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In steel manufacturing, the conventional method to determine the mechanical properties and microstructure is by offline, destructive (lab-)characterisation of sample material that is typically taken from the head or the tail of the coil. Since coils can be up to 7 km long, the samples are not always representative for the main coil body. Also, the time delay (typically a few days) between the actual production and the availability of the characterisation results implies that these results cannot be exploited for real-time adaptation of the process settings. Information about the microstructure and material properties can also be obtained from electromagnetic (EM) and ultrasonic (US) parameters, which can be measured in real-time, non-destructively, and over the full length of the steel strip product. With the aim to improve the consistency in product quality by use of inline EM and US measurements, a European project called "Product Uniformity Control" (PUC) has been set up as a broad collaboration between 4 major European Steel Manufacturers and 10 Universities / Research institutes. Using both numerical simulations and experimental characterisations, we study the inline measured EM and US parameters in regard of the microstructural and mechanical properties. In this way, we aim to establish an improved understanding of their mutual relationships, and to apply this knowledge in existing and new nondestructive evaluation techniques. In this paper, the concerted approach of modelling and experimental validation will be addressed, and results of this work will be shown in combination with inline measured data. © 2018 The authors and IOS Press. COFREND Organization; Digiteo-DigiCosme 2016 Program; JSM Learned Society; University Paris-Saclay

A European consortium consisting of four major steel manufacturers and ten academic technology institutes has conducted a research and development project, called “Product Uniformity Control“ (PUC) in the period 2013 to 2017. This project aimed to develop and improve non-destructive (inline) measurement techniques to characterise the (uniformity of the) microstructure of steel strip products. In this project, a multitude of strip steel samples from various stages of production have been collected from the four participating steel manufacturers. The samples have been characterised in various ways, namely on their (1) non-destructive measurement parameters using different techniques suited for inline evaluation, (2) fundamental ultrasonic and electromagnetic properties (wave speed, ultrasonic attenuation, magnetisation loops, coercive field), (3) tensile properties (stress-strain curves) and (4) microstructure (by optical micrographs and EBSD images). The correlations between these different characterisations will be addressed. Besides the experimental characterisation, a strong accent has been on modelling activities: during the project, fundamental models have been developed to describe, starting from 2D and 3D microstructures, the ultrasonic and magnetic properties, which are next used as input to sensor models that predict the output of the inline measurement systems. This contribution will present the recent results of both the experimental and the modelling work, and underline their mutual importance in the interpretation of the measured data for the benefit of inline characterisation of the mechanical properties complementary to traditional destructive tensile testing.

International audience

International audience; The uniformity of the microstructure of steel strip over the entire coil length and between different coils of the same grade is key to stable and consistent material behaviour in steel manufacturers’ proprietary processes, like rolling and levelling, and customers’ processes, like pressing and deep-drawing. In particular for high-strength steels, like dual phase and complex phase steels, the microstructure is very sensitive to processing variations resulting in a potentially larger spread in the mechanical properties of the product. In July 2013, a large European consortium consisting of 15 institutes started an RFCS (1) –funded project called “Product Uniformity Control” (PUC) with the primary objective to achieve enhanced and sustained product uniformity of steel strip by improved interpretation of data from inline measurement methods that aim for real-time and non-destructive characterisation of microstructure and techno-mechanical parameters. Commonly, these techniques are based on electromagnetic (EM) or ultrasonic (US) measurement principles, which are favoured because of their non-destructive and potentially contact-free nature. To improve the techniques for in-line materials characterisation, the PUC consortium takes a systematic approach to investigate the interrelations between mechanical properties -- microstructural parameters -- EM & US properties -- inline measurement thereof. The studies involve dedicated laboratory experiments, modelling of the EM and US properties of steel, modelling of inline measurement setups and statistical analysis of data from inline measurement systems. The synthesis of these activities should result in improved, model-based, calibrations and finally in a broader deployment and integration of the inline material characterisation techniques in steel manufacturing, adding value to the product and enhancing the process efficiency throughout the production chain from hot-rolling to finishing. This paper outlines the project approach, highlights interconnecting modelling and experimental research work, and demonstrates first results. Various contributions being presented at this WCNDT conference originate from the collaborative activities of this PUC project. (1). (European) Research Fund for Coal and Steel

This thesis deals with the characterization of the growth and of the magnetic properties of ultrathin Fe films on GaAs(001). In particular, a scanning SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device) magnetometer was used in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV), whose performance has been improved within the scope of this thesis. By probing the magnetic stray field of a magnetized film, the absolute remanent magnetization can be determined with submonolayer sensitivity. In the context of this thesis the magnetic stray field has been calculated analytically. The combined use of SQUID and ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) on the same film in UHV allows for the independent determination of the magnetization and the magnetic anisotropy constants as a function of temperature, film thickness, topography of the substrate and oxygen exposure. The results of this thesis are: 1. The thickness dependent remanent magnetization from 2 to 20 monolayer (ML) Fe on GaAs(001) without cap layer was measured as a function of temperature. 2. The continuous in-plane reorientation of the magnetization (from [1 1 0] to [1 0 0]) of Fe films with increasing film thickness was observed using the scanning SQUID technique and showed good agreement with FMR measurements. 3. The influence of controlled oxygen exposure on the remanent magnetization and the magnetic anisotropy constants of 5 to 16 ML Fe was investigated. A faster reduction of the magnetization is found for the thinner Fe films when the volume of the Fe oxide is taken into consideration. At low oxygen exposure (

Duisburg, Essen, Univ., Diss., 2006