Metals and Materials International

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12540-020-00841-3

Effect of Accelerated Cooling Rate and Finish Rolling Temperature

on the Occurrence of Arrowhead Markings in Drop‑Weight Tear Test
of API 5LX70 Linepipe Nb–V–Ti Steel Plate
N. Amirjani1   · M. Ketabchi1 · M. Eskandari2 · M. Hizombor3

Received: 4 June 2020 / Accepted: 30 July 2020

© The Korean Institute of Metals and Materials 2020

Abstract 
Four Nb–V–Ti steel plates of API 5LX70 linepipe were produced with changing accelerated cooling rate and finish rolling
temperature using thermomechanical controlled process. The changes in ductile fracture surface, brittle fracture surfaces,
including initial cleavage fracture and inverse fracture, arrowhead marking surfaces, and delamination were investigated
using drop-weight tear test at temperatures of 0 °C and − 10 °C. Based on the drop-weight tear test results, an increase in the
accelerated cooling rate, resulting in an increase in the volume fraction of quasi polygonal ferrite, fine polygonal ferrite, and
granular ferrite microstructures, increased the percentage of ductile fracture surface and decreased the percentage of brittle
fracture surfaces. Moreover, a reduction in the finish rolling temperature led to similar changes in the ductile fracture surface
and brittle fracture surfaces due to an increase in the volume fraction of aciculae ferrite. Arrowhead markings surfaces,
caused by the presence of banded structures, their percentage was reduced by increasing the accelerated cooling rate and
decreasing the finish rolling temperature at the temperature of 0 °C. Furthermore, as the accelerated cooling rate increased,
the number, length, thickness, and depth of delaminations were reduced at temperatures of 0 °C and − 10 °C.

Keywords  Drop-weight tear test · Thermo-mechanical controlled process · High-strength low-alloyed steel · Arrowhead
markings · API 5LX70

1 Introduction future, the considerable need for high-strength and tough-

Among various methods for transporting oil and gas, the use
of linepipe is the most cost-effective and convenient proce-
dure [1]. Thus, due to the increasing demand for lightweight
and inexpensive pipes with large diameters to transport more
oil and gas at high pressures, along with application in spe-
cial conditions such as polar regions and sour environments,
which is the greatest challenge for piping at present and
* N. Amirjani
n.amirjani@aut.ac.ir
1
Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering,
Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran 15875‑4313,
Iran
2 World War II when brittle fractures occurred in welded
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty
of Engineering, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz,
Ahvaz 83151‑61357, Iran
3
Metallurgy and Manufacturing Processes Organization,
Khouzestan Oxin Steel Company, Ahvaz 61788‑13111, Iran
ness pipes has increased [2, 3].
Thermomechanical controlled process (TMCP), which
includes controlled rolling and controlled cooling, is
known as a modern procedure for producing steel plates,
beside high-strength low-alloyed steel (microalloyed
steel), a particular group of steels with a carbon content of
less than 0.1%, and microalloy elements, are used together
in various fields such as oil and gas transmission due to
their ability to produce products with appropriate strength
and especially toughness [4]. API 5LX70 plates, as the
first co-product developed by TMCP, and microalloyed
steel, have a general ferrite-pearlite microstructure for the
most part, and acicular ferrite (AF) microstructure is intro-
duced as the best microstructure in terms of toughness [4,
5]. Toughness was introduced as a requirement during the
structures, and thereafter, steelmakers have been searching
for solutions for grain refining of ferrite microstructure
in order to increase both strength and toughness [6–8].
Toughness is measured by two common tests of impact

