The influence of grain size on the mechanical properties ofsteel

Many of the important mechanical properties of steel, including yield strength and hardness, the ductile-brittle transition temperature and susceptibility to environmental embrittlement can be improved by refining the grain size. The improvement can often be quantified in a constitutive relation that is an appropriate variant on the familiar Hall-Petch relation: the quantitative improvement in properties varies with d{sup -1/2}, where d is the grain size. Nonetheless, there is considerable uncertainty regarding the detailed mechanism of the grain size effect, and appropriate definition of ''grain size''. Each particular mechanism of strengthening and fracture suggests its own appropriate definition of the ''effective grain size'', and how it may be best controlled