Steels for bearings

Diffusion and interface control of reactions in alloys

Discontinuous reactions are solid state moving boundary phase transitions characterised by a discontinuous or abrupt change in orientation and composition between the matrix phases in the reactant and product aggregate across the migrating boundary or reaction front that provides a short circuit path of diffusion. The reactions include discontinuous precipitation, discontinuous coarsening, discontinuous dissolution, and diffusion induced grain boundary migration. All these reactions may account for a substantial change in microstructure, composition, and material properties, and hence, deserve adequate scientific attention for a better understanding. The present review provides a comprehensive discussion on the current status of understanding about nucleation and growth mechanisms, genesis and driving force, product morphology and distribution, kinetic growth models, and related experimental techniques, and above all, the unresolved questions concerning these discontinuous reactions. In addition, ...

https://www.skpabi.com/documents/skp%20publications/67%29%20Internat%20Met%20Rev%20%282000%29.pdf

Discontinuous reactions in solids

Discontinuous coarsening of aligned eutectoids

After defining interlamellar spacing the various optical and electron optical methods for measuring spacing are outlined. It is clear for both isothermal and forced velocity transformation conditions that pearlite can grow at a constant velocity with a range of true spacings. The minimum true spacing and mean true spacing are not related by a constant factor, but this may vary from system to system and with temperature in a given system. The relationship between interlamellar spacing and temperature for isothermal growth conditions and between translation velocity and spacing for forced-velocity growth conditions is reviewed for a range of steels and nonferrous alloys. It is seen that the velocity-spacing relationship for the two modes of transformation is the same. For isothermal transformation a linear relationship between reciprocal spacing and temperature is generally observed, but for steels containing alloy additions there is little evidence of the predicted inflexion corresponding to a temperature at which alloy partitioning at the transformation front ceases. The lack of precise interfacial energy data makes it difficult to determine reliably the relationship between measured and critical spacings, although it seems likely to be in accord with the maximum growth rate or maximum rate of entropy production optimization criteria.

A Review of the Data on the Interlamellar Spacing of Pearlite

A critical appraisal of theory and experiments for both isothermal and forced velocity pearlite is presented. It is concluded for binary systems that both the theoretical models for volume diffusion and boundary diffusion control are well-advanced and adequate for the purposes of experimental test. However, some ambiguity remains in the boundary diffusion model with respect to the thermodynamics of the boundary ”phase” region, so it is still not possible to predict absolute rates of transformation. The theoretical problem for ternary pearlites is also well understood, although rigorous theory seems intractable. A new perturbation procedure for definition of the optimal steady-state spacing is presented and amplified for both isothermal and forced velocity pearlite, and for both volume and boundary diffusion models. In terms of the critical spacing Sc for isothermal pearlite and the spacing at minimum undercooling Sm for forced velocity pearlite the predicted stability points are as follows: {fx2777-1} For isothermal pearlite these perturbation results correspond closely to the state of maximum entropy production rate while for forced velocity pearlite the correspondence is also satisfactory. A detailed analysis of the data leads us to reaffirm the author’s conclusions that the eutectoid reactions in Cu-12 pct Al and some related ternary alloys reported by Asundi and West are controlled by volume diffusion and that the eutectoid reaction in Al-78 Zn reported by Cheetham and Ridley is controlled by boundary diffusion. We conclude further after careful analysis that the pearlite reaction in Fe-0.8 C is controlled for the higher temperatures by volume diffusion of carbon in austenite. We are also led to state that the pearlite transformations in Fe-C-Mn and Fe-C-Ni occur for the most part in a nopartition regime and are therefore controlled by volume diffusion of carbon in austenite, while the transformations in Fe-C-Cr and Fe-C-Mo, being forced by thermodynamics to sustain partition of chromium and molybdenum, are controlled by phase boundary diffusion of the latter elements. nt]mis|M. P. PULS, formerly Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

M. P. Puls

Papers

The pearlite reaction