Journal of Materials Processing Technology 227 (2016) 1–10

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Journal of Materials Processing Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec

Thermo-mechanically processed dual matrix ductile iron produced by

continuous cooling transformation
M. Soliman a,∗ , H. Ibrahim a , A. Nofal b , H. Palkowski a
a
Institute of Metallurgy, Clausthal University of Technology, D38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany
b
Central Metallurgical Research and Development Institute—CMRDI, Helwan, 11421 Cairo, Egypt

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Ductile irons with dual matrix structure were attained by controlled cooling in the austenite + ferrite
Received 8 June 2015 region, after austenitization. Afterwards, the ductile irons were quenched to either 375 ◦ C, so as to trans-
Received in revised form 29 July 2015 form the austenite into ausferrite or to room temperature to transform austenite to martensite. Fully
Accepted 30 July 2015
ausferritic and fully martensitic matrices were also produced by direct quenching from the austenite
Available online 3 August 2015
region. Furthermore, three different deformations with true-strain values of 0, 0.3 and 0.5 have been
applied in the austenite region. The structures were produced in three ductile irons with aluminum
Keywords:
contents of 0.31 wt.%, 0.96 wt.% and 1.7 wt.%. The different microstructures were produced in a thermo-
Ductile iron
Thermo-mechanical processing
mechanical simulator equipped with a dilatometry system. Dilatometry was used to monitor the structure
Dual matrix development throughout the thermo-mechanical processes. The microstructural changes and hardness
Austempering property exhibited by the produced structures were investigated. Increasing the aluminum widened the
Phase transformations intercritical region making the control of the pro-eutectoid ferrite volume fraction easier. The quenching
Dilatometry temperature in the intercritical region was shifted to higher value by both increasing the aluminum con-
tent and increasing the deformation. This shift resulted in a higher carbon level saturating the intercritical
austenite which resulted in fundamental effects on the subsequent transformation kinetics.
© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction On the other hand, hot deformation as a method of strength

Ductile iron (DI) with dual matrix structure (DMS) is a new class
of materials in which the matrix structure consists of a soft phase,
which is the ferrite and a hard phase which is either martensite or
ausferrite (acicular ferrite and high carbon austenite). The ductile
iron with DMS gained interest due to the improved combination
between strength and ductility.
According to Kobayashi and Yamada (1996), the combined
strength-elongation of DMS with ausferrite as hard phase is bet-
ter than the conventional austempered ductile iron (ADI). Wade
et al. (1985) indicated that the mechanical properties of DMS with
ausferrite are improved, more than those of the same ductile iron
with martensite in DMS. Ferrite in the DMS is obtained by either
an incomplete austenitization step (by isothermal holding at tem-
peratures within the intercritical interval) (Kobayashi el al., 1996;
Wade el al., 1985) or by controlled cooling of the austenite in the
intercritical region (Soliman el al., 2011).
∗ Corresponding author. Fax : +49 5323 72 3527.
E-mail address: mohamed.soliman@tu-clausthal.de (M. Soliman).
improvement of ductile iron recently attracts research and indus-
trial interest (Qi et al., 2009; Zhao et al., 2004). Hot deformation
refines the as-cast structures, closes up the internal shrinkage
cavities and gas porosity, and reduces the segregations of alloy-
ing elements. Additionally, it increases the dimensional accuracy
and improves surface finish of the products which would finally
reduce the manufacturing costs. Forged DI products have been pro-
moted as replacements of some types of forging steels. An attempt
was made by Shi et al. (1994) to describe the anisotropy of ten-
sile strength in terms of the deformation of graphite nodules of
deformed DI. Furthermore, Bonora and Ruggiero (2005) established
deformation model of nodular graphite in DI to observe the rela-
tionship between the local matrix deformation and the inclusion
deformation.
The current study aims at combining both thermo-mechanical
processing and introducing the pro-eutectoid ferrite to the DI by
controlled cooling in the intercritical region to produce thermo-
mechanically processed DMS-DI in a single process chain. In the
current proposed process, the dissolution of carbides and refin-
ing of the matrix structure take place during the preheating and
the deformation process, respectively. Whereas the DMS is formed
during the subsequent controlled thermal cycle. For the proposed

