Tension fracture delamination analysis on a hot rolled Nb-bearing high-strength steel for vehicle wheel application

A comparative analysis was conducted on post-tensile specimens with and without delamination to investigate the causes of tensile delamination in hot rolled steel with a 600 MPa ultimate tensile strength (UTS) for automotive wheel applications. The tensile specimens were sampled from the hot rolled coils in the transverse direction per ASTM A370 standards, and Tensile tests were performed at room temperature with a constant crosshead speed of 0.5 mm/min. The results indicate that normal segregation is not the sole factor contributing to delamination; rather, the presence of Nb lumps within the central segregation area increased the susceptibility to tensile delamination. The statistical analysis indicates that there is a more intense presence of Nb lumps in specimens with tension delamination, tension delamination will occur during specimen stretching when there are Nb lumps with an average size greater than 6.5 mu m and a quantity greater than 3 in the central segregation region. Meanwhile, the sources of lumps are also analyzed indicates that these Nb lumps originate from the ferroniobium alloy added during BOF tapping and ladle refining.