
1500
2000
TRANSFORMATION TIME, S
Designation
593 K-IT
ffi 60
Vol. 11
Microconstituents
after
partial
isothermal
transformation at a 593, b 623, and c 673 K: curves 8,
M, and A show bainite, martensite, and retained
austenite, respectively; transformation
time origin
shows direct quench (DO)
on mechanical
properties
of 300M steel
247
Microstructure
(transformed
TESTS
March 1995
Vol. 11
248
on mechanical
properties
2100
N
2100
(a)
1900
1900
1700
IE
~ 1500
cn'
~ 1300
t-
~E
1700
1500
623 K
(a)
cn'
0.2\YS
~a:: 1300
~ 1100
1100
en
of 300M steel
900
700 '
900
700
20
20
(b)
(b)
15
15
10
~4:
10
C'
z:
uj
o
o
110
100
(c)
593 K
110
(c)
100
90
..
90
10
80
70
70
60
60
50
50
30
30
(d)
>=
25
LU
20
C'
a::
:z
LU
I-
4:
~
:8
>~
a::
4:
:x:
o
25
20
15
15
10
10
0 (COT)
500
1000
TRANSFORMATION
3
1500
Effect of transformation
time on a 0"2% yield stress
(0"2%VS) and ultimate tensile stress (UTS), b uniform
elongation (UE) and total elongation (TE), c K,c' and
d Charpy impact energy of steels isothermally
transformed at 593 K: time origin shows conventional
quench and temper (COT)
TIME, S
March 1995
Vol. 11
o (COT)
500
1000
TRANSFORMATION TIME, S
4
Effect of transformation
time on a tensile stresses,
b elongation, c K,c' and d Charpy impact energy of
steels isothermally transformed at 623 K
on mechanical
100
(a)
UTS
1700
~ 1500
tfa: 1300
~
en
~
O.2%YS
673 K
80
-()-
593 K
"-
()
<.--
70
0,
~CQT
1100
60
900
700
20
(b)
15
o
110
673 K
10
100
249
~K
90
:2
0---0
~E
e;,
I
E
of 300M steel
'.
110
2100
1900~673K
properties
(c)
90
80
Discussion
60
50
30
(d)
25
20~
15
10
Table 2
o (CQT) 500
1000
1500
2000
TRANSFORMATION TIME, S
5
Effect of transformation
time on a tensile stresses,
b elongation, c K,c' and d Charpy impact energy of
steels isothermally transformed at 673 K
Designation
Transformation
time, s
Bainite,
vol.-%
Retained
austenite,
vol.-%
593
593
623
623
673
673
750
1200
1020
1800
750
1200
50
88
50
82
50
75
7
12
10
18
13
25
K-MHT
K-IT
K-MHT
K-IT
K-MHT
K-IT
Mechanical
stability of
retained
austenite*, %
89'2
58'2
92'3
448
892
44'8
March 1995
Vol. 11
250
on mechanical
properties
of 300M steel
e
a COT steel; b 593 K-MHT steel (750 s); c 623 K-MHT steel (710 s); d 593 K-IT steel; e 673 K-MHT steel (1020 s); f 673 K-IT steel
March 1995
Vol. 11
properties
of 300M steel
251
Acl<nowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge Sumitomo Seimitsu
Co., Osaka, Japan for the preparation and donation of the
material used. The authors also wish to thank the referee
for helpful suggestions.
References
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
T.
Conclusions
1. A modified heat treatment (MHT) has been suggested
whereby the mechanical properties of 300M steel can be
improved. The MHT steel consisted of microstructures of
martensite, carbide free upper bainite, and retained austenite. This is produced by partial isothermal transformation
for the required time at 593, 623, or 673 K, followed by oil
quenching and subsequent 473 K tempering (after the
conventional 1173 K austenitisation).
2. An excellent combination of plane strain fracture
toughness K1c with other relevant mechanical properties
was obtained when 50 vol.-% bainite was associated with
tempered martensite and retained austenite for 593 K and
623K-MHT.
3. The 593 K-MHT steel showed improved K1c compared with CQT steel at a similar tensile strength level,
with little change of percentage elongation and Charpy
V-notch impact energy.
4. The 623 K-MHT, compared with the CQT, dramatically increased K1c, owing to an increase in percentage
elongation and Charpy V-notch impact energy, while the
strength decreased somewhat.
5. Compared with the CQT, the 673 K-MHT produced
some improvement in K1c, owing to an increase in
percentage elongation and Charpy V-notch impact energy,
but the treatment had no strength advantage.
6. The beneficial effects of 593 K and 623 K-MHT on
the mechanical properties can be attributed to the mechanically stabilised austenite and lower bainite appearing in
acicular form in association with martensite, which gives
better mechanical properties.
on mechanical
March 1995
Vol. 11