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2015.07.025
0924-0136/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
2 M. Soliman et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 227 (2016) 1–10

Table 1 Table 2
Composition of the ductile irons (wt.%). Measured critical temperatures (Ar1 and Ar3 ) and estimated intercritical tempera-
tures (TQ ) corresponding to 10% of ferrite in the matrix.
Alloy C Si Mn Al Mg S P
ϕt 0 0.3 0.5
A1 3.68 2.48 0.29 0.31 0.040 0.011 0.029
A2 3.57 2.59 0.33 0.96 0.046 0.011 0.025 Alloy A1 A2 A3 A1 A2 A3 A1 A2 A3
A3 3.70 2.66 0.31 1.74 0.040 0.017 0.026
◦
Ar1 ( C) 671 680 691 668 682 693 670 678 690
TQ (◦ C) 698 730 750 707 750 760 710 748 761
Ar3 (◦ C) 724 757 779 732 770 789 728 775 788

ulator, the dimension variations of the specimens during the

Fig. 1. (a) Experimental set-up for flat compression at Bähr TTS820 thermo-
mechanical simulator and (b) with the sample geometry for flat compression test.
process a wide range of intercritical region would ease controlling
the pro-eutectoid volume fraction. For this purpose aluminum is
added because of its effect of widening the intercritical region as
reported by Soliman and Palkowski (2008). Thus the investigation
aims at:
1- Studying the effect of aluminum content and the applied
deformation on the kinetics of pro-eutectoid ferrite, martensite and
ausferrite formation in the thermo-mechanically processed ductile
iron.
2- Selecting thermal parameters depending on this study.
3- Investigating the effect of both the aluminium content, the
applied deformation and introducing ferrite to the matrix on the
hardness properties.
thermal-deformation cycle are transmitted via a laser system with
1 ␮m accuracy. The thermal cycles are performed under vacuum
conditions with 0.005 Pa by inductive heating using a high fre-
quency (HF) generator. Helium is used as cooling gas.
The specimens are subjected to two schedules, namely “Sched-
ule I” and “Schedule II” designated in Fig. 2. In both schedules,
specimens were heated up to 960 ◦ C and subjected to the defor-
mation steps given. Moreover, three total true strains (t ) of 0, 0.3
and 0.5 are applied. In “Schedule I” the specimens were quenched
after the last deformation either to room temperature (RT) or to
an austempering temperature of 375 ◦ C to obtain the structures
“M” and “Af”, respectively. In “Schedule II” - after the deformation
steps - the specimens were cooled to the two phase region fer-
rite+austenite with a rate of 1 Ks−1 to form a certain ferrite amount
before quenching at TQ .
To investigate microstructural constituents, the specimens were
prepared by mechanical grinding followed by polishing up to 1 ␮m
with diamond paste. The microstructures were examined with a
light optical microscope (LOM) after etching with 2% nital. The sam-
ples for scanning electron microscope (SEM) investigations were
deep nital etched. Macro-hardness testing was carried out at RT
using Vickers hardness according to ASTM E384 (2011) applying a
load of 20 kg (HV20). Average values of the hardness were obtained
based on 5 measurements.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. As cast structure
Fig. 3 shows the as-cast (AC) microstructures. The nodule char-
acteristics in the AC condition are given in Table 1. A remarkable
decrease in the nodule count and increase in the nodule size is
observed when increasing the aluminium content. A clear dete-
rioration in the nodularity of A3 is also observed. Electron probe
microanalysis (EPMA) results of Zeraati et al. (2010) show that
the segregation and accumulation of aluminium have their max-
imum values around the graphite nodules. This accumulation is
non-homogeneous and irregular, which leads to the non-uniform
diffusion of carbon and affects the shape of graphite nodules.

