High-performance steels

Steel is the material of choice in structures such as storage tanks, gas and oil distribution pipelines, high-rise buildings, and bridges because of its strength, ductility, and fracture toughness, as well as its repairability and recyclability. Furthermore, these properties are continually being improved via advances in steelmaking, casting, rolling, and chemistry. Developments in steelmaking have led to alloys having low sulfur, sulfide shape control, and low hydrogen. They provide reduced chemical segregation, higher fracture toughness, better through-thickness and weld heat-affected zone properties, and lower susceptibility to hydrogen cracking. Processing has moved beyond traditional practices to designed combinations of controlled rolling and cooling known as thermomechanical control processes (TMCP). In fact, chemical composition control and TMCP now enable such precise adjustment of final properties that these alloys are now known as high-performance steels (HPS), engineered materials having properties tailored for specific applications.