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and drop-weight tear test (DWTT). Each experiment has 2 Materials and Methods
its applications.
DWTT is used to evaluate abrupt and rapid propaga- 2.1 Materials
tion of cracks, which can cause ductile or brittle fracture
surfaces [9]. Therefore, it is recommended to perform this Nb–V–Ti microalloyed slab was produced by electric arc
test for the pipes known as production specification level furnace and continuous casting machine, and except for
2 (PSL 2), which are supposed to carry gaseous fluids, if vacuum degases, secondary steelmaking processes such as
the average shear fracture area or ductile fracture surface control of sulfur, chemical analysis, hydrogen, and calcina-
(DF) are equal to or greater than 85% at the temperature tion were conducted on it. Then, using the TMCP rolling line
of 0 °C [10]. of Khuzestan Oxin Steel Company (Oxin Company), four
Investigating the fracture surfaces was another goal of ferrite-pearlite plates of 19 mm thickness were produced
performing this test. The brittle fracture can be divided whose schematic, chemical composition, and parameters
into initial cleavage fracture (ICF), arrowhead marking are shown in Fig. 1 and Tables 1 and 2, respectively. Fur-
surfaces (AHMs), inverse fracture (IF), and delamination thermore, it was attempted to change only the ACC rate in
(also known as separation), while DF and shear lips are plates A and B and FRT in plates C and D by keeping other
recognized as the ductile fracture [11–13]. Examination of parameters constant to investigate their effects on the DWTT
these surfaces can reveal whether the casting and forming results. It should be mentioned that the values of critical
stages of the plates are appropriately conducted according temperatures, including ­Tnr (non-recrystallization tempera-
to their application or not. For example, delamination is a ture) and ­TAr3 (austenite to ferrite transition temperature) in
mode of fracture surface that occurs due to inclusions like Fig. 1, were calculated by Oxin Company, and the authors
MnS and segregation of elements, which create banded did not participate in calculating them.
structures [8, 12, 14]. Hence, the evaluation of these sur-
faces can offer guidance for the plates that should be free 2.2 DWTT Conditions
of any banded structures.
AHMs are known as a type of brittle fracture surface that After the plates were produced with the intended param-
can be seen in DWTT. According to the previous studies, R. eters of Table 2, DWTT was conducted on them to exam-
Schofield et al. [15], who investigated control rolled micro- ine their toughness. The test procedure, number of times it
alloyed steel, used the term arrowhead for the first time. was performed, dimensions of the specimens, whether the
According to the results of their study, the reasons for the specimens were accepted or rejected, and how to examine
formation of this surface were high impact transition tem- the fracture surfaces of the samples were all in accord-
perature (ductile–brittle transition temperature) and high ance with API 5L, API RP 5L3, and ASTM E436 stand-
yield strength of the steel. Another research attributed the ards [9–11]. Thus, the specimens with the dimensions
occurrence of AHMs to the existence of delamination and 19 mm × 76.2 mm × 305 mm (thickness × width × length),
the changes in the strain at moving crack-tip [16]. In another which were prepared perpendicular to the rolling direction,
study, after conducting crack tip opening angle (CTOA) tests
on APIX100 samples, chevron-shaped fractures, which were
very similar to the shape of AHMs, were observed due to
the banded structure leading to the growth of crack [17].
Thus, based on the reviewed studies, which are limited in
this subject, it was concluded that no research had been con-
ducted on this subject so far, and it has not been clear that
why these AHMs are formed and why they have such shapes.
Therefore, this research is the first of its kind.
In this research, four Nb–V–Ti plates of non-sour API
5LX70 linepipe were produced with different accelerated
cooling (ACC) rates and finish rolling temperature (FRT)
parameters using TMCP. Afterward, DWTT was performed
at temperatures of 0 °C and − 10 °C to clarify the effects of
these parameters on the percentages of brittle fracture sur-
faces (BFs), DF, delamination, and especially AHMs, and
determine the correlation between the results and micro-
structures. In addition, an effort was made to discover why
the AHMs were formed and why they had such shapes. Fig. 1  Schematic of TMCP program

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Table 1  Chemical composition
of API 5LX70 steel plates C Mn Si P S Nb Ti V Ni
(wt%) 0.085 1.52 0.32 0.011 0.001 0.054 0.015 0.036 0.154
Mo Cr Cu Al Ca N O Fe
0.094 0.017 0.008 0.032 16 ppm 47 ppm 18 ppm Bal.