2. Experimental procedure 3.2. The intercritical region

Three ductile irons with different aluminium contents were
investigated. The chemical compositions of the alloys are given in
Table 1. Melting was performed in an induction furnace. Ductile
iron treatment was performed in an open ladle using the sand-
wich method. The base irons were treated with a 9.5 wt.% MgFeSi
alloy for spheroidisation followed by post-inoculation with 75 wt.%
FeSi. The base iron was tapped at about 1520 ◦ C onto the treatment
alloys. The melt was then cast into Y shape sand moulds. The dimen-
sions of the Y-block were 15 × 180 × 250 mm with the 250 mm to
the direction of the Y form.
For thermo-mechanical processing and dilatometric study, a
Baehr TTS820 thermo-mechanical simulator, see Fig. 1a, is used.
Flat compression samples with dimensions shown in Fig. 1b are
machined from ductile iron blocks. With the deformation sim-
The dilatometric curves shown in Fig. 4 are records of the length
change during cooling with 1 Ks−1 of the three alloys investigated.
Increasing the aluminum content has a remarkable effect on the
intercritical region; its effect on Ar1 and Ar3 is shown in Table 2.
The increase in aluminum resulted in increased Ar1 and Ar3 values.
The results indicate that the aluminum exerts a stronger influence
on the transformation start temperature Ar3 when the ferrite phase
starts to form from the austenite than on the transformation finish
temperature Ar1 , when the complete austenite phase is exhausted.
Applying t = 0.3 on the material resulted in a clear increase of
Ar3 for all alloys. The applied deformation caused refinement of
austenite grains. The latter effect resulted in creating more grain
boundary areas for the nucleation of ferrite which motivated its
formation (Palkowski et al., 2007). This effect seems to reach a
 M. Soliman et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 227 (2016) 1–10 3

Fig. 2. Thermo-mechanical schedules. ␥: austenite, Af: ausferrite, Gr: graphite, M: martensite, F: ferrite and RA: retained austenite.

Fig. 3. As-cast microstrucures and their nodule charachterstics - C: Nodule count, D: nodule size and N: nodulariy.

saturation (here for t = 0.3); a further increase to 0.5 shows no
significant effect on Ar3 .
From Table 2 it can be noted that aluminum increase widened
the intercritical region, i.e., Ar3 –Ar1 , and shifted it to higher tem-
peratures. The former effect rendered obtaining ferrite during
continuous cooling, i.e., when applying “Schedule II”, more con-
trollable. The microstructures obtained after cooling with 1 Ks−1
down to RT are also influenced by the aluminum content. Repre-
senting microstructures obtained after cooling at this rate to RT
are given in Fig. 5. The ferrite generated during cooling at this rate
increased with increasing aluminum content and recorded volume
fractions of about 21.5%, 24%, and 34% for the alloys A1, A2 and A3,
respectively. The rest of the matrix is pearlitic micro-constituent.
The significance of these ferrite quantities is that they represent
4 M. Soliman et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 227 (2016) 1–10

Fig. 4. Dilatation temperature curves obtained during cooling with 1 Ks−1 .

Fig. 5. Microstructures observed after cooling to RT with 1 Ks−1 .

the maximum ferrite that can be formed when applying Schedule
II on the different alloys. The formation of pearlite is to be avoided
by quenching above the temperature of its onset as discussed in
Soliman et al. (2011). On the other hand, the deformation revealed
insignificant effect on the observed ferrite volume fraction.
Due to the hot deformation, graphite nodules exhibit an elon-
gation along the direction of the plastic flow of DI and acquire a
distinctive morphology that changes with the degree of deforma-
tion (Chaus et al., 2013).
3.3. Ferrite formation
In “Schedule II” after deformation the specimens were cooled at
a rate of 1 Ks−1 to the two phase region ferrite + austenite (inter-
critical region) to form a certain ferrite amount before quenched at
TQ . The applied methodology for selecting the temperatures corre-
sponding to the prescribed ferrite contents is described elsewhere
(Soliman et al., 2011). Table 2 lists the intercritical temperatures
(TQ ) corresponding to a ferrite content of 10% in the matrix.
3.4. Martensite formation
Representative dilatation temperature curves obtained during
quenching to RT to get the “M” and “M + F” microstructures is shown
in Fig. 6. It is deduced from the dilatation temperature curves that,
for both schedules, the quenching rate of 40 Ks−1 was sufficient to
suppress any transformation process before the martensite start
(MS ) as indicated from the linearity of the dilatation temperature
 M. Soliman et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 227 (2016) 1–10 5

Fig. 6. Dilatation temperature curves obtained during quenching for the prescribed condition.

