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In this work, the effect of heat treatment conditions on the microstructure and mechanical properties of an American Petroleum Institute (API) X80 steel with a low carbon content of ~0.02% wt., destined for the manufacture of pipelines and pipeline transmission systems by welding, was investigated. Samples were heat treated under different conditions and then were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), orientation image microscopy (OIM), and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD). The results showed that when the steel is fastly cooled from the austenitic field (990°C), the mechanical properties increase significantly [ultimate tensile strength (UTS) >1,100 MPa, yield strength (YS) 900 MPa, and elongation 27%] due to the high percentage of martensite (M) present in the microstructure (95%). In contrast, when the cooling rate decreases and the treatment conditions remain at/or above the bainitic/martensitic transformation (from 990°C to 600°C and 450°C), the mechanical properties are decreased by almost 50% because of the decrease in the percentage of martensite (18%). However, the percentage of elongation increases significantly (38%) due to the presence of other micro-constituents resulting from the phase transformation. On the other hand, the best combination of mechanical properties (UTS above 800 MPa and YS between 610 MPa and 720 MPa) was obtained when the steel acquired a dual-phase microstructure [(martensite/austenite)-(ferrite/martensite)] since the amount of martensite is conserved between 45% and 82%, in combination with the other micro-constituent present in the steel that allows us to achieve elongation percentages close to 30%.

This work reports a new finding on the effect of dissolved salts, in water-air mists, on spray heat removal efficiencies from a metallic surface under steady state conditions. The experimental system is based on a calorimeter that measures heat flux removed by water-air mist sprays from 8 mm diameter × 2.5 mm thickness platinum samples heated by electromagnetic induction. During steady-state experiments, a solid-state controller equilibrates automatically the rate of heat generation with the rate of heat removal to reach a constant temperature. Equilibrium temperatures for stepwise T rising include 200 to 1200 °C in steps of 100 °C and then stepwise T that is lowered to 200 °C. The new finding is that, when using soft water-air mist and a high-water impingement density, a lack of temperature control during stepwise T increases was observed when stepping from 200 to 300 °C. This lack of temperature control is associated with a high heat flux and is attributed to the stabilization of the single-phase convection regime when T rising from 200 to 300 °C. Temperature stabilization was again possible only at wall temperatures Tw≥600 °C, at which single-phase convection was not stable. In contrast, when using a hard water-air mist under the same fluid flow conditions, all temperatures were readily reached. This is attributed to the transition from single-phase convection to nucleate boiling regime when T increased from 200 to 300 °C. This transition leads to a decrease in heat flux due to a reduction in the contact area between liquid and the wall surface. Finally, the corresponding boiling curves at high wall temperatures show the importance of heat radiation from the wall to understand the effect of salts during the stable vapor film regime.