Table 2  Rolling conditions of API 5LX70 plates

Plate Rough rolling Delay time (s) FRT (°C) ACC (°C/s)
temperature (°C)

A 1078 340 750 18

B 1078 347 750 22
C 1079 335 770 19
D 1078 374 748 19

underwent pressed notch DWTT with similar properties of

750-kg hammer and supplying 13,000 J energy, at the tem-
peratures of 0 °C and − 10 °C. According to the API 5L
standard for PSL 2 pipes, in order to reduce the error in the
results of this experiment, two specimens were prepared and
tested for each plate at each temperature. After the experi-
ment, the percentages of DF and BFs in the specimens were
determined using ImageJ/Fiji software.

2.3 Microstructure Evaluation

An optical microscope (OM) was used to evaluate the micro-

structure. Each sample was ground and polished using a
3-μm diamond paste, and then etched with nital 4% for 14 s.
The nital, with creating differentiation between ferrite and
pearlite microstructures in OM images, shows pearlite in
black and ferrite in white color. Using both this feature and
knowledge of various types of ferrite and pearlite morpholo-
gies [18, 19], the volume fraction and grain size were cal-
culated by ImageJ/Fiji numerical software. This procedure Fig. 2  Microstructures of a plate A and b plate B
involved calculating percentages by selecting the appropriate
OM image of each plate by identifying the areas of each
microstructure and its morphology. Although, in some cases, 3 Results
the use of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) is sug-
gested to perform a quantitative microstructural analysis [20, 3.1 Microstructure
21], a review of the literature [12, 22, 23] determined that
the volume fraction and grain size can be attained with the After preparing the samples, the microstructures of the
method applied in this paper. Moreover, after preparing the plates were examined by OM. Figure 2a and b show the
samples in the same way used for OM and coating them microstructures of plates A and B, respectively, under dif-
with gold, line scan analyses of elements O, Al, Si, P, S, Ti, ferent ACC rates, and Fig. 3a and b show the microstruc-
Mn, Nb, and C were performed to study the segregation of tures of plates C and D, respectively, under different FRTs.
elements in the plates. The analyses were carried out using Based on the OM images, the general microstructures
a secondary electron microscope (SEM) of model mira\\Tes- of the plates consisted of ferrite phase and pearlite constit-
can and its secondary electron imaging (SEI), with energy uent, in which the ferrite and pearlite variations including
dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analyzer being perpendicular polygonal ferrite (PF) and its finite types fine polygonal
to the rolling direction.

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ferrite (FPF), quasi polygonal ferrite (QPF), granular fer-

rite (GF), AF, coarse pearlite (CP), and fine pearlite (FP)
were observed. In Table 3, the volume fraction of ferrite
and pearlite, the grain size of ferrite, and the shape of
pearlite are separately calculated in the structure of each
plate.
Figure 2a shows the microstructures of plate A with the
ACC rate of 18 °C/s in which the pearlite, PF, and QPF are
observed. According to Fig. 2b, by increasing the ACC rate
to 22 °C/s for plate B, the volume fraction of pearlite and
PF decreased, and instead, QPF, GF, and FPF formed along
with limited AF in some regions.
Figure 3a shows the microstructures of plate C with FRT
of 770 °C. The microstructures of this plate consisted of
pearlite, PF, FPF, QPF, GF, and a limited amount of AF. As
shown in Fig. 3b, by decreasing the FRT to 748 °C in plate
D, the volume fraction of QPF and pearlite microstructures
were reduced, and AF formed instead.

3.2 Banded Structures

As shown in OM Fig. 4a–d, all microstructures of plates

Fig. 3  Microstructures of a plate C and b plate D
A-D, to some extent, contained ferrite-pearlite banded
structure. Thus, after identifying banded structures in all
the plates, it was decided to conduct line and point scan
analyses perpendicular to the rolling direction to investigate
the segregation of elements. In addition, the line and point
scan were conducted in the direction where banded structure
existed. The elements analyzed for segregation were Nb,
Mn, Ti, S, P, Si, Al, O, and C, which were introduced as
elements that can cause segregation, based on the previous
studies [24, 25]. In this research, the segregation of these
elements in one of the plates was investigated using SEM
and EDS analyses. Based on the results shown in Figs. 5 and
6, the segregation existed in the elements Nb, Mn, O, and C.

