Effect of molybdenum on continuous cooling bainite transformation of low-carbon microalloyed steel

Through simulation of thermomechanical processing/on-line accelerated cooling processing and observation of microstructure, the effect of molybdenum on continuous cooling bainite transformation of ultra-low carbon microalloyed steel was studied. The continuous cooling transformation curves of the trial steels with or without molybdenum addition were also determined. The result showed that the separate temperature of bainite was obviously reduced and the size of microstructure became smaller as 0.40 wt% Mo was added to the steel. At the same time, the martensitic structure, which formed at some cooling conditions, became finer and dispersed more uniformly. The deformed austenite would transform to finer bainite even when the cooling rate was not too high. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.