Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Page 1
Concept 1:
According to the classical nucleation theory, the nucleation rate (I) is expressed as,
Where I0 is steady state nucleation rate, is incubation time & t is isothermal reaction time.
High incubation time: Longer time needed for the transformation to start
Low incubation time: Shorter time needed for the transformation to start
The literature explains the relationship of incubation time and cooling rate, indicating that the
cooling rate does not affect significantly.
The relationship of carbon content and incubation time, , indicating that increases with the
increase of the carbon content. When carbon content is increased, the chance for ferrite
nucleation is reduced because the precipitation rate decreases due to the fact that more carbon
atoms need to move from ferrite to austenite by diffusion.
The effect of hot deformation on the incubation time , that decreases with decreasing
temperature when it is above 680C. ( decreases when the specimen is hot deformed, and the
nose temperature is around 680C). increases with the decrease of temperature when the
temperature is lower than 680C.
Concept 2:
The ferrite grain nucleation mechanism during the austenite/ferrite phase transformation is
studied in situ in the bulk of three different steel grades by three-dimensional X-ray diffraction
(3DXRD) microscopy. The main difference between the three steel grades is the carbon
concentration. For each steel grade the ferrite fraction, nucleus density and nucleation rate are
measured simultaneously during continuous cooling. The steel grade used for phase
transformation study is given below,
Page 2
The figure shows the measured ferrite fraction as a function of temperature during continuous
cooling from 900C to 600C. The austenite/pearlite transformation starts at approximately the
same temperature of 685C for all three steel grades which were derived experimentally through
3DXRD microscopy.
Mechanism of coil sagging:
Concept1:
- Incubation time increases with % carbon
- Incubation time decreases when the temperature exceeds 680C
- Incubation time increases when the temperature lower than 680C
- Incubation time decreases when the amount of hot deformation increases.
Concept 2:
- Austenite/pearlite transformation starts at approximately the same temperature of 685C
for different grades of steel (with varying carbon C22, C35 & C45).
When the coiling temperature is less than 680C, the incubation time is increased (longer time
needed for the transformation to start) and results in longer time for completing the
transformation (Austenite/pearlite). Hence the transformation starts during coiling which
results in coil sagging. If the coiling temperature is above 680C, then the incubation time is
decreased & the transformation completes in less time. There is enough time for transformation
to complete before coiling and hence coil shape becomes better & coil sagging is avoided.
Controlled Field trials:
The coiling temperature of high carbon grades were increased to 690C from the range of 620660C. Though we got the improvement in coil shape, we found that the coil shape become
elliptical but with less intensity in majority cases.
The reason for the problem was later identified that the actual achievement of coiling
temperature was less than 680C (~630-660C) due to lesser laminar header requirements & the
speed was relatively low to co-up with laminar banks opening. Hence the finishing temperature
was increased to 890C to match the speed & laminar banks opening. Now the actual coiling
temperature achievement is in the range of 670-700C which has given superior results with
respect to coil shape.
Effect of temperature change on properties/bend test:
In order to study the impact & adverse effect (if at all any) of coiling temperature change on high
carbon grades, samples were collected for mechanical properties testing & close bend testing.
There are no adverse effect on mechanical properties (slight reduction YS & TS which are falling
within the customer specification limit) & bend test (satisfactory & no cracks). Microstructural
analysis is also been done on the trial coils in order to understand the effect of CT change. There
were no significant changes in the microstructures.
Results & Discussions:
Fig.1. shows the trend of elliptical coils in high carbon grades. There were no elliptical coils after
Oct-09 onwards. The average coil weight of high carbon grades were increased from 14 Kg/mm
(14-15 MT) to 18 Kg/mm (17-19 MT) which is shown in Fig.2.
Page 3
Page 4