Retained Austenite in SAE 52100 Steel Post Magnetic Processing and Heat Treatment

Conference · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2007

OSTI ID:931708

Pappas, Nathaniel R ^[1]; Watkins, Thomas R ^[1]; Cavin, Odis Burl ^[1]; Jaramillo, Roger A ^[1]; Ludtka, Gerard Michael ^[1]

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1. ORNL

Steel is an iron-carbon alloy that contains up to 2% carbon by weight. Understanding which phases of iron and carbon form as a function of temperature and percent carbon is important in order to process/manufacture steel with desired properties. Austenite is the face center cubic (fcc) phase of iron that exists between 912 and 1394 C. When hot steel is rapidly quenched in a medium (typically oil or water), austenite transforms into martensite. The goal of the study is to determine the effect of applying a magnetic field on the amount of retained austenite present at room temperature after quenching. Samples of SAE 52100 steel were heat treated then subjected to a magnetic field of varying strength and time, while samples of SAE 1045 steel were heat treated then subjected to a magnetic field of varying strength for a fixed time while being tempered. X-ray diffraction was used to collect quantitative data corresponding to the amount of each phase present post processing. The percentage of retained austenite was then calculated using the American Society of Testing and Materials standard for determining the amount of retained austenite for randomly oriented samples and was plotted as a function of magnetic field intensity, magnetic field apply time, and magnetic field wait time after quenching to determine what relationships exist with the amount of retained austenite present. In the SAE 52100 steel samples, stronger field strengths resulted in lower percentages of retained austenite for fixed apply times. The results were inconclusive when applying a fixed magnetic field strength for varying amounts of time. When applying a magnetic field after waiting a specific amount of time after quenching, the analyses indicate that shorter wait times result in less retained austenite. The SAE 1045 results were inconclusive. The samples showed no retained austenite regardless of magnetic field strength, indicating that tempering removed the retained austenite. It is apparent that applying a magnetic field after quenching will result in a lower amount of retained austenite but that the exact relationship, linear or other, is inconclusive. This project is a part of a larger, ongoing project investigating the application of a magnetic field during heat treatment and its influence on the iron-carbon phase-equilibria.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL); High Temperature Materials Laboratory
• Sponsoring Organization: EE USDOE - Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 931708
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ALLOYS
AUSTENITE
CARBON
HEAT TREATMENTS
IRON
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MARTENSITE
PROCESSING
QUENCHING
STEELS
TEMPERING
TESTING