Table 3  Volume fraction, grain Plate Volume fraction, (wt%) Overall grain Shape
size and shape determination size (μm)

A F* P F P*
90 ± 1 10 ± 1 9 ± 2 CP
PF QPF AF GF
88 ± 2 2 ± 1 0 0
B 95 ± 1 5 ± 1 2 ± 1 FP
PF&FPF QPF AF GF
87.5 ± 2 5 ± 1 Nil 2 ± 1
C 88 ± 1 12 ± 1 4 ± 2 CP
PF&FPF QPF AF GF
78.5 ± 2 6 ± 2 Nil 3 ± 1
D 95 ± 1 5 ± 1 1.5 ± 0.5 FP
PF&FPF QPF AF GF
84.5 ± 2 1.5 ± 1 6 ± 1 3 ± 1

*F ferrite, P pearlite

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Fig. 4  The presence of banded
structures in plates of a A, b B,
c C, d D
Besides, probable elements in ferrite-pearlite and pearl-
ite–pearlite boundaries were investigated using point analy-
sis. According to the results of Fig. 7a, b, iron existed mostly
in the ferrite-pearlite boundary, while in pearlite–pearlite
boundary, there were silicon and chromium in addition to
iron. Similar studies have been conducted to examine ele-
ments in or across grain boundaries [26, 27].
3.3 Appeared Areas and Surfaces in DWTT​
Based on Figs. 8 and 9, which show the fracture surfaces of
plates A-D at the temperatures of 0 °C and − 10 °C, the frac-
ture surfaces can commonly be subdivided into three areas.
The first area was caused by the effect of the pressed notch
that resulted in ICF, and the completion of this fracture was
the end of this area. The second area was a combination of
AHMs and DF or only DF that resulted from continued crack
growth. The third area formed due to the work hardening of
the hammer impact, which had caused the appearance of IF.
Imaging of DWTT fractured surfaces, by means of SEM is a
rare analysis due to the limited volume of the SEM chamber
as well as a large volume of DWTT fractured samples; how-
ever, slight studies have been done this issue [16].
These areas themselves were subdivided into six types of
fracture surfaces: (1) ICF near the pressed notch, (2) delami-
nations, which were distributed in different parts of the sur-
face, (3) AHMs, which mostly appeared in the second area,
(4) IF, which referred to the appearance of DF instead of
brittle fracture surface according to the API RP 5L3 stand-
ard [11] and appeared in the third area, (5) DF, which could
appear in all areas and was the most appropriate fracture
surface, and (6) the shear lips that mostly appeared in the
second and third areas and it should be noted that they were
present outside the surface of the samples.
All of the fracture surfaces, except for the DF and shear
lips, were considered as a reaction to ductile fracture, so they
were brittle fractures. In order to have a better understanding
of the types of fracture surfaces in DWTT, some samples
with clearly identifiable fracture surfaces were selected,
whose schematics are shown in Figs. 10 and 11 beside their
fracture surfaces.
From Figs. 10 and 11, it can be concluded that after the
hammer impacts on the specimens, the crack began to grow
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(a)
(b)
C O
Mn Nb
Fig. 5  a The location of the linear analysis of the specified sample
perpendicular to rolling the direction. b The results of the linear anal-
ysis of the specified location in Fig. 5a
from the pressed notch, and initially caused an ICF. As the
crack growth continued and the second area developed, DF,
AHMs, or both, appeared and then, the crack stopped in this
area. Finally, in the third area, IF and shear lips were cre-
ated due to the hammer impact. The delaminations were also
present in the first and second areas of the fracture surfaces.
3.4 Effects of Changes in the Parameters
on the DWTT Fracture Surface
The results of Table 4 indicate that a rise in the ACC rate
in plate B and a reduction in the FRT in plate D increased
the percentage of DF in these plates at the temperatures of
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Metals and Materials International
(a)
(b)
O
C
Nb
Mn
Fig. 6  a The location of the linear analysis of the specified sample
perpendicular to rolling the direction. b The results of the linear anal-
ysis of the specified location in Fig. 6a
0 °C and − 10 °C, which can also be seen in Figs. 8 and 9.
Moreover, plates B and D were able to achieve a DF above
or equal to 85% at 0 °C, which fulfilled the API 5L stand-
ard [10] requirement for transmission of gaseous fluids. At
the temperatures of 0 °C and − 10 °C, BFs were reduced
by increasing the ACC rate in plate B and decreasing the
FRT in plate D. In addition, AHMs of plates B and D at the
temperature of 0 °C decreased while at the temperature of
− 10 °C, this trend was observed only in plates C and D.
The length, depth, thickness, and the number of delamina-
tions in plate B decreased with increasing the ACC rate at
the temperatures of 0 °C and − 10 °C. However, no change
was observed with decreasing the FRT of plate D.
Metals and Materials International
Fig. 7  a Point analysis of ferrite-pearlite boundary. b Point analysis of pearlite–pearlite boundary
4 Discussion
Based on Figs. 8 and 9, AHMs, as brittle fracture surfaces,
mostly appeared in the second area and some parts close
to the first and third areas. It seemed this particular type
of fracture surface, which was taken into consideration due
to its arrow shape, appeared due to the presence of banded
structures. These bands were due to the segregation of the
elements during the solidification process, which eventu-
