Effect of Solute Drag and Precipitate Pinning on Austenite Grain Growth in Ti-Nb Microalloyed Steels

A metallurgical model concerning the co-effect of the Nb solute drag and the complex carbonitride precipitates pinning is proposed to predict the recrystallization austenite grain growth of low carbon Nb-containing microalloyed steels.The analysis,both predicted and experimental,reveals the precipitate pinning plays a dominate role in suppressing the austenite grain growth with less Nb solute drag effect in high temperature region whereas the Nb solute drag predominates in relatively low temperature region.A factor p is suggested to assess the effectiveness of drag and pinning.The pinning and the drag are more effective in restraining grain growth as p>0 and p<0,respectively.A low carbon Nb microalloyed steel and a kind of Ti-modified low carbon Nb steel by Ti substituting for part of Nb are employed to validate the modeling results.The theoretical calculations show a good agreement with experimental results.