Low-Temperature Toughness of the Austempered Offshore Steel

This study investigates low-temperature toughness of the offshore steel with two different austempering heat treatments. Toughness of upper bainite is significantly lower than that of lower bainite. Low impact toughness of the upper bainite is caused by the presence of martensite–austenite (MA) and increasing the amount of low-angle lath boundaries in upper bainite package. EBSD equipped in the SEM demonstrates an effective approach to analyze the misorientation angle of lath boundaries in upper bainite packet.