Upper bainite

The microstructure of upper bainite consists of fine plates of ferrite, each of which is about 0.2 micrometer thick and about 10 micrometers long. The plates grow in clusters called sheaves. Within each sheaf the plates are parallel and of identical crystallographic orientation, each with a well-defined crystallographic habit. The individual plates in a sheaf are often called the `sub-units' of bainite. They are usually separated by low-misorientation boundaries or by cementite particles, Figure.

The microstructure of upper bainite. This is in a steel which is rich in silicon, which suppresses the precipitation of cementite. Instead of cementite we have films of austenite between the bainitic ferrite platelets. (a) Optical micrograph; (b) bright-field transmission electron micrograph; (c) dark-field image of retained austenite; (d) transmission electron micrograph montage of a sheaf of bainite (this sheaf looks like a single dark plate in the optical micrograph). After Bhadeshia and Edmonds, Acta Metallurgica, volume 28 (1980) 1265-1273.

Upper bainite evolves in distinct stages beginning with the nucleation of ferrite plates at the austenite grain boundaries. The growth of each plate is accompanied by a change in the shape of the transformed region ( Figure), a change which can be described precisely as an invariant-plane strain with a large shear component, virtually identical to that observed during martensitic transformation. However, bainite grows at relatively high temperatures when compared with martensite. The large strains associated with the shape change cannot be sustained by the austenite, the strength of which decreases as the temperature rises. These strains are relaxed by the plastic deformation of the adjacent austenite. The local increase in dislocation density caused by the yielding of the austenite blocks the further movement of the glissile transformation interface ( Figure). This localised plastic deformation therefore halts the growth of the ferrite plate so that each sub-unit only achieves a limited size which is much less than the size of an austenite grain.

The intense tangles of dislocations which form at the bainite (light) austenite (dark) interface, due to deformation induced by the shape change accompanying transformation. The tangles of dislocations render the interface immobile by "workhardening", leading to a loss of coherency and a halt to the growth process. This is responsible for the limited size of each platelet of bainite in a sheaf. After Bhadeshia and Edmonds, Metallurgical Transactions A, 10A (1979) 895-907.

As with martensite, the shape change implies that the mechanism of growth of bainitic ferrite is displacive. It is the minimisation of the strain energy associated with the displacements that ensures that bainite grows in the form of thin plates. Since the crystal structure of bainite is generated by a coordinated movement of atoms, it follows that there must exist an orientation relationship between the austenite and bainite. This relationship is found experimentally to be of the type where a pair of the most densely packed planes of the two lattices are approximately parallel, as are corresponding close-packed directions within those planes. This is loosely described by a Kurdjumov-Sachs type orientation relationship. Bainite forms on particular crystallographic planes, but the indices of the habit plane show considerable scatter ( Figure). This is because most of the measurements are made using light microscopy, in which case the habit plane determined is not that of an individual sub-unit. It corresponds instead to some average value depending on the number, size and distribution of sub-units within the sheaf. All of these factors can vary with the transformation temperature, time and chemical composition.

The irrational habit planes of bainite sheaves and of martensite plates [Greninger and Troiano, Trans. AIMME, 140 (1940) 307336]. Notice the emphasis on the term sheaves. This is because the measurments are made using light microscopy and hence refer to the bainite sheaf as a whole rather than the individual sub-unit.

It was emphasised earlier that upper bainite forms in two distinct stages, the first involving the formation of bainitic ferrite which has a very low solubility for carbon (< 0.02 wt.%). The growth of the ferrite therefore enriches the remaining austenite in carbon. Eventually, cementite precipitates from the residual austenite layers in between the ferrite sub-units. The amount of cementite depends on the carbon concentration of the alloy. High concentrations lead to microstructures in which the ferrite platelets are separated by continuous layers of cementite. Small, discrete particles of cementite form when the alloy carbon concentration is low. The cementite particles have a "Pitsch" orientation relationship with the austenite from which they precipitate:
[0 0 1]Fe3C [1 0 0]Fe3C [0 1 0]Fe3C || || || [ -2 [ 5 2 -5 -1 5]gamma 4]gamma 0]gamma

[ -1

Many variants of carbide may precipitate from the austenite, each particle being indirectly related to the ferrite via the ferrite/austenite orientation relationship. If sufficient quantities of alloying elements (such as silicon or aluminium) which retard the formation of cementite are added to the steel, then it is possible to suppress the formation of cementite altogether. An upper bainitic microstructure consisting of just bainitic ferrite and carbon-enirched retained austenite is obtained instead. The microstructure may also contain martensite if the residual austenite decomposes on cooling to ambient temperature.