Revenido de un acero bain?tico nanoestructurado: un an?lisis a nivel at?mico

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2008

OSTI ID:931192

Caballero, Francesca G. ^[1]; Miller, Michael K ^[2]; Mateo, C. Garcia ^[1]

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1. CENIM-CSIC, Madrid, Spain
2. ORNL

New developments with bainite have resulted in a steel with an ultimate tensile strength of 1.7-2.5 GPa and a toughness in excess of 30-40 MPa m1/2. The novel microstructure is generated in a high carbon high silicon steel isothermally transformed at temperatures of 200 C-350 C. Iron does not diffuse during the transformation to bainite at this low temperature. As a result, 20-40 nm thick plates of ferrite are generated, giving rise to the exceptional properties. X-ray diffraction results indicated that the carbon concentration in the bainitic ferrite was much higher than that expected from equilibrium thermodynamics between austenite and ferrite. Atom probe tomography demonstrated that a substantial quantity of carbon (7.4 at. % C) was found to be trapped at dislocations in the vicinity of the ferrite/austenite interface. Carbon trapping at dislocations was found to prevent the decarburization of supersaturated ferrite and in some extent to alter the carbide precipitation sequence during low temperature bainite formation. These results provided the first direct observation of carbon Cottrell Atmospheres in bainitic ferrite. There are important differences in the tempering behavior of bainite and martensite. Much of the carbon precipitates as carbides or partitions from the ferrite to the remaining austenite during bainite formation. As a consequence the bainitic microstructure is less sensitive to additional tempering heat treatment. In contrast, the level of carbon in the bainitic ferrite of this novel bainitic steel is unusually high. Redistribution of alloying elements during tempering of this nanocrystalline steel has been analysed by atom probe tomography. Results suggest that retained austenite decomposes during tempering before full equilibrium is reached at the interface. Moreover, cementite precipitates from supersaturated ferrite via a paraequilibrium transformation mechanism.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL); Shared Research Equipment Collaborative Research Center
• Sponsoring Organization: SC USDOE - Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 931192
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
AUSTENITE
BAINITE
CARBON
CARBON STEELS
DISLOCATIONS
FERRITE
FRACTURE PROPERTIES
MICROSTRUCTURE
PHASE STUDIES
TEMPERING
TENSILE PROPERTIES