curve. Table 3 gives the dependence of the values of MS obtained

from “Schedule I” (MSI ) and after the ferrite formation in (MSII ) on
the applied deformation and alloy composition.
For Schedule I, MS increases with increasing aluminum content
contradicting to Kiani-Rashid (2009), who observed a decrease in
MS of about 10 K with increasing Al in DI from 0.48 wt.% to 4.88 wt.%.
However, experiments concerned with the influence of alloying
elements on the MS showed that Al elevates the MS . It was also
established that the higher the C content, the stronger is the influ-
ence of the alloying elements on the MS (Totten, 2007). Likewise, an
increase of 30 K in MS for each wt.% aluminum increase is predicted
by Mahieu et al. (2002) with:

M S = 539 – 423 wt.%C – 30.4 wt.%Mn – 7.5 wt.%Si + 30 wt.%Al (1)

The MS of the DI subjected to Schedule II recorded significant
higher values compared to Schedule I. During cooling to TQ with
1 Ks−1 , C atoms diffuse from the austenite matrix to the nodule; that
is because the saturation level of austenite with C decreases with
decreasing temperature. The decrease in the thermal expansivity of
the austenite lattice by lowering the temperature is the reason for
the rejection of C from the austenite during cooling (Darwish and
Elliot, 1993). The MS is affected mostly by C dissolved in austen-
ite; decreasing C in austenite rises the MS . Thus the recorded MS
when applying Schedule II (MSII ) is lower than that when applying
Schedule I.
The decrease in C saturating austenite during cooling to TQ could
also be the reason for the marginal increase and then the marginal
decrease in MSII by increasing the aluminum of the DI. Referring to
Table 2, increasing the Al content causes an increase in TQ which -
according to the previous discussion - would increase C saturating
the intercritical austenite (␥i ). The latter effect would supress the
MS by increasing Al. However, increasing Al increases MS accord-
ing to Eq. (1). The opposing effect of Al and C on MS justifies this
behavior of MSII . Using Eq. (1) the C content in ␥i can be calculated.
Fig. 7. Dependence of MSII on Al content together with the predicted C in ␥i calcu-
lated according to Eq. (1) by substituting for values of MS measured at ϕt = 0.
In Fig. 7 the effect of Al on MSII and on the predicted C content in ␥i
is shown. The C saturating ␥i continuously increases by increasing
Al due to the effect of the latter in increasing TQ .
On the other hand, a decrease of MS with increasing t is
observed for all alloys. This can be attributed to two factors:
1- Increasing of TQ with increasing t which would increase C
in ␥i as discussed before.
2- The decrease in MS due to the recrystallization refinement
strengthening and strain strengthening of austenite. Zhang et al.
(2014) reported lower MS values of the deformed austenite than
that of the directly cooled one.
The significant increase in TQ by increasing t from 0 to 0.3 and
its only slight increase due to increasing t from 0.3 to 0.5 (Table 2)
seem to be revealed in the MSII values shown in Table 3. It is also
observed in Table 3 that the aluminium increase has a limited effect
6 M. Soliman et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 227 (2016) 1–10

Fig. 8. Microstructures after quenching for the prescribed processing conditions of the three alloys.

