The mechanical Properties of an experimental 17%Cr multiphase alloy were studied as function of heat treatment parameters. Containing majoritary ferrite and martensite, this type of steel is applied in tubullars and casings in the off shore oil and gas production, where high corrosion and mechanical resistance are required. Quenching and tempering heat treatments produced different combinations of ferrite, martensite, austenite and precipitates. The as quenched material has 35% of ferrite, martensite and 3.8% of retained austenite. The material quenched and tempered at 500oC has lower austenite (1.2%), and tempered martensite with Nb carbides. The tensile properties were excellent, but the low temperature (-46oC) impact toughness was very small. A high toughness was obtained in the material quenched and tempered at 650oC, with a microstructure of ferrite, tempered martensite and 7.2% of reversed austenite, but the mechanical resistance was under 621 Mpa (90ksi), which is considered too low for the application envisioned. The material tempered at 600oC showed an interesting combination of mechanical resistance and low temperature toughness. The flow stress curves of the material were modelled by Hollomon’s equation and Voce’s equation with correlation coefficients (R2) higher than 0.98.

This work presents a detailed study directed to supermartensitic stainless steels (SMSS) alloyed to nitrogen (UNS S41425) and vanadium (UNS S41427), showing comparison between them by varying their tempering temperature, evaluating the behavior in its mechanical properties, presenting a fractographic and microstructural analysis between these alloys, besides to demonstrate techniques for modeling these strain-hardening results with best coefficients that determine these materials with good predicted values. The Hollomon, Voce and Chaboche models were determined, using an iterative regression method (R2) in order to obtain the best coefficients for each analysis condition. This work concludes by presenting graphic results of the effect of tempering temperature increase on the final mechanical properties, evaluates the differences obtained between these materials and presents an evaluation of the behavior of each coefficient of the models presented separately, showing the best R2 fitting results. With the models determined, it is possible to use the results in this work to perform numerical simulations and meet the needs of the engineering on industry.

Abstract UNS S39274 is a W-alloyed superduplex stainless steel used in critical services in the oil and gas production. This material was selected for tubullars used in oil country tubular goods, below the Christmas tree. In order to achieve high mechanical strength the seamless tubes are cold drawn in a costly operation. In this work the mechanical properties of a cold drawn seamless were characterized and compared to three solution treated materials. Tensile curves were obtained and modelled by Hollomon’s, Ludwik’s and Voce’s models, where the last one presented the higher correlation coefficients in all cases. The hardness and impact toughness at -46oC were measured and discussed. The results were analyzed taking into aconunt the microstructural changes produced by cold drawning and annealing.

Super-austenitic stainless steels (SASS) are alloys with better performance in industrial applications in comparison with standard degrees of austenitic stainless steels (ASS), mainly because of elevated Ni and Mo contents and residual control of certain elements because the improvement of refine techniques. These facts, promotes an improvement of mechanical properties and minimize detrimental effects of intergranular corrosion. Besides, some industrial applications involve high temperatures services, because these alloys families have an excellent creep and oxidation resistances performances. In this work, the objective is evaluate the microstructural and mechanical properties in high Mo SASS exposed at 600˚C in specimens aged until 2000 hours. Thus, hardness and toughness values and Double Loop Electrochemical Potentiodynamic Reactivation (DL-EPR) measurements were analyzed in several thermal aging in comparison to solution treatment condition. Complementary, analysis by Light Optical (LOM), of specimens tested by DL-EPR, and Scanning Electron Microscopies (SEM) in fractured surface from Charpy specimens were also analysed by SEM by backscattered electron mode (BSE). The results show that the aging provokes intergranular embrittlement by inhomogeneous distribution in grain boundaries of Mo rich phase precipitation.

Maraging steels are ferrous alloys with Ni, Co, Mo, and Ti additions. These materials are a special class of ultra high mechanical strength steels with wide and special applications in strategic areas, which makes their knowledge very valuable. Computational advances allowed to analyze the behavior of these materials numerically, using the finite element method and developing mathematical models that can represent numerically its mechanical behavior. The present work has the objective of surveying the mechanical properties of maraging steels 300 and 350 by slow strain rate tensile (SSRT) tests, after the solution treatment at 1183K for 1h. Additionally, it was evaluated the hydrogen embrittlement in samples tested by SSRT under cathodic protection with a potential -1.2 VSCE in 3.5% NaCl solution. The study was complemented with detailed fractographic analysis. This work also presents the analysis of representative models by use of Hollomon, Swift, Voce and coupled Swift-Voce equations to describe the strain-hardening behavior. Compared to the others, the Voce’s model was the one which best fitted the experimental results, with values of R2 higher than 0.992. Through the variation of the chemical composition found in the different grades of maraging steels, this work contemplates the creation of a generalized Voce model based on the variation of the Ti content. The work concludes presenting the generalized Voce model proposed and a numerical analysis of the SSRT results with a good accuracy of the strain-hardening response.

Abstract Supermartensitic steels represent a new sub-class of martensitic stainless steels with higher toughness and corrosion resistance than conventional grades. These properties were improved by the drastic reduction of carbon content, and the addition of nickel and molybdenum. These chemical composition changes also increased the weldability of these steels, since the soft and ductile martensite formed is not susceptible to cold cracking during welding. However, post weld heat treatment may be necessary for uses in sour, aggressive and embrittlement environments. This work investigates the mechanical properties of a weld produced by gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) of a pipe of 12%Cr supermartensitic stainless steel with 625 nickel alloy as filler metal. The response of the weld metal to post weld heat treatments at 650oC was also evaluated.

Magnetic properties (coercive force and saturation magnetization) of SAE 4340 steel, heat treated in different ways, were measured in a Vibrating Sample Magnetometer. Four soaking temperatures were investigated: 860°C, 960°C, 1060°C and 1160°C. The oil-quenched samples were tempered at different temperatures between the range of 200°C and 650°C. The increase of the soaking temperature promotes the decrease of the saturation magnetization, which is mainly due to the retained austenite in the steel. This austenite transforms into bainite during tempering between 200°C and 300°C. The saturation magnetization measurements were used to quantify the amount of retained austenite in the different samples. The coercive force of the steel varied from 115.0 Oe (9151.7 A/m) to 133.0 Oe (10584.1 A/m), depending on the heat treatment condition.

The susceptibility of a duplex stainless steel UNS S31803 to thermal embrittlement at 475 °C was evaluated by means of mechanical tests (impact energy and hardness), magnetic measurements (hysteresis and thermomagnetic analysis) and scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the material undergoes severe embrittlement and hardening in the first 100 h. The corrosion resistance of the ferrite phase in a 10%HNO3 + 0.05%HF solution deteriorated after 500 h of ageing. The Curie temperature (Tc) was the most sensitive magnetic property to the microstructural changes that promote embrittlement. Tc increases with ageing time due to the progressive reduction of chromium in the Fe-rich matrix during spinodal decomposition.