Oxidation characteristics of a microalloyed low carbon steel were investigated by a hot rolling mill combined with acceleration cooling system over the cooling rate range from 20 to 70°C/s. The effects of cooling rate after hot rolling on microstructure and phase composition of oxide scale were examined. The results showed that the increase of the cooling rate has a significant influence on the decrease of the grain size and surface roughness of oxide scale. A higher cooling rate promotes the formation of retain wustite and primary magnetite precipitation while suppression of eutectoid α-iron precipitates. This provides the possibility to enhance potential contribution of magnetite precipitates with preferable ductility, and hence fabricates a desired oxide-scale structure under continuous post cooling conditions considering a suitable cooling rate. Abstract. Oxidation characteristics of a microalloyed low carbon steel were investigated by a hot rolling mill combined with acceleration cooling system over the cooling rate range from 20 to 70°C/s. The effects of cooling rate after hot rolling on microstructure and phase composition of oxide scale were examined. The results showed that the increase of the cooling rate has a significant influence on the decrease of the grain size and surface roughness of oxide scale. A higher cooling rate promotes the formation of retain wustite and primary magnetite precipitation while suppression of eutectoid α-iron precipitates. This provides the possibility to enhance potential contribution of magnetite precipitates with preferable ductility, and hence fabricates a desired oxide-scale structure under continuous post cooling conditions considering a suitable cooling rate.
IntroductionDuring hot rolling, oxidation occurs inevitably on the surface of steel strips, and hence forms the oxide scale which is a complex mixture of three iron oxide phases: hematite (Fe 2 O 3 ), magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) and wustite (Fe 1-x O, x=0.84-0.95) [1,2]. The mechanical properties and subsequent descalability intimately depend on phase distribution and microstructure of these oxides. Correspondingly, oxidation behaviour of steel strips is well known to be highly sensitive to both steel composition and oxidation conditions, in particular the post cooling conditions at the exit of the last finishing stand of the rolling mill [3]. Throughout the run-out laminar cooling, the three-layer oxides structure is maintain until an eutectoid point of Fe-O phase equilibrium diagram is reached if oxygen is available at the temperature of around 570C [4,5]. The microstructure of oxide scale is complicated further by the instability of wustite below 570C, which results in wustite decomposition to magnetite or eutectoid structure of magnetite and proeutectoid iron [6,7]. Under various cooling regimes, different reaction paths taking place in the oxide layer lead to particular phase compositions of the oxide scale. In order to achieve desired phase constitution of the final oxide scale, some elegant studies ha...