Transformation of Oxide Inclusions in Stainless Steel Containing Yttrium during Isothermal Heating at 1473 K

To provide fundamental information on the control of rare earth inclusions in solid steel, two 18 mass% Cr-8 mass% Ni stainless steels with different yttrium additions were prepared using an electric resistance furnace and the evolution of yttrium-based oxide inclusions during heat treatment of the steels at 1473 K was investigated. In both as-cast steels, homogeneous spherical Al-Y-Si(-Mn-Cr) oxide inclusions were observed; however, the steel with larger yttrium additions also had some heterogeneous oxide inclusions with double phases. After heating, a new oxide phase with higher yttrium content precipitated from the original inclusions and resulted in partitioning to Y-rich and Al-rich parts in both steels. The average size and number density of inclusions slightly increased, and the morphology of inclusions changed from spherical to irregular. The transformation mechanism during isothermal heating was proposed to be the mutual effects of (i) internal transformation of the yttrium-based inclusions owing to crystallization of glassy oxide and (ii) interfacial reaction between inclusions and the steel matrix.