Influence of Cu alloying on hot ductility of C-Mn-Al and Ti-Nb microalloyed steels

Abstract

A beneficial effect of the copper on the hot ductility was observed in Ti-Nb microalloyed steels over the temperature range 800-1,000 °C at the cooling rate of 0.4 °C/s, but no influence at the cooling rate of 4 °C/s. Precipitates containing Nb and Ti were present whose size was coarser in the Cu-bearing grade as cooled at 0.4 °C/s. Cu-bearing precipitates were not found. In the C-Mn-Al steel, no influence of the copper on the hot ductility was recorded, but CuS particles were detected. Two mechanisms are proposed to explain the positive influence of the copper in the microalloyed steel. The first is that the copper atoms in the solid solution affect the activity of the carbon and the nitrogen analogically to the previously observed effect of the silicon, enhancing the precipitation at high temperatures, and another mechanism that the copper atoms can prolong the lifetime of vacancies generated by straining assisting the formation of TiNb-vacancy complexes and thereby coarsening the precipitates.