ally appeared as bands along the rolling direction. Moreo-
ver, segregation occurs as a consequence of the rejection
of alloying elements during the solidification of the cast-
ing process [24, 28, 29]. In reviewed articles [12, 17, 22,
30] with similar conditions to those of this research, the
investigated samples were microalloyed steel produced by
controlled rolling, and banded structures were observed in
their microstructures with AHMs or alike at their fracture
surfaces. Nevertheless, these articles have not mentioned the
relationship between these structures and AHMs, because
they had different subjects. However, another article [16]
attributed the AHMs to the presence of delaminations.
Therefore, it was concluded that the banded structures were
the reason for the occurrence of the AHMs, since delamina-
tions are caused by segregation and the segregation of the
elements Nb, Mn, O, and C that led to the banded structures
was proved in this research.
In this regard, based on Figs. 8 and 9, the AHMs can
be classified by shape as two groups: (1) complete AHMs,
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Fig. 8  Fracture surfaces of a plate A, b plate B, c plate C, and d plate
D at 0 °C
which appeared entirely in fracture surfaces, (2) incomplete
AHMs, which were assumed that had the nature of the com-
plete AHMs but had not formed completely and they were
incomplete for reasons such as resistance of the microstruc-
tures against the growth of cracks. The types of AHMs and
their schematics are shown in Figs. 10 and 11.
Based on the results shown in Tables  3 and 4, the
AHMs and BFs decreased, and the DF increased in plate
B at the temperature of 0 °C due to an increase in the
ferrite volume fraction, the formation of its finer mor-
phologies such as QPF, GF, and FPF, and a reduction in
the pearlite volume fraction while it became finer as a
result of the increase in the ACC rate. A similar result was
obtained at the temperature of 0 °C in plate D by lowering
the FRT, which increased the ferrite volume fraction, led
to the formation of its excellent morphology, AF micro-
structure, and reduced the pearlite volume fraction while it
became finer. In addition, by lowering the test temperature
to − 10 °C, these microstructural changes were effective
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Fig. 9  Fracture surfaces of a plate A, b plate B, c plate C, and d plate
D at − 10 °C
in plates B and D, and as a result, it reduced BFs and
increased DF. However, at the temperature of − 10 °C, no
homogenous changes were detected between the formed
microstructures and AHMs in plates A and B. Therefore, it
was not possible to infer a correlation between the micro-
structure and AHMs at this temperature for plates A and
B, which was due to the disordered toughness changes at
low temperatures. Based on the results shown in Tables 3
and 4 and by comparing plates C and D with plates A
and B, it was concluded that due to the presence of FPF
microstructure and formation of larger AF microstructure
in plates C and D, these plates had better performance of
toughness and more regular changes at the temperature of
− 10 °C. Hence, among plates A–D, plate D had the best
performance due to having the finest ferrite grains and the
finest pearlite shape beside most substantial volume frac-
tion of AF and the lowest volume fraction of pearlite, and
it was the best choice for transmission of gas fluids due to
having the highest DF. The QPF, FPF, GF, and AF micro-
structures formed in plates B and D had fine grains and
higher density of the dislocations within themselves, and
these features permitted them to increase the toughness in
Metals and Materials International
Fig. 10  Schematic of DWTT
fracture surfaces for plates of a
A at 0 °C and b B at − 10 °C
plates [18, 19]. Among these microstructures, the AF as
the best candidate for the microstructure of pipeline plates
has more influence on balancing the strength and tough-
ness because of its finest ferrite grain as well as the high-
est dislocation density. Moreover, the GF, FPF, and QPF
respectively have more impact on increasing the strength
and toughness [18, 19, 31]. In addition, the volume frac-
tion and the size of the cementite of pearlite, which is
a proper spot for nucleation and growth of cracks, were
reduced. Hence, the microstructures withstood further
crack growth, the DF increased, and the BFs and AHMs
decreased. Furthermore, based on Table 3, it was con-
cluded that the increase in the ACC rate and the reduction
in the FRT were more effective in the formation of GF and
AF, respectively.
As shown in Figs. 8 and 9, AHMs appeared in crack
propagation direction (perpendicular to rolling direction).
Accordingly, it is evident in Figs. 8, 9 and 11 that AHM
initially grew in the direction of 90 degrees relative to the
applied stress and their bottom side formed. Afterward, they
had the final growth in the direction of 45 degrees relative to
the applied stress, and their topsides formed, which created
AHM. However, in some of AHMs, the angle of 90 degrees
was approximate due to the presence of a delamination at the
beginning of the bottom side. The steps towards the forma-
tion of an arrowhead are similar to those of the crack growth
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Fig. 11  Schematic of DWTT
fracture surfaces for plates of a
C and b D at 0 °C

