Effect of solidification rate on microstructure evolution in dual phase microalloyed steel

In steels the dependence of ambient temperature microstructure and mechanical properties on solidification rate is not well reported. In this work we investigate the microstructure and hardness evolution for a low C low Mn NbTi-microalloyed steel solidified in the cooling rate range of 1-50 Cs-1. The maximum strength was obtained at the intermediate solidification rate of 30 Cs-1. This result has been correlated to the microstructure variation with solidification rate.