The Effect of Ultrafast Heating on Cold-Rolled Low Carbon Steel: Formation and Decomposition of Austenite

Effect of Fusion Boundary Microstructure on Flow-Accelerated Corrosion Cracking

Flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) preferentially attacks the downstream heat-affected zone of the root-pass weld in steam pipe systems. A detailed characterization identifies the fusion boundary as the initiation location for the attack. Alloying elements are found depleted along the weld fusion boundary, and multiple welding thermal cycles and repetitive austenite-to-ferrite phase transformations result in an increased proportion of grains with Goss {110}<001> texture along the fusion boundary. The synergistic effects of chemical segregation and the Schmid factor may contribute to the preferential initiation of FAC cracks along the root weld fusion boundary, making it the weakest link for FAC attack in steam pipe girth welds.

Effect of Ultra-Fast Heat Treatment on the Subsequent Formation of Mixed Martensitic/Bainitic Microstructure with Carbides in a CrMo Medium Carbon Steel

The current work focuses on complex multiphase microstructures gained in CrMo medium carbon steel after ultra-fast heat treatment, consisting of heating with heating rate of 300 °C/s, 2 s soaking at peak temperature and subsequent quenching. In order to better understand the microstructure evolution and the phenomena that take place during rapid heating, an ultra-fast heated sample was analyzed and compared with a conventionally treated sample with a heating rate of 10 °C/s and 360 s soaking. The initial microstructure of both samples consisted of ferrite and spheroidized cementite. The conventional heat treatment results in a fully martensitic microstructure as expected. On the other hand, the ultra-fast heated sample shows significant heterogeneity in the final microstructure. This is a result of insufficient time for cementite dissolution, carbon diffusion and chemical composition homogenization at the austenitization temperature. Its final microstructure consists of undissolved spheroidized cementite, nano-carbides and martensite laths in a ferritic matrix. Based on EBSD and TEM analysis, traces of bainitic ferrite are indicated. The grains and laths sizes observed offer proof that a diffusionless, massive transformation takes place for the austenite formation and growth instead of a diffusion-controlled transformation that occurs on a conventional heat treatment.

Ultrafast Heating and Initial Microstructure Effect on Phase Transformation Evolution of a CrMo Steel

Main target of the present work is to elucidate the effect of both initial microstructure and heating rate on phase transformations that occur during ultrafast processing. For this purpose, two initial microstructures, a ferritic-pearlitic and a soft-annealed microstructure were considered. We applied different heating rates (10 °C/s, 200 °C/s, 300 °C/s) up to the peak austenitization temperature, θ ≅ 900 °C. The evolving microstructure is analysed via SEM and EBSD, whereas the carbide dissolution and austenite formation is simulated with Thermocalc® and DICTRA software. Data obtained in this research proves that, when the heating rate increases, the carbide dissolution rate is disseminated. Compared to a conventional heating rate, where the local chemical composition homogenizes as a result of diffusion, rapid reheating leads to intense segregation of the substitutional atoms at the cementite/austenite interface and turns diffusion to a sluggish process. This fact, combined to the infinitesimal time for diffusion, forms an inhomogeneous carbon distribution along the microstructure. This inhomogeneity is further enhanced by the presence of increased carbides’ size present in the initial microstructure. Due to rapid heating, these carbides cannot be decomposed since the diffusion distance of alloying elements increases and the diffusion of alloying elements is impeded during ultrafast heating, thus, remain undissolved at peak austenitization temperature. Their presence and effect in heterogeneous ferrite nucleation restrict austenite grain growth. Consequently, fine austenite grains in conjunction with their chemical heterogeneity lead to the coexistence of fine martensite, bainite laths and undissolved carbides in the final microstructure after quenching.

Ferrite-to-Austenite and Austenite-to-Martensite Phase Transformations in the Vicinity of a Cementite Particle: A Molecular Dynamics Approach

We used classical molecular dynamics simulation to study the ferrite–austenite phase transformation of iron in the vicinity of a phase boundary to cementite. When heating a ferrite–cementite bicrystal, we found that the austenitic transformation starts to nucleate at the phase boundary. Due to the variants nucleated, an extended poly-crystalline microstructure is established in the transformed phase. When cooling a high-temperature austenite–cementite bicrystal, the martensitic transformation is induced; the new phase again nucleates at the phase boundary obeying the Kurdjumov–Sachs orientation relations, resulting in a twinned microstructure.