Micro-structuring micro-alloyed steels via non-metallic precipitate formation

钢铁是世界上价值最高的材料，对几乎所有工业部门都至关重要：汽车、建筑、机械工程、造船、家用电器、消费电子、道路、桥梁和铁路建设。2012年，英国生产了近1000万吨钢铁，英国钢铁行业已经发展成为制造业中最精简、最高效的行业之一。英国钢铁行业在可持续能源和原材料管理以及碳足迹最小化方面也有着悠久的传统。在过去的二十年里，每吨钢铁的能源成本和二氧化碳排放量减少了近30%。尽管如此，仍有许多进一步改进的机会，具有巨大的节能潜力，但仍有几个关键挑战需要克服。全周期分析研究表明，在目前的钢铁制造中，能源消耗和二氧化碳排放量可以进一步减少25-30%。这种节省的一个潜在途径是在将产品铸造成接近净（最终）形状后直接进入轧制阶段进行热充电。这消除了热轧前昂贵的再加热，并减少了所需的轧制量。然而，它要求铸造产品的质量在体积和表面性能方面明显优于今天的产品，因为在铸造后改变它的机会较少。我们建议，这可以通过设计非金属颗粒来实现，这些通常被认为是缺陷，使它们在铸造金属中促进更细的晶粒。我们的研究目标是提供设计这种工艺所需的基础知识，我们打算开发现场表征方法，使科学家和工程师能够研究钢如何凝固的细节，而不是从室温下的样品中推断发生了什么。

Steel, the most used material in the world by value, is essential to virtually all industrial sectors: automotive, construction, mechanical engineering, shipbuilding, household appliance, consumer electronics, road, bridge and rail construction. Nearly 10 Mt of steel was manufactured in UK in 2012 and the UK steel industry has evolved to become one the leanest and most efficient of any manufacturing industry. The UK steel industry also has a long tradition of sustainable energy and raw-material management and minimization of carbon foot printing. The energy cost and CO2 output per ton of steel has been reduced by nearly 30% during the last two decades. There are nevertheless many opportunities for further improvement, with huge potential energy savings, but there are several key challenges that need to be overcome. Full cycle analysis studies demonstrate that further reductions in energy consumption and CO2 production of 25-30% can be made, in the current manufacturing of steel. A potential path for such savings lies in processes that allow for-hot charge after casting the product to a near-net (final) shape) directly into the rolling stage. This eliminates costly reheating before hot-rolling and it reduces the amount of rolling needed. It requires however, that the quality of the cast product is significantly better than what it is today in terms of bulk and surface properties since there is less chance to alter it after it is cast. We propose that this can be achieved by engineering the non-metallic particles, which are generally thought to be defects, such that they promote finer crystal grains in the cast metal. The research we aim to carry out provides the fundamental knowledge required to design such a process and we intend to develop in-situ characterization methods that enable scientists and engineers to study the specifics of how steel solidifies, rather then deducing what has happened from samples at room temperature.