Bainite

About: Bainite is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 9520 publications have been published within this topic receiving 145305 citations.

Effect of microstructure on retained austenite stability and work hardening of TRIP steels

Abstract: Retained austenite is a metastable phase in transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) steels that transforms into martensite under local stress and strain. This transformation improves sheet formability, allowing this class of higher strength steels to be used for applications such as automotive structural components. The current work studies two distinct TRIP steel microstructures, i.e. equiaxed versus lamellar, and how microstructure affects the austenite transformation during uniaxial tensile loading. Different heat treatments were employed to obtain the two microstructures, and the bainite hold times of the treatments were varied to change the volume fraction of retained austenite. Based on uniaxial tensile response and magnetic saturation measurements, the bainite hold time of 100 s was determined to produce the best results in terms of largest strain at the ultimate tensile strength and highest volume fraction of retained austenite. The work hardening of the samples with a 100 s bainite hold was evaluated by calculating the instantaneous n value as a function of strain. It was found that the lamellar microstructure has a lower maximum instantaneous n value than the equiaxed microstructure, but has higher work hardening values for strain levels greater than 0.05 and up to the ultimate tensile strength. This difference in work hardening behaviour corresponds directly to the transformation rate of retained austenite in the two microstructures. The slower rate of transformation in the lamellar microstructure allows for work hardening to persist at high strains where the transformation effect has already been exhausted in the equiaxed microstructure. The different rates of transformation can be attributed to the location, carbon content, and size of the retained austenite grains in the respective TRIP microstructures.

A debate on the bainite reaction

Abstract: The authors debate three topics central to the controversies which have enveloped the bainite reaction ever since it was first recognized as a distinctive mode of austenite decomposition. These include: “what is bainite?”, “the growth mechanism of the ferritic component of bainite”, and “the sources of bainitic carbide precipitation.” RFH concludes that bainite is the product of a shear transformation. Individual bainite plates are suggested to grow substantially more rapidly than volume diffusion-control allows, but a constraint such as the build-up of volume strain energy limits the extent of their growth. This mechanism of growth ensures extensive supersaturation of bainitic ferrite with respect to carbon. Whether or not carbides precipitate in association with bainite plates and whether the carbide is cementite ore, however, is a complex question in competitive reaction kinetics. New experimental evidence is presented to demonstrate thate carbide precipitated in lower bainite dissolves upon heating above the kinetic-B stemperature in an alloy steel containing 1.5 pct Si. This result is taken to support the existence of the metastable eutectoid reactionγ ⇌ α + e atca 350°C. HIA and KRK define bainite as the product of a nonlamellar eutectoid reaction. On this view, carbide precipitation thus plays an essential, rather than an ancillary role. Development of the Widmanstatten morphology by the ferritic component of bainite is shown to be inessential to the classification of a eutectoid structure as bainite. When this morphology is present, however, it is concluded to grow by the ledge mechanism, without the participation of shear, at rates of the order of or less than those allowed by volume diffusion-control. New experimental evidence is presented to show that the lengthening and thickening kinetics of individual plates within sheaves of upper bainite are consistent with this description. The results of a new calculation indicate that the initial carbon content of bainite plates lies between theα/α + Fe3C) and the extrapolatedα/(α+ γ) phase boundaries, in agreement with expectation from the ledge mechanism of growth.

Mechanisms of tempered martensite embrittlement in low alloy steels

Abstract: An investigation into the mechanisms of tempered martensite embrittlement (TME), also know as “500°F” or “350°C” or one-step temper embrittlement, has been made in commercial, ultra-high strength 4340 and Si-modified 4340 (300-M) alloy steels, with particular focus given to the role of interlath films of retained austenite. Studies were performed on the variation of i) strength and toughness, and ii) the morphology, volume fraction and thermal and mechanical stability of retained austenite, as a function of tempering temperature, following oil-quenching, isothermal holding, and continuous air cooling from the austenitizing temperature. TME was observed as a decrease in bothKIc and Charpy V-notch impact energy after tempering around 300°C in 4340 and 425°C in 300-M, where the mechanisms of fracture were either interlath cleavage or largely transgranular cleavage. The embrittlement was found to be concurrent with the interlath precipitation of cementite during temperingand the consequent mechanical instability of interlath films of retained austenite during subsequent loading. The role of silicon in 300-M was seen to retard these processes and hence retard TME to higher tempering temperatures than for 4340. The magnitude of the embrittlement was found to be significantly greater in microstructures containing increasing volume fractions of retained austenite. Specifically, in 300-M the decrease inKIc, due to TME, was a 5 MPa√m in oil quenched structures with less than 4 pct austenite, compared to a massive decrease of 70 MPa√m in slowly (air) cooled structures containing 25 pct austenite. A complete mechanism of tempered martensite embrittlement is proposed involving i) precipitation of interlath cementite due to partial thermal decomposition of interlath films of retained austenite, and ii) subsequent deformation-induced transformation on loading of remaining interlath austenite, destabilized by carbon depletion from carbide precipitation. The deterioration in toughness, associated with TME, is therefore ascribed to the embrittling effect of i) interlath cementite precipitates and ii) an interlath layer of mechanically-transformed austenite,i.e., untempered martensite. The presence of residual impurity elements in prior austenite grain boundaries, having segregated there during austenitization, may accentuate this process by providing an alternative weak path for fracture. The relative importance of these effects is discussed.