Heat Treatment of Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metals and Alloys

Course No MME 321

Lecture 4
Reconstructive Transformations and Displacive
Transformations

Dr. SASIKUMAR, Asst Prof., MME

Department of Materials & Metallurgical Engineering (MME)

MAULANA AZAD NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Bhopal, M.P., India
 ISOTHERMAL COOLING TRANSFORMATION
DIAGRAM o
C
800
727oC
700
Coarse Pearlite
600
Temperature, oC

γ α + Fe3C
Fine Pearlite
500
Γ+α UpperBainite
+ F
400 e3 C

300 Lower Bainite

Ms
200 Beginning of End of
M50 Transformation
M90 Transformation
100
1 Sec 1 min 1 hour 1 day
0
0.1 1 10 102 103 104 105
Log time, Seconds
 CONTINUOUS COOLING DIAGRAM
o
C
800
727oC
700
Coarse Pearlite
600
Temperature, oC

γ α + Fe3C
Fine Pearlite
500
Γ+α
+ F
400 e3 C
Bainite
300
Ms
200 Beginning of End of
M50 Transformation
M90 Transformation
100
1 Sec 1 min 1 hour 1 day
0
0.1 1 10 102 103 104 105
Log time, Seconds
 RECONSTRUCTIVE AND DISPLACIVE
TRANSFORMATIONS
o
C
800
727oC
700
Coarse Pearlite
600
Reconstructive Transformation
Temperature, oC

γ α + Fe C 3
Fine Pearlite
500
Γ+α
+ F
400 e3 C
Bainite
300
M
Displacive Transformation
s
200 Beginning of End of
M50 Transformation
M90 Transformation
100
1 Sec 1 min 1 hour 1 day
0
0.1 1 10 102 103 104 105
Log time, Seconds
 TYPES OF PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS IN STEEL
Austenite
Displacive Transformation d a
Atomic correspondence
IPS shape change with a
significant shear component Interface
Diffusionless 6

d
Austenite 1 2 3 4 5
a

c b
6

1 2 3 4 5
Ferrite

Austenite
d a
c b

Reconstructive Transformation
No Atomic correspondence
No shape change with shear
component
Diffusion
Possible composition change
c b
Ferrite

RECONSTRUCTUCTIVE
Diffusion of all atoms during
nucleation and growth.
Sluggish below about 850 K
DISPLACIVE
Invariant-plane strain shape
deformation with large shear
component. No iron or
substitutional solute diffusion.
Thin plate shape.

ALLOTRIOMORPHIC
WIDMANSTÄTTEN FERRITE
FERRITE
Carbon diffusion during
paraequilibrium nucleation &
IDIOMORPHIC growth
FERRITE

MASSIVE FERRITE BAINITE & ACICULAR

No change in bulk FERRITE
composition Carbon diffusion during
paraequiibrium nucleation. No
diffusion during growth .
PEARLITE
Cooperative growth of
MARTENSITE
ferrite & cementite
Diffusionless nucleation &
growth
FERRITE MORPHOLOGIES

MSME
AUSTENITE
 Austenite is an interstitial solid solution of carbon in FCC
iron, commonly designated as ‘γ’.
 High temperature form of iron.
 The maximum solubility of C is 2.08% at 1130 C.
 Austenite is normally unstable at room temperature. Yet,
using heat treatment, it is possible to obtain austenite at
room temperature.
 Shows high formability. Most of the heat treatments begin
with this single phase.
Average Properties are
 Tensile strength 1030 Mpa.
 Elongation 10 % in 2”.
 Rockwell 250-300 HV 90-100 HRB 20 HRC
 Toughness High
FERRITE
 Ferrite is solid solution of carbon in BCC iron, commonly
designated as ‘α’.
 Derived from latin word ‘Ferrum’ which stands for iron.
 Interstitial solid solution of C
 Stable form of iron below 910 C
 The maximum solubility of C is 0.025% at 723 C and it
dissolves only 0.008 % at RT.
 Softest structure in the phase diagram

Average Properties are

 Tensile strength 200 Mpa
 Elongation 40 %
 Rockwell 150 HV 90 HRB 0 HRC
 ALLOTRIOMORPHIC FERRITE
 An allotriomorph has a shape which does not reflect its internal
crystalline symmetry. This is because it tends to nucleate at the
austenite grain surfaces, forming layers which follow the grain
boundary contours (Fig. 1).
 An idiomorph on the other hand, has a shape which reflects the symmetry of the crystal
as embedded in the austenite. Idiomorphs nucleate without contact with the austenite
grain surfaces; they tend to nucleate heterogeneously on non–metallic inclusions
present in the steel.
 These are both true diffusional transformations, i.e., there is no atomic correspondence
between the parent and product crystals, there is no invariant–plane strain shape
change accompanying transformation,
 the growth rate is either diffusion–controlled, interface–controlled or mixed.
 Thermal activation is necessary for transformation, which can therefore only occur at
high homologous temperatures. The α/γ interface need not in this case be glissile; the
motion of the interface involves diffusion and is not conservative.
ALLOTRIOMORPHIC FERRITE
 Widmanstätten ferrite

Image of Widmanstätten ferrite plates emanating from a prior austenite grain

boundary; the remaining matrix is now pearlitic.

