Microstructure and mechanical properties of a 3Cr-1.5Mo steel

Tensile and impact properties were determined for a steel (3 wt pct Cr-1.5 wt pct Mo-0.1 wt pct V-0.1 wt pct C) considered a candidate for elevated-temperature pressure-vessel applications. The steel was tested in two heat-treated conditions: normalized and tempered and quenched and tempered for various tempering conditions. Similar tempering treatments for the quenched and the normalized steels led to similar strengths. However, for the lowest tempering parameter used, the impact properties for the quenched-and-tempered steel exceeded those for the normalized-and-tempered steel, resulting in an excellent ductile-brittle transition temperature (-70 °C) and upper-shelf energy (225 J) for the quenched-and-tempered steel at a high strength (770 MPa ultimate tensile strength). Further tempering reduced the strength for the steel in both heat-treated conditions. The impact properties of the quenched steel were only slightly changed by further tempering, but those for the normalized steel improved, eventually equaling those for the quenched-and-tempered steel. The difference in impact properties after the two heat treatments was attributed to a difference in bainite microstructures.