IMPROVEMENT ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF CU-CONTAINING LOW ALLOY STEEL OF LONG PART FORGING FOR OFFSHORE APPLICATIONS BY MANUFACTURING PROCESS

Effects by intercritical quenching, which is quenching from dual-phase of ferrite (alpha) and austenite (gamma) region from 953 to 1068 K, on mechanical properties and microstructures of Cu-containing low alloy steel based on ASTM A707 5L grade (hereafter called A707 modified steel) were investigated using 50 kg test ingots. The mechanical properties of the A707 modified steel, i.e. strength at room temperature and fracture toughness at low temperature, were significantly improved by intercritical quenching. This is probably because its effective grain size decreased by intercritical quenching. Then, the optimum temperature of intercritical quenching for A707 modified steel was 1068 K near the Ac3 point. Based on the experimental results of the test ingot, we applied intercritical quenching to a trial full-size forging production of about 20,000 mm in length, and researched the tensile, Charpy impact, crack tip opening displacement (CTOD) and drop weight test (DWT) properties across whole length of the trial production. It was found that the trial production has good mechanical properties across whole length. From the present work, an appropriate intercritical quenching is considered to apply for improvement method of the mechanical properties in A707 modified steel forgings.