EFFECT OF THE AUSTENITE GRAIN REFINEMENT OBTAINED BY THE

ADDITION OF HAFNIUM (Hf) ON THE TENSILE PROPERTIES OF

HADFIELD STEEL

Bianka Nani Venturelli – Escola Politécnica da USP (EPUSP-PMT)

Eduardo Albertin – Instituto de pesquisas tecnológicas (IPT)
Cesar Roberto de Farias Azevedo – Escola Politécnica da USP (EPUSP-PMT)

October 4, 2017
Introduction

• Mechanical properties: Oustanding toughness and high strain hardening capacity.

Yield Tensile Young

strength strength Reduction Modulus Hardness Impact energy
in area (%) Brinell (J/cm-2)
(MPa) (MPa) (GPa)

360 448 30-40 186 185-210 110-180

• Hadfield steel has been used in the Mining Industry (rock crushers, grinding mills, dredge
buckets for handling gravel and rocks) and Railway industry (railway frogs, switches and
crossings).

• Optimization of wear properties and toughness of Hadfield steel is important to increase

the life cycle of its engineering compounds.
Introduction
• Chemical composition: 0.7-1.45 %C and 11-14 %Mn.
• Mn acts as stabilizer of austenite phase.
• The γ-phase field in iron-carbon diagram is expanded with addition of Mn.

Decomposition reaction of
austenite
during cooling:

g0 -> g1 + a1 + M3C
 Introduction – Grain size refinement with addition of Hf
• The use of hafnium as austenite grain size refiner is described in European patent (Oguiza,
2012), which uses hafnium additions from 0.01 to 0.1% in weight on a Hadfield steel with 1.2
%C and 12.5 %Mn.

Hadfield steel refined with Ce

Hadfield steel refined with Hf

Oguiza, C. Hadfield steel with Hf. European Patent.10382335.7, 2012. 5p.

Experimental procedure
1. Casting
• Austenitic manganese steel was cast in an electromagnetic induction furnace, with a
pouring temperature in the range of 1430 - 1450oC.

Hafnium metalic plates (8 x 2 x

8 mm3) used in casting of
Keel block Block Hadfield steel refined with Hf.
(length of 12.5 mm ) (60 x 40 x 80 mm3)
Experimental procedure
2. Solution heat treatment

• The as-cast austenitic manganese steel was subjected to solution heat treatment in water
from a temperature of 1100 oC for 4 hours (keel block) and 10 hours (block).

Solution heat treatment cycle. Hadfield steel refined with Hf at 100x. Nital 6%.
Experimental procedure

• Chemical composition of Hadfield steel samples is in accordance with ASTM A128

Standard (grade B2).

%C %Mn %Si %P %S
ASTM A 128-B2 1.05-1.2 11.5-14 >1 - -
Non-refined
1.23 11.98 0.64 0.034 0.037
Hadfield steel
Hadfield steel
refined with 1.24 11.83 0.8 0.034 0.037
addition of Hf
Experimental procedure

3. Microstructural characterization - grain size measurement

• Method used to measure the grain size: average number between the largest and the
smallest dimension of each grain.
• The measurement was made in the equiaxial zone (LUPA and EBSD images, 5 fields)

2500 mm

3000 mm
Experimental procedure

3. Microstructural characterization - grain size measurement

• Method used to measure the grain size: ASTM E112-96 Standard (Line Intercept
method).
• The measurement was made in the equiaxial zone (LUPA and EBSD images, 5 fields)

8500 mm
1

1/2
 Experimental procedure
4.Tensile test

• The tensile tests were performed on a MTS Sintec machine at room temperature and
strain rate of 10-6 s-1.

Tensile test specimen

Region of tensile with dimensions in
test specimens accordance with ASTM
extraction E8M Standard

Riser
 Results and discussion – Macrostructural characterization

• Hadfield steel refined with Hf do not have a well-defined columnar zone.

surface center surface center

(a) Non-refined Hadfield steel at 7.3x, columnar (b) Hadfield steel refined with Hf at 7.3 x, equiaxial
zone. Nital 6%. zone. Nital 6%.
 Results and discussion – Macrostructural characterization

• Hadfield steel refined with Hf has grain size approximately 5 times smaller than non-refined
Hadfield steel.

