Effect of Mo Addition on Strength of Fire-Resistant Steel at Elevated Temperature

A series of Fe-Mo-C steels with Mo addition from 0.1 to 0.8 wt.% has been prepared for studying the effect of Mo on the elevated-temperature strength of fire-resistant steel. Two heat treatments were performed for obtaining either ferrite microstructure or ferrite-bainite microstructure to study the contributions from two strengthening mechanisms with Mo addition, namely solid-solution strengthening and bainite strengthening. The results show that solid-solution strengthening is the predominant elevated-temperature strengthening mechanism of Mo in fire-resistant steel. This strengthening effect has a huge contribution in improving elevated-temperature strength when Mo content is below 0.5 wt.%, and the yield strength at 600 °C goes up by a significant 13.7 MPa per 0.1 wt.% Mo addition. However, it becomes relatively weak when Mo content is more than or equal to 0.5 wt.%. Moreover, results indicate that the elevated-temperature strength remarkably increases when the volume fraction of bainite is above 15%. Furthermore, it is found that the ferrite grain size has minor effect on elevated-temperature strength of fire-resistant steel. Results also provide fundamentals of designing low-cost fire-resistant steels with excellent strength.