Tensile and impact behaviour of thermo mechanically treated and micro-alloyed medium carbon steel bar

In the present study, a comparison between thermo mechanically treated (TMT) and direct air cooled micro-alloyed hot rolled (MAHR) steel bar has been made in terms of microstructure, texture and mechanical properties. Tensile and Charpy impact tests were performed as a part of the mechanical investigation. Tensile strength and impact toughness values of TMT bar were higher than those of MAHR bar. It was also noticed that TMT bar exhibited better resistance to both ductile and brittle fracture at high and low temperatures compared to MAHR steel. This can be corroborated owing to the presence of fine tempered martensite at the periphery, a mixed microstructure of granular bainite, ferrite, and degenerated pearlite as an intermediate layer and a mixture of ferrite and pearlite at the core of the TMT bar. On the other hand, a coarse ferrite-pearlite phase mixture was present throughout the cross section for MAHR steel and sounded responsible for lower strength and impact toughness properties. Additionally, fractions of higher angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) in the core and smaller martensite packet around the rim section were also contributed beneficially to resist the cleavage crack propagation in TMT rebar. The higher intensity of gamma fiber of MAHR rebar has contributed lowest ductile-brittle transition temperature. Numerous cleavage cracks which were initiated from inclusions or carbide particles were also found responsible for crack propagation during both ductile and brittle types of fracture. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.