Hot-rolled high-strength steels with leaner alloying concepts

钢铁仍然是占主导地位的工程材料，全球每年产量超过 10 亿吨，用途广泛，例如：所有制成品中的 3/4 含有钢材。由此可见，钢铁新产品的开发继续在经济社会中发挥着重要作用。此外，正在开发新的加工路线，以减少炼钢过程中的能源消耗和温室气体排放。这方面的一项重要技术发展是引入了用于热轧钢的直接带钢生产联合体（DSPC），该项目的赞助商阿尔戈马钢铁公司采用了该联合体。 DSPC 取得了多项技术进步，能够生产大多数高强度钢种。钢铁设计和钢铁生产设施的进一步现代化对于像阿尔戈马这样的钢铁公司保持竞争力至关重要。特别是，加速冷却已成为生产热机械控制加工（TMCP）钢的关键技术，该钢的合金含量降低，但机械性能提高，以满足苛刻的应用要求。使用精心设计的加工路径而不是合金添加剂是制造先进高性能钢的一种有吸引力的方法。奥氏体-铁素体转变发生在跳动台上的冷却过程中，适当的冷却策略的设计对于获得最先进的 TMCP 钢所需的细晶粒和/或多相转变产物至关重要。此外，必须对热轧带进行卷取，以最大限度地提高微合金元素（例如合金元素）的沉淀强化潜力。铌、钛。 DSPC 的工艺建模是 Algoma 优化精益钢化学稳健加工策略设计的关键工具。该项目旨在使用微观结构工程方法为选定的钢铁化学成分开发 DSCP 工艺模型，即通过精确建模微观结构演变将 DSPC 的操作工艺参数与热轧带材特性联系起来。新模型将通过工业数据进行验证。 该项目为四名研究生提供培训机会。

Steel remains the dominant engineering material with a world production of more than a billion tones annually to be used in a wide range of applications, e.g. ¾ of all manufactured goods contain steel. Thus, the development of new steel products continues to play an important role in economy and society. Further, new processing routes are being developed to reduce energy consumption and green house gas emissions from steel making. An important technological development in this regard was the introduction of the direct strip production complex (DSPC) for hot rolled steels which is employed by Algoma Steel, the sponsor of this project. A number of technological advances have been made to enable the production of most high strength steel grades in the DSPC. Further modernization of steel design and steel production facilities are critical for steel companies like Algoma to remain competitive. In particular, accelerated cooling has become a key technology to produce thermo-mechanically controlled processed (TMCP) steels with reduced alloying content but the improved mechanical properties required for demanding applications. Using well-designed processing paths rather than alloying additions is an attractive approach to manufacture advanced high-performance steels. The austenite-ferrite transformation takes place during cooling on the runout table and the design of appropriate cooling strategies is critical to obtain fine-grained and/or multi-phase transformation products required in state-of-the-art TMCP steels. Further, coiling of the hot band must be conducted to maximize the precipitation strengthening potential of microalloying elements, e.g. Nb, Ti. Through process modelling for the DSPC is a critical tool for Algoma to optimize the design of robust processing strategies for leaner steel chemistries. This project seeks to develop a DSCP process model for selected steel chemistries using the microstructure engineering approach, i.e. to link the operational process parameters of the DSPC to the hot strip properties by accurately modelling the microstructure evolution. The new model will be validated with industrial data. The project offers training opportunities for four graduate students.