Table 4  Percentage of ductile Plate DF* BFs* AHMs Delamination

fracture and brittle fracture
surfaces of plates A-D Complete AHMs Incomplete
AHMs

A 0 °C − 10 °C 0 °C − 10 °C 0 °C − 10 °C 0 °C − 10 °C 0 °C − 10 °C
80 ± 1 68 ± 1 6 ± 2 31 ± 2 14 ± 1 × × 1 ± 1 ✓ ✓
B 0 °C − 10 °C 0 °C − 10 °C 0 °C − 10 °C 0 °C − 10 °C 0 °C − 10 °C
85 ± 1 74 ± 1 5 ± 2 11 ± 2 7 ± 1 11 ± 1 3 ± 1 4 ± 1 ✓ ✓
C 0 °C − 10 °C 0 °C − 10 °C 0 °C − 10 °C 0 °C − 10 °C 0 °C − 10 °C
76 ± 1 79 ± 1 13 ± 4 9 ± 2 11 ± 1 12 ± 1 × × ✓ ✓
D 0 °C − 10 °C 0 °C − 10 °C 0 °C − 10 °C 0 °C − 10 °C 0 °C − 10 °C
98 ± 1 87 ± 1 2 ± 1 6 ± 1 × × × 7 ± 1 ✓ ✓

