The steel sheet has a steel microstructure containing ferrite: 6% to 90% by area, a microstructure composed of one or more of upper bainite, fresh martensite, tempered martensite, lower bainite, and retained γ: 10% to 94% by area in total, and retained γ: 3% to 20% by volume, a ratio (S.sub.UB/S.sub.2nd)×100(%) of an area ratio S.sub.UB of an upper bainite with a width in the range of 0.8 to 7 μm, a length in the range of 2 to 15 μm, and an aspect ratio of 2.2 or more in contact with retained γ.sub.UB with a grain width in the range of 0.17 to 0.80 μm and an aspect ratio in the range of 4 to 25 to an area ratio S.sub.2nd of the microstructure composed of one or more of upper bainite, fresh martensite, tempered martensite, lower bainite, and retained γ ranges from 2.0% to 15%.

Provided are a steel plate for a pressure vessel with excellent cryogenic toughness and excellent ductility, and a manufacturing method thereof. The steel plate for a pressure vessel of the present invention comprises, in weight %, 0.05 to 0.15% of C; 0.20 to 0.40% of Si; 0.3 to 0.6% of Mn; 0.001 to 0.05% of Al; 0.012% or less of P; 0.015% or less of S; 4.0 to 5.0% of Ni; 0.001 to 0.10% of In; and the balance being Fe and unavoidable impurities, wherein a steel microstructure consists of 15 to 80 area % of tempered bainite and the balance being tempered martensite.

A thin steel sheet has a specific chemical composition. The thin steel sheet has a microstructure in which ferrite is present in an area fraction of 5% or more and 60% or less, as-quenched martensite is present in an area fraction of 10% or less (including 0%), retained austenite is present in an area fraction of 5% or more and 20% or less, and upper bainite, lower bainite, and tempered martensite are present in a total area fraction of more than 15% and less than 85%; BCC iron that has a misorientation of 1° or less and surrounds retained austenite having an aspect ratio of 2.5 or higher is present in an area fraction of 5% or more and 70% or less; and a top 10% of retained austenite in terms of an equivalent circular diameter has an average aspect ratio of 2.5 or higher.

A method for manufacturing a steel product includes providing a heated steel starting product at a temperature between 380° C. and 700° C., having a metastable fully austenitic structure, with a specified composition. Then the starting product is hot formed at a temperature between 700° C. and 380° C., with a cumulated strain ε.sub.b between 0.1 and 0.7, in at least one location of the heated steel starting product, to obtain a fully austenitic hot-formed steel product; quenched by cooling the product down, at a cooling rate VR.sub.2 superior to the critical martensitic cooling rate, to a quenching temperature QT lower than Ms in order to obtain a structure containing between 40% and 90% of martensite, the rest of the structure being austenite; then maintained at, or reheated up to a holding temperature PT between QT and 470° C. and holding the product at the temperature PT for a duration Pt between 5 s and 600 s.

A steel sheet including a steel micro-structure containing, in volume fraction, tempered martensite: 85% or more, retained austenite: 5% or more to less than 15%, and ferrite, pearlite, bainite, and as-quenched martensite being less than 10% in total, when contents of Mn and C in the retained austenite are denoted by Mn.sub.A and C.sub.A, and when contents of Mn and C in a matrix are denoted by Mn.sub.M and C.sub.M, respectively, following Formulas (1) to (3) are satisfied, and the number of carbides having an equivalent circle radius of 0.1 μm or more is 100 or less in a region measuring 20000 μm.sup.2, and the steel sheet has a tensile strength of 1100 MPa or more. The steel sheet is excellent in crash resistance and formability.

Mn.sub.A/Mn.sub.M≥1.2  (1)

C.sub.A/C.sub.M≤5.0  (2)

C.sub.A≤1.0  (3)

An object is to provide a high strength steel sheet having a TS (tensile strength) of 980 MPa or more and excellent formability and a method for manufacturing the steel sheet.

A high strength steel sheet which is excellent in terms of formability, which is manufactured under optimized manufacturing conditions, and which has a predetermined chemical composition and a steel microstructure including, in terms of area fraction, 35% or more and 80% or less of ferrite, 5% or more and 35% or less of as-quenched martensite, 0.1% or more and less than 3.0% of tempered martensite, and 8% or more of retained austenite, in which the average grain size of the ferrite is 6 μm or less, in which the average grain size of the retained austenite is 3 μm or less, in which a value calculated by dividing the average Mn content in the retained austenite by the average Mn content in the ferrite is 1.5 or more, in which a value calculated by dividing the sum of the area fraction of as-quenched martensite having a circle-equivalent grain size of 3 μm or more and the area fraction of retained austenite having a circle-equivalent grain size of 3 μm or more by the sum of the area fraction of all the as-quenched martensite and the area fraction of all the retained austenite is less than 0.4, and in which a value calculated by dividing the area fraction of retained austenite grains adjacent to three or more ferrite grains having different crystal orientations by the area fraction of all the retained austenite is less than 0.6.

This steel sheet has a predetermined chemical composition, in which the area ratio of plate martensite is 10% or more, the average grain size of prior austenite grains is 2.0 μm to 10.0 μm, the maximum diameter thereof is 20.0 μm or less, the amount of solid solution C in martensite is 0.20 mass % or less, the average carbide size is 0.25 μm or less, the crystal orientation difference between plate martensite and another martensite adjacent thereto in the same prior austenite grain is 10.0° or less, and the P concentration at grain boundaries of the prior austenite grains is 4.0 at % or less.

Disclosed is an ultra-high-strength steel having excellent plasticity, comprising in mass percent the chemical elements: C: 0.26-0.30 wt %; Si: 0.8-1.00 wt %; Mn: 2.80-3.30 wt %; Al: 0.04-0.08 wt %; with the balance being Fe and other inevitable impurities. Also disclosed is a manufacturing method for manufacturing the ultra-high-strength steel having excellent plasticity, comprising the following steps: (1) smelting and thin slab continuous casting; (2) heating; (3) hot rolling, wherein an oxide scale on the surface of a hot-rolled steel strip has a thickness of ≤6 μm, and (FeO+Fe.sub.3O.sub.4)≤40 wt % in the oxide scale on the surface of the hot-rolled strip steel; (4) acid pickling or acid pickling and cold rolling; and (5) continuous annealing: annealing at 800-920° C. and performing slow cooling at 3-10° C./s to 690-760° C.; performing fast cooling to 250-350° C. at 50-100° C.; and then heating to 360-460° C., maintaining the temperature for 100-400s and cooling to room temperature.

An object is to provide a steel plate having excellent deformability in the central portion in the thickness direction and a method for manufacturing the steel plate. A steel plate having a chemical composition containing, by mass %, C: 0.01% to 0.15%, Si: 0.01% to 1.00%, Mn: 0.10% to 2.00%, P: 0.010% or less, S: 0.0050% or less, Al: 0.002% to 0.100%, Ni: 5.0% to 10.0%, N: 0.0010% to 0.0080%, and with a balance being Fe and incidental impurities and a percentage reduction of area of 30% or more in a tensile test in the thickness direction performed on the central portion in the thickness direction.

A high strength steel strip having medium amounts of C, Mn, Si, Cr and Al, wherein the steel strip has a microstructure consisting of, in vol. %: ferrite and bainite together 50-90%, martensite<15%, retained austenite 5-15%, the remainder being pearlite, cementite, precipitates and inclusions together up to 5%.