The effect of austenitization temperature on austenite transformation for a low-carbon steel and microalloyed with Nb was investigated under continuous cooling conditions by means of differential thermal analysis. The starting temperature for ferrite formation depends strongly on austenitization temperature due to its effect on the austenite grain size. Increase in austenitization temperature implies increase in austenite grain size and decrease in temperature starts ferrite formation. The presence of Nb in solution during the transformation increases the transformation time of austenite to ferrite and reduces its effective transformation rate, leading to the formation of granular bainite, at the austenitization temperature of 1100ºC and air cooling.
Nb microalloyed steel; austenite microstructure; phase transformation; transformation kinetics
