Fig. 2: Ferrite and pearlite
morphologies: (a) ferrite in Fe-0.46 steel that forms layer tracing the
austenite grain boundary contours [34], (b) equiaxed ferrite in a
Fe-0.4C steel [33], (c)
ferrite in low carbon steel [33] (α = ferrite, P =
pearlite). The white etching is ferrite while the dark-etching isP.
The steels for this study are S355J2+N (J2N), S355G10+M (G10) and
S355G8+M (G8) with compositions as given in Table 2. The composition of
J2N was extracted from [35]. They are marine steels having low
carbon contents with the microstructures consisting of very small volume
fraction of P in a α matrix [36]. Fig. 3 shows the
phase morphologies of the microstructure of the J2N.
Table 2: Chemical compositions and
mechanical properties of test materials (see [36])
(CE = carbon equivalent)