Competitive growth of stable and metastable Fe- C- X eutectics: Part I. experiments

TLDR: In this paper, the effect of small additions of Si, P, Cr, Mn, Ti, Al, and S to pure Fe-C eutectic, upon the transi-tion velocities from grey to white and white to grey cast iron, has been measured by varying the growth rate during directional solidification.

Abstract: The effect of small additions of Si, P, Cr, Mn, Ti, Al, and S to pure Fe-C eutectic, upon the transi-tion velocities from grey to white and white to grey cast iron, has been measured by varying the growth rate during directional solidification. As a result, it is found that alloying elements can be classified into three types: graphitizing (Si, Al, P, and S), carburizing (Cr), and “hysteretic effect” (Mn, Ti). The well-known influence of a thermal gradient (or the superheat) has been shown to af-fect only the grey-to-white transition. Growth undercoolings were measured as a function of growth rate, while the average lamellar spacings were determined from transverse sections of directionally solidified samples. A small addition of the element studied can have a marked effect upon these parameters.