Table 3 perature results in decreasing the dilatation corresponding to the

Dependence of MS obtained from Schedule I (MSI ) and Schedule II (MSII ) on the
same quantity of the formed bainitic ferrite. Thus, higher dilata-
deformation (ϕt ) and alloy composition.
tion values do not necessarily indicating higher ratio of the formed
ϕt 0 0.3 0.5 ausferrite. For instance, the decrease in the dilatation with increas-
Alloy A1 A2 A3 A1 A2 A3 A1 A2 A3 ing Al content Fig. 9a, b and c is not inevitably implies increase
of the formed ausferrite. The lattice parameter increase due to the
MSI 179 185 196 172 180 192 172 175 187
MSII 241 245 241 223 236 234 215 230 228 increase of Al contributes to this decrease in dilatation. Also, the
marginal increase in the dilatation in Fig. 9d with increasing t is
manipulated by the marginal increase in the 15 mm sample-width
on MSII of the undeformed material, i.e., t = 0. A stronger effect of (Fig. 1b) due to the applied 0.3 and 0.5 deformations. The length
aluminium is observed when deforming the ductile irons. change due to the phase transformation is dependent on the origi-
nal length of the sample. Thus, the increase in the saturation level
3.5. “M” and “M + F” microstructures of dilatation in all diagrams of Fig. 9 does not necessarily imply an
increase in the quantity of the formed ausferrite.
Fig. 8 shows representative microstructures obtained after Fig. 9 shows that the reaction reaches a transformation stasis
applying different processing conditions on the alloys. It becomes after different periods of time dependant on the alloy-composition
clear from Fig. 8b, c and d that a fully martensitic matrix is obtained and processing conditions. Horizontal lines have been drawn
indicating the cooling rate of 40 Ks−1 (Fig. 2) to be sufficient to nearby these points to aid in estimating them. In all cases, the
suppress any transformation before the martensite start. In other samples are quenched to RT after reaching the stasis point. The
words, the adopted cooling rate was adequate to avoid the nose holding times required for cessation of the ausferrite formation
of the ferrite-pearlite and that of ausferrite in the continuous cool- reaction are shown in Fig. 10. Estimating the dependence of the
ing transformation diagram. This observation is in consistence with time required for the cessation of ausferrite formation is important
the dilatometric observation in Section 3.4. The microstructures because a shorter treatment time results in retaining large islands
indicate that the selected values (Table 2) were appropriate for of austenite on the expense of the desired ausferrite structure. A
introducing the desired ferrite quantity to the microstructure. In all longer treatment time results in the onset of stage II of transforma-
cases the ferrite is formed in the form of a ring around the nodules. tion in which carbide starts to precipitate from the high carbon
These are the location of the lowest local hardness in the matrix. austenite. The stage II transformation marks the beginning of a
The formation of ferrite in these regions is due to the lower diffu- decrease in mechanical properties, such as loss of ductility and
sion path required for the C atoms to diffuse to the nodules during toughness. Ahmadabadi and Farjami (2003) reported that the end of
cooling to TQ . stage I transformation is marked by a plateau in the time-dilatation
curve, and a second expansion after this plateau is related to carbide
precipitation reactions.
3.6. Ausferrite formation
It is obvious from Fig. 10 that the time required for the end of
stage I transformation decreased by increasing Al when applying
Representative results from the real-time monitoring of the
Schedule I. This can be attributed to the effect of aluminium in
extent of ausferrite reaction “in terms of dimensional changes” are
accelerating the ausferritic transformation kinetics (Soliman and
shown in Fig. 9.
Palkowski, 2008)
Takahashi and Bhadeshia (1989) have suggested a mathemat-
It is also obvious from Fig. 10 that, when applying Schedule
ical model relating the relative length change with the volume
