Influence of Deformation on Transformation of Low-Carbon and High Nb-Containing Steel During Continuous Cooling Original Research Article

The effect of deformation in the non-recrystallization region on the phase transformation for a low-carbon and high Nb-containing steel with coarse austenite grain size was investigated by means of dilatometric measurement and microstructure observation. The results show that with increasing the cooling rate, both the transformation start and finish temperatures measured by dilatometer are decreased, and the corresponding microstructure is transformed from ferrite and pearlite to full granular bainite gradually. The dynamic continuous cooling transformation diagram was plotted according to the dilatometric measurements and microstructure observations. Dilatometric measurements also show that the transformation start and finish temperatures of the test steel rise with increasing strain, strain rate and deformation temperature, and the reasons are discussed.