Effect of Magnesium and Titanium Modification on MnS and Nb(C, N) in Micro-Alloyed Steel: Experimental and First-Principles Investigation
摘要
High-temperature remelting experiments combined with thermodynamic and first-principles calculations were performed to investigate the effects of magnesium and titanium on coupled MnS and Nb(C,N) precipitates in micro-alloyed steel. In titanium-treated steel, precipitates comprise MnS, (Nb,Ti)(C,N), and MnS/(Nb,Ti)(C,N) multilayer inclusions. In contrast, magnesium- and titanium-treated steel contains MnS, (Nb,Ti)(C,N), MgAl2O4/MnS, and MgAl2O4/MnS/(Nb,Ti)(C,N) multilayer inclusions. Magnesium addition transforms clustered MnS into ellipsoidal structures with MgAl2O4 cores and MnS shells, reducing MnS size and improving its distribution. Titanium addition to magnesium-containing steel converts clustered carbonitrides into elongated morphologies and significantly reduces their size. The planar lattice disregistry values between MgAl2O4/MnS, MgAl2O4/TiN, and TiN/MnS indicate that MgAl2O4 acts as an effective heterogeneous nucleation site for MnS and TiN, while TiN facilitates MnS nucleation. Carbonitride size reduction is attributed to two factors: high-temperature titanium-nitrogen reactions enable titanium-containing carbonitrides to precipitate on MgAl2O4 inclusions, forming small-sized carbonitrides—verified by thermodynamic calculations, and solute interactions between Mg/Ti and Nb at grain boundaries weaken Nb segregation, substantially inhibiting precipitation of niobium-containing carbonitrides.