Grant: Alliance Grants

This proposal brings together an established team of researchers from The University of British Columbia, McMaster University, Evraz NA Inc. and TC Energy to tackle the challenge of producing advanced thick steel plate with the required properties for the construction and replacement of existing and future pipelines. This challenge is critical to ensure the highest level of safety and sustainability within a competitive economic framework. The approach taken in the research involves a so called "through process" methodology where explicit links between the different steps in the manufacturing process, here hot rolling, can be accounted for. A particular challenge for thick (also known as "heavy gauge") pipe materials are the through thickness variation of properties that develop due to the temperature and deformation gradients inherent in the processing of these products. The proposal will take advantage of state of the art modelling approaches and new advanced characterization techniques. The result of this work will be i) new knowledge on the fundamental mechanisms which control strength and toughness of advanced pipeline steels to be published in the scientific literature, ii) the education of 3 PhD students, 2 postdoctoral fellows and 1 research engineer in a field of critical importance to Canada and iii) the transfer of knowledge to the industry partners who will commercialize results in the Canadian and global market.