Solid State Phenomena Vols. 172-174

Abstract: An Fe-1.0C-17Cr (wt.%) stainless steel was subjected to subzero treatment to investigated the structure of martensite midrib. The midrib region appeared in the thin plate and lenticular martensites have been observed detailed by TEM. The TEM result reveals that the transformations of thin plate martensite and lenticular martensite are initiated at the same midrib region. The former keeps the lattice-invariant deformation mode of twinning during subsequent growth, whereas the latter combines both twinning and slip modes. Midrib region is a preferential position for carbide precipitations after tempering. M₃C and M₂₃C₆ carbide were found in this alloy, and related to the ferrite by Bagaryatsky OR and K-S OR, respectively.

Abstract: We use an isotropic interaction potential for a set of classical identical particles to model martensitic transformations and the processes that are usually associated with them. We performed 2D numerical simulations of a strain-stress experiment and show that superelastic effect is present in our model.

Abstract: The martensitic transformation in a nearly ordered Fe₃Pt is weak first order, and the martensite phase shows a large magnetic field-induced strain of several percent. We have investigated the origin of this transformation from its electronic structure. A characteristic feature in the electronic structure is the existence of a relatively high peak in the density of states of the minority spin band just below the Fermi energy. This peak splits into two peaks by tetragonal distortion, and one of them shifts to lower energy by the distortion, suggesting that the band Jahn-Teller effect is the main cause for the transformation.

Abstract: Austenitic steels can exhibit a complex transformation sequence during deformation. Indeed, the austenitic phase transforms first into bands of ε (HCP) martensite. This transformation is then followed by the formation of α’ (BCC) martensite. In this study, the crystallography of the transformation together with the occurrence of variant selection is studied at the scale of individual austenite grains. About ten prior austenite grains deformed at different strain levels in uniaxial tension were analysed by means of EBSD techniques. One of the classical approaches to predict the variant selection phenomenon is based on the calculation of the interaction energy between the macroscopic stress and the shape deformation associated with the formation of the product phase. The formation of the α’ variants was observed to lead to a very strong variant selection that cannot be fully explained by energetic criterion. It is suggested that the crystallography of the transformation sequence can account for the unexpected variants.

Abstract: We have investigated athermal and isothermal martensitic transformations (typical displacive transformations) in Fe–Ni, Fe–Ni–Cr, and Ni-Co-Mn-In alloys under magnetic fields and hydrostatic pressures in order to understand the time-dependent nature of martensitic transformation, that is, the kinetics of martensitic transformation. We have confirmed that the two transformation processes are closely related to each other, that is, the athermal process changes to the isothermal process and the isothermal process changes to the athermal one under a hydrostatic pressure or a magnetic field. These findings can be explained by the phenomenological theory, which gives a unified explanation for the two transformation processes previously proposed by our group.

Abstract: Deformation-induced martensite preferentially nucleates at the twin boundary between matrix austenite and deformation twin in 316 type stainless steel. In the cold-rolled specimen, the martensite formed at the twin boundary has K-S relationships with both of the austenite matrix and the deformation twin, that is, “double K-S relationship” is realized. While in the case of cold-drawn specimen, two kinds of twins with different twin planes are typically observed, and therefore, the deformation-induced martensites are formed at the intersections of the two deformation twin boundaries, satisfying “triple K-S relationship” among austenite matrix and two deformation twins, although there is a small misfit from the perfect K-S relationship. The complicated crystallographic orientation relationship leads to a strong variant restriction for deformation-induced martensites. Due to the difference in the number of nucleation sites, martensitic transformation is greatly promoted in cold-drawn specimen rather than cold-rolled one.

Abstract: The breaking of symmetry due to atomic displacements in the austenite-martensite phase transformation generally leads to their crystallographic incompatibility. Energy minimizing accommodation mechanisms such as martensite twinning have been recently shown to be a source of hysteresis and irreversible plastic deformation. Compatibility between the two phases can however be achieved by carefully tuning lattice parameters through composition change. A dramatic drop in hysteresis and novel microstructures such as a lowering of the amount of twin lamella are then observed. Related theoretical and simulation works also support the existence of such microstructures including peculiar self-accommodating configurations at near-compatibility. We present the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study of these novel microstructures for the alloy systems Ti₅₀Ni_50-xPd_x and Ti₅₀Ni_50-xAu_x where the composition was systemically tuned to approach perfect compatibility. High resolution imaging of the interface between austenite and martensite supplies evidences of compatibility at the atomic level.

Abstract: The amount of carbon in solid solution in bainitic ferrite at the early stage of transformation has been directly determined by atom probe tomography at 200 °C, taking advantage of the extremely slow transformation kinetics of a novel nanocrystalline steel. Results demonstrated that the original bainitic ferrite retains much of the carbon content of the parent austenite providing strong evidence that bainite transformation is essentially displacive in nature.

Abstract: The dislocation density in ferrite and austenite of a bainitic microstructure obtained by transformation at very low temperature (300 °C) has been determined using transmission electron microscopy. Observations revealed that bainitic ferrite plates consist of two distinctive regions with different substructures. A central region in the ferrite plate is observed with dislocations that may result from lattice-invariant deformation at the earlier stage of bainite growth. As plastic deformation occurs in the surrounding austenite to accommodate the transformation strain as growth progresses, the Ferrite/Austenite interface has also a very distinctive dislocation profile. In addition, atom-probe tomography suggested that dislocation tangles observed in the vicinity of the ferrite/austenite interface might trap higher amount of carbon than single dislocations inside the bainitic ferrite plate.

Abstract: A 0.79C-1.5Si-1.98Mn-0.98Cr-0.24Mo-1.06Al-1.58Co (wt%) steel was isothermally heat treated at 200°C for 10 days to form a nano-scale bainitic microstructure consisting of nanobainitic ferrite laths with high dislocation density and retained austenite films. The crystallographic analysis using TEM and EBSD revealed that the bainitic ferrite laths are close to the Nishiyama-Wassermann orientation relationship with the parent austenite. There was only one type of packet identified in a given transformed austenite grain. Each packet consisted of two different blocks having variants with the same habit plane, but different crystallographic orientations. The presence of fine C-rich clusters and Fe-C carbides with a wide range of compositions in bainitic ferrite was revealed by Three-dimensional Atom Probe Tomography (APT). The high carbon content of bainitic ferrite compared to the para-equilibrium level of carbon in ferrite, absence of segregation of carbon to the austenite/bainitic ferrite interface and absence of partitioning of substitutional elements between the retained austenite and bainitic ferrite were also found using APT.