Abstract

The effects of annealing temperature and holding time on recrystallization and grain growth in Nb-stabilized AISI 347H austenitic stainless steel containing 0.55 wt.% Nb were investigated under isothermal conditions. Specimens were annealed at 1000°C and 1200°C for 5, 10, and 30 min. Recrystallization at 1000°C was characterized by scanning electron microscopy–electron backscatter diffraction (SEM–EBSD), while grain size was quantified by optical metallography using ImageJ software. At 1000°C, the material was approximately 65% recrystallized after 5 min and approximately 95% recrystallized after 10 min; after 30 min, the microstructure was fully recrystallized and exhibited substantial grain growth. At 1200°C, rapid transition from precipitate-controlled boundary pinning to rapid grain growth where fully recrystallized structure was obtained within the first 5 min, followed by pronounced grain coarsening with increasing holding time. The measured mean grain sizes at 1200°C were 57, 85, and 235 μm after 5, 10, and 30 min, respectively. The accelerated grain growth at 1200°C is consistent with increased grain-boundary mobility and reduced effectiveness of Nb containing precipitates as boundary-pinning agents. A power-law grain-growth model was applied to the 1200°C data, giving a growth exponent of 1.597 and predicting a grain size of approximately 162 μm after 20 min. The results demonstrate the strong influence of annealing temperature and time on recrystallization and subsequent grain-boundary migration in AISI 347H. 

ABSTRACT

The fatigue behavior of 2024 aluminum alloy is strongly influenced by heat treatment conditions, particularly T6 and retrogression and re-ageing (RRA) processes. In this study, specimens obtained from 2024 alloy plates were solution heat-treated at 520°C /2 h and subsequently aged to the T4 condition at 120°C/24 h. All samples were then subjected to a natural ageing (shelf life) period of 15 days before undergoing retrogression at approximately 220°C/3 min, followed by re-ageing at 165°C for 2h. The heat-treated samples were evaluated using tensile testing, electrical conductivity in %IACS and high cycle fatigue testing after all proposed heat treatment cycles. The samples were further tested under high-cycle fatigue conditions. The results indicate that both tensile properties and electrical conductivity were adversely affected after the 15-day shelf life. Distinct differences in fatigue behavior were observed between the retrogression and T6 (re-ageing) treated alloys. The retrogression treatment for a short time for the samples after 15 days, exhibited an improvement of mechanical strength and electrical conductivity. However, re-aging of these samples for 165/2hr shows beak strength with decrease in electrical conductivity. Although, T6 condition provides superior strength, the Retrogression treatment offers high fatigue performance by improving crack growth resistance, making it a more suitable choice for applications requiring enhanced fatigue durability. Keywords: Retrogression and re-aging, Fatigue, Electrical conductivity, crack growth, Strength 

An attempt has been made to evaluate the effect of welding parameters on the weld penetration, weld bead width and heat effective zone of Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welded 2 mm 304L stainless steel joints. The welding parameters including arc current, welding travel speed and gas flow rate were used to achieve the optimum joint. Taguchi technique has been implemented to optimize the welding parameters. Orthogonal array L9 (Three factors with three levels 3x3) was used to study the effect of arc current, welding travel speed and gas flow rate on the quality of 304 stainless steel welds. Signal to a noise ratio (SNR) and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) are also used to determine the main effects of different welding parameters on the weld bead width (WB), weld penetration (WP) and heat affected zone (HAZ). Results showed that welding current has significant effect, whereas gas flow rate showed no effect on the quality of 304Lwelded joints. Welding current of 185A, welding speed of 135mm/min and gas flow rate of 15lit/min have been selected as the best process parameter of weld bead width and weld penetration at level three of experiment seven. However, the optimum process parameter for heat affected zone are level one experimental three at165 A, 235 mm/min, 15 lit/min of welding arc current ,travel speed and gas feeding rate, respectively.

The effect of Traverse speed on the microstructures of friction stir welded 6 mm thick austenitic stainless steel (304) plate has been investigated. Quantitative optical, high resolution scanning electron microscopy and Vickers hardness have been used to qualify and examine the microstructure through the plate cross section. The tool material was used is Tungsten Rhenium. For this work, friction stir welding was performed at rotation speed of 350 revolution per minutes (rpm) and traversing speed from 150 to 250 millimeter per minutes (mm/min) with an interval of 50 mm/min. Fine austenite has been observed in the stir zone, indicating that dynamic recrystallisation with no phase transformation occurred during FSW. The hardness profile is relatively homogeneous with slightly higher values in the stir zone than that of the base metal, suggesting that deformation and the cooling rate are dominant in the FSW process.

Due to an account of its excellent hardness and wear behavior, AISI D2 is used widely in producing of blanking and cold-forming dies, Punches, Shafts, Studs, and Bolts. Increasing toughness at a fixed high level of hardness is growing requirement for this kind of applications. Improving microstructure characteristics, especially carbides distribution by specific heat treatment, is an appropriate way to meet such requirement. The effect of quenching media on microstructure and hardness of pre-heated and austentized (at 980oC) AISI-D2 tool steel has been studied, and hardness and carbides morphology have been investigated. Three different medias, water, oil and water/oil (time quenching) have been used, then all samples were followed by the same tempering 350oC/1 hour. It has been found that the optimal carbides distribution and optimum hardness have been resulted from a time quenching method.

The metallurgical influence of niobium (Nb) on an annealed high manganese (Mn) steel is still an active issue of discussion between automobile companies and steel manufacturers. Some controversy exists in the literature concerning the influence of Nb solubility on microstructure and thereby on mechanical properties. The influence of Nb-solubility on microstructure of Fe30Mn alloy steel was investigated experimentally and by computational materials modeling. Nb was added in 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 1% additions and the alloy samples were annealed at 1200oC for 2, 5, 10, 30 and 60 minutes. The microstructure was investigated using an optical microscope, TEM and SEM-EDX and precipitates were chemically tested. Niobium solubility in Fe30Mn austenite was theoretically studied based on Gladman assumptions and was also examined by Thermo-Calc analysis. The result of this work is a comparison between the microstructure analysis and theoretical studies, and it has been found that Nb was soluble in Fe30Mn austenite phase and has had a solute drag effect where Nb(C,N) and NbN precipitates were seen and the effect was pinning effect 

The higher strength 7xxx aluminum alloys exhibited low resistance to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) when aged to the peak hardness (T6 temper). The overaged alloys (T7 temper) developed to enhance the SCC with loss in the strength of the alloy. Recently, retrogression and re-aging (RRA) heat treatments are used for improving the SCC behavior for alloys in T6 tempers such as 7075, 7475 and 8090. In this study, an application of retrogression and re-aging heat treatment processes are carried out to enhance toughness properties of the 7079-T651 aluminum alloy, while maintaining the higher strength of T651-temper. The results of charpy impact energy and electrical conductivity tests show a significantly increases in absorbed energy and electrical conductivity values, when the alloys are exposed to various retrogression temperatures (190, 200, 210°C) and times (20, 40, 60 minutes), and then re-aged at 160°C for 18 hours.