Microstructural Features Controlling Mechanical Properties in Nb-Mo Microalloyed Steels. Part II: Impact Toughness

The present paper is the final part of a two-part paper where the influence of coiling temperature on the final microstructure and mechanical properties of Nb-Mo microalloyed steels is described. More specifically, this second paper deals with the different mechanisms affecting impact toughness. A detailed microstructural characterization and the relations linking the microstructural parameters and the tensile properties have already been discussed in Part I. Using these results as a starting point, the present work takes a step forward and develops a methodology for consistently incorporating the effect of the microstructural heterogeneity into the existing relations that link the Charpy impact toughness to the microstructure. In conventional heat treatments or rolling schedules, the microstructure can be properly described by its mean attributes, and the ductile–brittle transition temperatures measured by Charpy tests can be properly predicted. However, when different microalloying elements are added and multiphase microstructures are formed, the influences of microstructural heterogeneity and secondary hard phases have to be included in a modified equation in order to accurately predict the DB transition temperature in Nb and Nb-Mo microalloyed steels.