Quantitative Analysis of Carbon in Ferrite in Dual-Phase Steels by Mechanical Loss Measurements

To establish the method for determining the amount of carbon in the ferrite phase in ferrite + martensite dual-phase low-alloy steels, mechanical loss measurements have been performed on a series of Fe–C alloys with varying constitution. The observed mechanical loss spectra of two-phase alloys turned out to be simple superposition of those of single phase alloys, of ferrite and of martensite. The concentrations of carbon in solution evaluated from the magnitude of the Snoek relaxation in the two-phase alloys agree well with those expected from the Fe–C phase diagram. It is thus possible to selectively analyse the carbon dissolved in the ferrite phase in the complex structure, at least in simple binary alloys.