Effect of Mo, Nb and V on Hot Deformation Behaviour, Microstructure and Hardness of Microalloyed Steels

Three novel low carbon microalloyed steels with various additions of Mo, Nb and V were investigated after thermomechanical processing simulations designed to obtain ferrite-bainite microstructure. With the increase in microalloying element additions from the High V- to NbV- to MoNbV-microalloyed steel, the high temperature flow stresses increased. The MoNbV and NbV steels have shown a slightly higher non-recrystallization temperature (1000 °C) than the High V steel (975 °C) due to the solute drag from Nb and Mo atoms and austenite precipitation of Nb-rich particles. The ambient temperature microstructures of all steels consisted predominantly of polygonal ferrite with a small amount of granular bainite. Precipitation of Nb-and Mo-containing carbonitrides (>20 nm size) was observed in the MoNbV and NbV steels, whereas only coarser (~40 nm) iron carbides were present in the High V steel. Finer grain size and larger granular bainite fraction resulted in a higher hardness of MoNbV steel (293 HV) compared to the NbV (265 HV) and High V (285 HV) steels.