I, deforming the DI resulted in accelerating the transformation.
fraction of the formed bainitic-ferrite during isothermal holding.
The time frame for reaching transformation saturation decreased
They showed that this correlation is dependent on the composi-
with increasing t . The deformation process resulted in refining the
tion of the material through its dependence of the lattice parameter
austenite grains through work hardening, recovery and recrystal-
of the austenite and ferrite at the transformation temperature.
lization effects. The finer grains provide higher number of sites for
According to their mathematical model, the increase in the lattice
the nucleation of ausferrite at the austenite grain boundary. Indeed,
parameter due to alloying elements and/or transformation tem-
 M. Soliman et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 227 (2016) 1–10
Fig. 9. Dilatation temperature curves obtained during austempering at 375 ◦ C for the prescribed condition.
Fig. 10. Dependence of the time required for the end of stage I of ausferrite trans-
formation on aluminum content and applied deformation - ϕt .
the grain-size reduction caused an increase in the grain-boundary
area at which the first ausferrite subunits nucleate. Thus, the trans-
formation started more quickly, due to an enhanced nucleation
rate. The influence of the austenite grain size on the transforma-
tion rate was already shown and modelled by Rees and Bhadeshia
(1992). Furthermore, the deformed nodules provided more surface
area for ausferrite nucleation than the non-deformed ones. That
is the spheroidal shape has the smallest surface area of a given
volume.
Nevertheless, for the DI subjected to Schedule II, increasing Al
has not resulted in a consistent dependence of transformation time
on its quantity. The opposing thermodynamic effects of Al and C
on the transformation kinetics could be the cause of this inconsis-
tent response to the Al increase. Increasing Al, which accelerates
the ausferrite transformation, resulted in increasing C content in ␥i
(Fig. 7). The latter effect caused decelerating the ausferrite trans-
formation. Similarly, the deformation which would accelerate the
7
ausferrite formation kinetics is associated with shifting TQ to higher
values (Table 2). Increasing TQ is associated with carbon increase
in ␥i as discussed before.
It becomes clear from Fig. 10 that the time frame for reaching
transformation saturation pronouncedly decreased by introducing
ferrite to the microstructure before austempering. This acceleration
of transformation can be attributed to:
1- The increased number of sites for the nucleation of acicular
ferrite at the ferrite austenite interface.
2- The decreased carbon content of ␥i .
3.7. “Af” and “Af + F” microstructures
Fig. 11 shows representative microstructures obtained after
applying different processing conditions on the DI. Similar to Fig. 8,
the ferrite is formed around the nodules. The ferrite grains and the
graphite nodules exhibit the microstructural features described in
Section 3.5. On the other hand, the structures subjected to Sched-
ule I, (0% ferrite) shows large retained austenite pools (white areas
with no grain boundaries); blocky retained austenite. The samples
subjected to Schedule II revealed blocky austenite of smaller size
and less quantity than that of Schedule I. The appearance of this
large pools in the DI subjected to Schedule I is due to the higher
level of C in austenite compared to that of DI subjected to Schedule
II. This difference in the C level in austenite is also revealed in the
MS values of Table 3.
It was not possible to distinguish individual ferrite plates within
the thin aggregates of the ausferrite using LOM. Therefore, SEM
investigations had been conducted. Fig. 12 shows that the ferrite
aggregates build up from many ferrite plates in the same crystallo-
graphic orientation. Sandvik and Nevalainen (1981) reported that
the thickness of individual ferrite plates at a certain temperature
is relatively uniform, regardless of the transformation time, while
8 M. Soliman et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 227 (2016) 1–10

