Abstracthree steels having different silicon contents were prepared to study the microstructure and toughness of the thermally simulated heat affected zone (HAZ) in titanium killed steels. For a low silicon addition, the oxygen content in the molten steels decreased remarkably. This in turn caused a change in the inclusion phase from predominantly titanium oxide to titanium nitride (TiN), the change being accompanied by two major microstructural modifications. The austenite grain size became refined and the quantity of intragranularly nucleated acicular ferrite decreased. The microstructural change was found to cause coarsening of Charpy fracture surfaces and deterioration of HAZ toughness of the steels. The minor change of silicon content therefore has a profound influence on the properties of titanium killed steels.MST/1503