Evolution of secondary phases in Cr-V low-alloy steels during aging

The influence of both bulk vanadium content and aging conditions on the evolution of secondary phases in Cr-V low-alloy steels was studied. Three 0.1C-0.9Cr-V steels with different vanadium contents (0, 0.258, and 0.512 wt pct) were aged for 100 to 5,000 hours at 773, 853, 953, and 993 K. In the investigation, a limited experimental program (transmission electron microscopy (TEM)) was combined with credible thermodynamic predictions (ThermoCalc). Going out from the good agreement between the predicted and experimental results, behavior of the iron-rich M7C3 carbide in time-temperature scale was characterized. The influence of bulk vanadium content was determined on appearance of the M3C carbide in equilibrium, temperature of the M7C3 carbide precipitation, metal compositions of M3C or M7C3 carbides, and vanadium portion in the metallic part of the MX phase.