Fig. 11. Microstructures observed after quenching of the prescribed processing conditions of the three alloys.

Fig. 12. SEM after quenching for the prescribed processing conditions of the three alloys. F: ferrite, Af: ausferrite and RA: retained austenite.
 M. Soliman et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 227 (2016) 1–10
Fig. 13. Effect of deformation on the HV20 of the prescribed microstructure.
acicular-ferrite aggregate width is affected by the transformation
time.
The retained austenite is present in a form of homogenously
distributed films along ferrite plate boundaries as well as in a form
of small isolated austenite colonies. The polygonal-ferrite phase is
easily distinguishable within the structure.
3.8. Hardness properties
The samples with the “M” and “M + F” microstructures were
tempered at 500 ◦ C for 2 h before measuring their hardness. The
structure of martensite becomes less strained after holding at this
temperature being high enough to allow the C diffusion but less
than the lower critical temperature. The high hardness and the
brittleness of quenched martensite are due to its tetragonal struc-
ture where C occupies tetrahedral voids. This structure results from
the diffusionless transformation which occurs by shear mechanism.
During tempering, diffusion of C from the tetrahedral sites of the
structure takes place and thus the tetragonality of martensite gets
reduced. Consequently, both of the hardness and the brittleness
of tempered martensite are reduced (Rashidi and Torbati, 2000;
Sadasue et al., 2003). For martensitic dual matrix DI, it is reported
that by increasing the tempering temperature, the ultimate ten-
sile strength drops initially, and within the range of 400–500 ◦ C,
remains almost constant and is then followed by a decrease. With
increasing the tempering time, the ultimate tensile strength and
9
yield stress decrease for tempering periods up to 120 min, whereas
the ductility increases (Rashidi and Torbati, 2000). The selection of
the aforementioned tempering condition is based on these results.
Fig. 13 shows the effect of deformation on the HV20 values
of the three alloys. For both of ductile irons with ausferritic and
with martensitic matrices, the introduction of ferrite to the matrix
(Schedule II) resulted in a pronounced decrease in the hardness.
For the martensitic DI, a monolithic increase with increasing
the deformation is observed in the three studied alloys processed
under both of the two schedules. Deformation of austenite results
in refining the lath thickness of martensite due to the retained dis-
locations and the microstructural refinement (Sadasue el al., 2003).
Consequently, the hardness of the martensite increases by increas-
ing the deformation. Chaus et al. (2013) reported an increase in
the micro hardness values of the ferrite phase with increasing the
applied hot deformation. The marked lower hardness value of A1
with martensite+ferrite matrix (Fig. 13d) may be attributed to the
lower carbon content of its ␥i (Fig. 7).
For the ausferritic treated material, the ductile iron samples
recorded a maximum hardness value after at t = 0.3 in case of
applying schedule I on them. Whereas, in case of applying schedule
II, the hardness reached saturation at t = 0.3. It is reported in high
silicon steel that the total amount of bainitic ferrite decreases with
increasing deformation (Larn and Yang, 2000). Additionally, Achary
and Venugopalan (2000) reported that deformation of austenite
increases the retained austenite at any instant of time during stage
10 M. Soliman et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 227 (2016) 1–10
I of transformation. The hardness increase due to the structure
refinement caused by the deformation seems to be overwhelmed
by stabilization of austenite against bainitic transformation in
higher deformed samples (t = 0.5) and results finally in a hardness
decrease.
On the other hand, increasing aluminum would result in increas-
ing the stronger ausferrite on the expense of retained austenite
(Soliman and Palkowski, 2008). This can justify the hardness
increase with increasing the aluminum as shown in Fig. 13c. How-
ever, this effect of aluminum has not been observed for the DI
subjected to schedule II. This may be attributed to the increase in
the carbon of ␥i by increasing the aluminum content as shown in
Fig. 7. According to the incomplete reaction concept, increasing the
carbon content of austenite does not result in a significant variation
in the maximum amount of carbon that can enrich the austen-
ite at different bainite holding temperatures in steel (Bhadeshia,
2001). Ławrynowicz and Dymski (2007) showed that the bainite
transformation in cast iron is essentially identical to that in steel.
It has been demonstrated in steel that the carbon concentration
of the residual austenite reaches the critical value represented by
the T0 curve will cause the displacive bainite reaction to cease.
This is because the austenite can only transform to bainite if its
carbon concentration is less than a value given by the T0 curve.
One consequence of that is the increase of retained austenite by
increasing carbon content. Therefore, the contradicting thermo-
dynamic effect of increasing carbon and increasing aluminum of
the ␥i on the final quantity of the ausferrite resulted in the incon-
sistency of the effect of aluminum on the hardness as shown in
Fig. 13d.
4. Conclusions
In this paper pro-eutectoid ferrite was introduced to the DI
by controlled cooling of deformed austenite to produce thermo-
mechanically processed dual matrix DI in one process chain.
Aluminum which widens the intercritical region was added to
ease controlling the pro-eutectoid ferrite during cooling. Three
aluminum-contents were investigated, namely 0.31 wt.%, 0.96
and 1.7 wt.%. Additionally, four types of matrices were pro-
duced which are martensitic, martensitic-ferritic, ausferritic and
ausferritic-ferritic matrices. The work highlighted the transforma-
tion kinetics, microstructure evolution, harness properties of the
three DI. The following conclusions can be drawn from the current
study:
1- Increasing the aluminum widened the intercritical region and
shifted it to higher temperature range. The former effect rendered
the intercritical annealing more controllable. The latter caused an
increase in the carbon saturating the intercritical austenite.
2- The chemistry of the intercritical austenite, i.e., the increased
carbon with increasing the aluminum governed the subsequent
kinetics of transformation and hardness properties of the intercrit-
ically annealed DI.
3- However, the kinetics of transformation and hardness prop-
erties of the fully martensitic and fully ausferritic matrices were
merely governed by the variation of aluminum content.
4- The kinetics of transformation was accelerated by both
increasing the deformation and introducing ferrite to the matrix.
5. A continual enhancement of hardness by increasing the
applied hot deformation was observed in the ductile iron having
martensite and martensite + ferrite matrices.
6- For DI having ausferrite matrix the hardness recorded a max-
imum at t of 0.3 and by introducing ferrite to this matrix the
hardness value reached saturation at the same t value.
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge financial support from Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) – PA 837/19-1.
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