(a) Non-refined Hadfield steel at 7.3x, equiaxial (b) Hadfield steel refined with Hf at 7.3 x, equiaxial
zone. Nital 6%. zone. Nital 6%.
Results and discussion – Microstructural characterization
• Hadfield steel refined with Hf has grain size approximately 5 times smaller than non-refined
Hadfield steel.
• This result was confirmed by EBSD analysis.

=1000 µm; OIM; Step=8 µm; Grid465x407

(a) Non-refined Hadfield steel, equiaxial zone. (b) Hadfield steel refined with Hf, equiaxial zone.
Results and discussion – Microstructural characterization

• Measurement of austenite grain size

Grain size -
Grain size
Grain size- EBSD image,
following Average grain
macrograph, average number
ASTM E112- size
method 1 between
96 Standard (mm)
(mm) method 1 and 2
(mm)
(mm)
Non-refined
Hadfield steel, 3000 ± 1000 2000 ± 1000 n.d. 3000 ± 1000
equiaxial zone
Hadfield steel
refined with
700 ± 300 600 ± 300 600 ± 300 600
0,1% Hf,
equiaxial zone

Ratio 4.3 3.5 n.d. 5

Results and discussion – Tensile test results

• Tensile properties which did not have significant variation with grain size refinement: Yield
strength, resilience and Young Modulus.
Results and discussion – Tensile test results

• Tensile properties which increased with grain size: Tensile strength, ductility and toughness.

• Strain hardening capacity also increased with reduction in grain size.

 Results and discussion – Tensile test results

• Summary of tensile test results

Non-refined Hadfield
Variation
Tensile properties Hadfield steel refined
(%)
steel with Hf
Yield strength (MPa) 334 355 ↑6

Resilience (J) 282 304 ↑8

Young Modulus (MPa) 199 208 ↑5

Tensile strength (MPa) 681
931 ↑ 37
Toughness (J/cm2) 409
771 ↑ 88
Ductility (%) 46,5
71 ↑ 53
Results and discussion

• Extrapolation of Hall-Petch Equation with experimental data:

se = yield strength (MPa);

so = friction stress (MPa);
KHP = Hall-Petch coefficient (MPa.m1/2);
d = grain size (m);

• Considering : KHP = 0,452 MPa.m1/2 (data from literature) and so = 318 Mpa
(calculated); The expected increase on the YS should be 3%, which is in accordance
with tensile test results (6% increase);

• Grain size reduction of five times is not efficient to increase the Yield strength (YS);

• Calculations sugest that in order to have a significant increase on Yield strength (467
MPa), the grain size should be reduced for 10 mm.
Results and discussion

Comparison with results in literature:

• Position of curves in the graph

aside is consistent with literature;

• Ductility and tensile strength

properties of Hadfield steel refined
with Hf is higher in comparison
with data from literature.
Results and discussion – Fractografic examination of tensile specimens

• Deformation twins with length of 40 mm and ductile voids with two different diameters (10
and 2 mm).

(a) Non-refined Hadfield steel at 2500x, showing (b) Hadfield steel refined with Hf at 800x,
deformation twins. showing ductile voids with two different sizes.
Results and discussion – Fractografic examination of ensile specimens

• Deformation twins with length of 20 mm and ductile voids with diameter of 4 mm.

(a) Non-refined Hadfield steel, showing (b) Hadfield steel refined with Hf, showing
deformation twins, equiaxial zone, 10000x. ductile voids, equiaxial zone, 5000x.
 Results and discussion – EBSD analysis
• EBSD analysis of transversal section of tensile specimens shows the presence of
deformation twinning with twins length of 800 mm (non-refined Hadfield steel) and 500 mm
(Hadfield steel refined with Hf).
• Deformation twinning is 40% more intense in Hadfield steel refined with Hf (37 twins per
mm) in comparison with non-refined Hadfield steel (22 twins per mm).

=500 µm; BC+OIM; Step=2 µm; Grid744x651

(a) Non-refined Hadfield steel, equiaxial zone. (b) Hadfield steel refined with Hf, equiaxial zone.
Conclusion

• Macrostrutural and microstructural characterization showed that Hadfield steel refined with
Hf has austenite grain size approximately 5 times smaller than non-refined Hadfield steel
(from 3000 mm to 600 mm).

• The yield strength increased just a little with austenite grain size reduction. This increase is
in accordance with Hall-Petch Equation for CFC crystals, which have low Hall-Petch
coefficient.

• The mechanical properties of tensile strength (37%), ductility (53%) and toughness (88%)
had a significant increase with grain size reduction.

• Grain size refinement enhanced the twinning deformation.