Micrograph courtesy of Eng. Rolando M. Núñez Monrroy of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.
 WIDMANSTAETTEN FERRITE
 Primary Widmanstaetten ferrite either directly grows
from the austenite grain surfaces, whereas secondary
Widmanstaetten ferrite develops from any
allotriomorphic ferrite that may be present in the microstructure.
 Widmanstaetten ferrite can form at temperatures close to the Ae3 temperature and hence can
occur at very low driving forces; the undercooling needed amounts to a free energy change of only
50 J mol−1 . This is much less than required to sustain diffusionless transformation.
The growth of a single plate of martensite is accompanied by an invariant–
plane strain of the type illustrated in Fig. 2a.

However, at the high temperatures (low undercoolings) at which

Widmanst¨atten ferrite grows, the driving force is not sufficient to support the
strain energy associated with a single plate. Widmanst¨atten ferrite formation
therefore involves the simultaneous and adjacent cooperative growth of two
plates, which are crystallographic variants such that their shape deformations
mutually accommodate (Fig. 2b).
This has the effect of cancelling much of the strain energy.

It follows that what is seen as a single plate in an optical microscope is actually

a combination of two variants, usually separated by a low–misorientation
boundary (Fig. 2c).
 Widmanst¨atten ferrite has a habit plane which is close to {5 5 8}γ .

 Hence, the two plates αw1 and αw2 which have different variants of this habit with the
austenite, together form the thin–wedge shaped plate which is characteristic of
Widmanst¨atten ferrite.

 Because Widmanst¨atten ferrite forms at low undercoolings (and above the T0

temperature), it is thermodynamically required that the carbon is redistributed during
growth.
 αw therefore always has an para-equilibrium carbon content and grows at a rate which is
controlled by the diffusion of carbon in the austenite ahead of the plate–tip.
 For plates, diffusion– controlled growth can occur at a constant rate because solute is
partitioned to the sides of the plate, whereas the growing tip can advance into fresh
austenite. Since the transformation is nevertheless, displacive, substitutional atoms do
not partition and an atomic correspondence is maintained between the parent and
product lattices
FERRITE MORPHOLOGIES

MSME
ACICULAR FERRITE
TYPES OF FERRITE STRUCTURES

Acicular Ferrite
PEARLITE
 Pearlite is eutectoid mixture containing 0.8 %C is formed at 723
C on very slow cooling.
 It is very fine plate-like or lamellar mixture of ferrite and
cementite. It may be referred as inter penetrating bicrystals of
ferrite and cementite.
 The white background is of ferrite matrix and the dark thin
plates are cementite.
 Suppose we represent the cementite by a cabbage and the
ferrite by a bucket of water. Placing the cabbage in the water
properly represents the pearlite colony.
 The cementite is a connected single crystal in three dimensions,
and the ferrite is similarly a single crystal in three dimensions.
Average Properties are
 Tensile strength 800 Mpa
 Elongation 20 % in 2’’
 Rockwell 250-300 HV 95 -100 HRB 20HRC
The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan, the longest single-span
suspension bridge, which relies on huge cables made from pearlitic
steel. Photograph courtesy of Professor Nobutaka Yurioka.
CEMENTITE
 Cementite or iron carbide is very hard and brittle
intermetallic compound of iron and carbon as
Fe3C, contains 6.67% carbon.
 It is the hardest structure appears on the Fe-C
diagram. Exact melting point is unknown.
 Its crystal structure is orthorhombic

 Average Properties are

 It has low tensile strength about 35 Mpa
 However high compressive strength
 Hardness 1200-1600 HV

A sample of cementite, courtesy of Professor Minoru

Umemoto of Toyohashi University
 PEARLITIC STEELS FOR RAIL APPLICATIONS

 R200, R260, R320Cr and R350HT are

names for pearlitic rail steels grades,
developed over the years, with Brinell
hardness of 200BHN, 260BHN, 320BHN
and 350BHN respectively.

 Steel named Dobain®, a specially

heattreated bainitic high-grade steel
developed in Europe in the 2000’s for rail
steel applications.
Microstructure of pearlite, a lamellar
mixture of ferrite and cementite
Focus on Where You Want to Go. Not
on What You Fear.