The combined effect of phosphorus grain boundary segregation and hardness on the ductile- to-brittle transition was examined for a P-doped 2.25Cr1Mo steel by using Auger electron spectroscopy in conjunction with hardness measurements, Charpy impact tests and scanning electron microscopy. With prolonging time at 540 oC after water quenching from 980 oC, the segregation of phosphorus increases and the hardness decreases. The DBTT (FATT) increases with increasing phosphorus segregation and decreases with decreasing hardness. The effect of phosphorus segregation is dominant until 100 h aging and after that the hardness effect becomes dominant. This effect makes the DBTT (FATT) decrease with further prolonging ageing time although the segregation of phosphorus still increases strongly.
The non-equilibrium grain-boundary segregation of phosphorus in step cooling process in an industrial steel, 12CrlMoV, is studied based on the effective-time-method and compared with that in isothermal holding process. The non-equilibrium grain-boundary segregation concentration of phosphorus was measured with Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES) and calculated based on the kinetic equations of non-equilibrium grain-boundary segregation. Results show that the calculated result is in good accordance with the experimental observation.