*DF ductile fracture surface, BFs brittle fracture surfaces

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until ductile fracture in the tensile test so that after necking
and then the formation and growth of cavities, the cracks
grew at an angle of 90 degrees at first, and then 45 degrees
relative to the applied stress [32]. Thus, it can be concluded
that although this type of fracture surface had brittle nature,
its mechanism of shape formation was similar to that of the
ductile fracture in the tensile test.
The start and stop of the growth of the AHMs can also be
examined in the DWTT fracture surface. For this purpose,
the mechanism of formation and growth of brittle fracture
surfaces needs to be studied. Initially, the pressed notch is
created as a fault and starting position of the crack under
work hardening. After the hammer impacts the specimen,
the crack appears and starts to propagate from the pressed
notch due to the energy generated by the hammer along with
the stored elastic strain energy. However, by reducing the
stored energy, crack stops, or slows down, but as this energy
rises again, the crack growth rate increases, and the crack
starts to grow again [33]. A reduction, increase, or stop of
the crack growth affects the fracture surface, which means
the brittle fracture surface extends, stops, or decreases by
increasing, stopping, or reducing the crack rate, respectively.
Factors such as modification of the microstructure or elimi-
nation of the banded structures have a significant effect on
decreasing the crack growth and consequently reducing the
brittle fracture surface.
One of the modes that appeared at the fracture surfaces
of the DWTT samples is the delaminations. By examining
Figs. 8 and 9, it is observed that delaminations appeared in
areas and surfaces such as (1) close to and inside the ICF, (2)
at the entire second area, (3) inside the AHMs, (4) close to
the IF. In addition, the delaminations can be compared based
on their length, thickness, depth, and number in each plate.
Therefore, the number, depth, length, thickness, presence or
absence of delaminations at the DWTT fracture surfaces can
provide the suitable guidance to recognize whether casting,
solidification, and TMCP of the slab are performed appropri-
ately and according to customer requirements or not.
Given that the delaminations were all in the crack growth
direction, by examination of the fracture surface of plate
B, it was concluded that the number, length, thickness, and
depth of delaminations decreased with increasing ACC rate
due to the formation of QPF, FPF, and AF microstructures
at the temperatures of 0 °C and − 10 °C. Nevertheless, with
reducing FRT in Plate D, no changes were made in number,
length, thickness, and depth of delaminations. Generally,
by examining plates A-D, it was found that the number,
length, and thickness of delaminations in plates C and D
were lower than those in plates A and B. This result indicates
that plates C and D underwent a more appropriate casting
process and TMCP and were able to withstand the occur-
rence and growth of the delaminations due to the presence
of FPF and AF microstructures.
After conducting DWTT at the temperature of 0 °C, less
than four delaminations with medium or short lengths, and
low thicknesses and depths were observed in the fracture
surfaces of plates B and D, which had a DF percentage
equal to or above 85% and fulfilled the API 5L standard
[10] requirement for transmission of gas fluids. Hence,
it can be concluded that in plates with a DF equal to or
above 85%, the number, length, depth, and thickness of
delaminations were low, and the casting and fabrication
processes were appropriately performed. Furthermore, to
examine the banded structures at the DWTT fracture sur-
face for plates to be used in sour environments, delamina-
tions were a better criterion than the AHMs, because with
the presence of banded structures in the microstructure of
all plates, one would expect the appearance of AHMs and
delaminations at the fracture surfaces of all plates. Never-
theless, with improving the properties of plates, only the
delaminations remained at the fracture surfaces, and the
AHMs were eliminated.
5 Conclusions
After conducting DWTT at the temperatures of 0 °C and
− 10 °C on four Nb–V–Ti microalloyed steels produced with
TMCP, it was concluded that:
1. With increasing the ACC rates and decreasing the FRT,
the DF increased, and consequently, the BFs decreased
due to the formation of QPF, FPF, GF, and AF micro-
structures that had fine grains and more dislocations
within themselves, as well as a reduction in pearlite,
which meant that the cementite decreased as they
become smaller.
2. The AHMs, as brittle fracture surfaces, appeared in
complete and incomplete forms and were reduced with
an increase in the ACC and a decrease in the FRT. The
number, length, thickness, and depth of the delami-
nations also declined with increasing the ACC and
decreasing the FRT.
3. Based on the investigations, it was realized that the
AHMs formed due to banded structures, which were
observed in the microstructures and approved by segre-
gation of the elements Nb, Mn, O, and C.
4. According to API 5L standard and DWTT results, since
plates B and D had less than four delaminations of low
length, depth, and thickness, and a DF equal to or more
than 85% at the temperature of 0 °C, they had the capa-
bility for transmitting gas fluids, with plate D being the
best choice. Moreover, instead of AHMs, the delamina-
tions were chosen as the best criterion for detecting the
banded structures.
13

Acknowledgements  The authors gratefully acknowledge full support
provided by General Manager, Technical Manager, Deputy Managers
of R&D and Quality Control, and the staff of TMCP mill and Testing
Laboratory of Khouzestan Oxin Steel Company (KOSC). This research
did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public,
commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Data Availability  The raw/processed data required to reproduce these
findings cannot be shared at this time as the data also forms part of an
ongoing study.
Compliance with Ethical Standards  19. G. Thewlis, Mater. Sci. Technol. 20, 143–160 (2004)
Conflict of interest  The author declares that they have no conflict of
interest.
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