Abstract:
This work focuses on the influence of Al content on the precipitation of nanoprecipitates, growth of prior austenite grains (PAGs), and impact toughness in simulated coarse-grained heat-affected zones (CGHAZs) of two experimental shipbuilding steels after being subjected to high-heat input welding at 400 kJ·cm
−1. The base metals (BMs) of both steels contained three types of precipitates: Type I: cubic (Ti,Nb)(C,N), Type II: precipitate with cubic (Ti,Nb)(C,N) core and Nb-rich cap, and Type III: ellipsoidal Nb-rich precipitate. In the BM of 60Al and 160Al steels, the number densities of the precipitates were 11.37 × 10
5 and 13.88 × 10
5 mm
−2, respectively. The 60Al and 160Al steel contained 38.12% and 6.39% Type III precipitates, respectively. The difference in the content of Type III precipitates in the 60Al steel reduced the pinning effect at the elevated temperature of the CGHAZ, which facilitated the growth of PAGs. The average PAG sizes in the CGHAZ of the 60Al and 160Al steels were 189.73 and 174.7 µm, respectively. In the 60Al steel, the low lattice mismatch among Cu
2S, TiN, and γ-Al
2O
3 facilitated the precipitation of Cu
2S and TiN onto γ-Al
2O
3 during welding, which decreased the number density of independently precipitated (Ti,Nb)(C,N) particles but increased that of γ-Al
2O
3–TiN–Cu
2S particles. Thus, abnormally large PAGs formed in the CGHAZ of the 60Al steel, and they reached a maximum size of 1 mm. These PAGs greatly reduced the microstructural homogeneity and consequently decreased the impact toughness from 134 (0.016wt% Al) to 54 J (0.006wt% Al) at −40°C.