Bainite

The structure of residual austenite is metastable, during exploitation it may panially transform into bainite, whereas during quenching this transformation may be caused by the freezing out processing. The transformation of residual austenite into bainite is connected with volume change, whereas diminishing the content of austenite in martensite by 1% causes a 0,07% increase of its volume. 

It is known, the residual austenite is not a stable structure and after some time is transformed into a bainite structure, so elements used for calibrating sorting thresholds will be unstable, and thus unrealiable Thus special reference samples showing structure stability should be used. 

Stmctures that form as a function of temperature and time on cooling for a steel of a given composition are usually represented graphically by continuous-cooling and isothermal-transformation diagrams. Another constituent that sometimes forms at temperatures below that for peadite is bainite, which consists of ferrite and Fe C, but in a less well-defined arrangement than peadite. There is not sufficient temperature and time for carbon atoms to diffuse long distances, and a rather poody defined acicular or feathery stmcture results. 

If small specimens are prepared in which the austenite can be cooled to 250—500°C sufficiendy rapidly to avoid the above microconstituents, and transformed at temperatures in this range, the formation of a completely different phase, a bcc a-phase supersaturated with carbon and containing small cementite particles (bainite), which is both strong and tough, occurs. Bainite is rarely found in plain carbon steels, but it can be obtained in commercial practice by judicious alloying and is increasing in importance. 

Ba.inite. In a given steel, bainite microstmctures ate generally found to be both harder and tougher than peadite, although less hard than martensite. Bainite properties generally improve as the transformation temperature decreases. Lower bainite compares favorably with tempered martensite at the same hardness and can exceed it in toughness. Upper bainite, on the other hand, may be somewhat deficient in toughness as compared to fine peadite of the same hardness (33). 

Austempering. Lower bainite is generally as strong as and somewhat more ductile than tempered martensite. Austempering, which is an isothermal heat treatment that results in lower bainite, offers an alternative heat treatment for obtaining optimum strength and ductility if the specimens are sufficiently small. 

In austempering the article is quenched to the desired temperature in the lower bainite region, usually in molten salt, and kept at this temperature until transformation is complete (Fig. 22). Usually, the piece is held twice as long as the period indicated by the isothermal transformation diagram. The article may then be quenched or air-cooled to room temperature after transformation is complete, and may be tempered to lower hardness if desired. 

Microstmcture and Grain Size. The carbon steels having relatively low hardenabihty do not contaia martensite or bainite ia the cast, roUed, or forged state. The constituents of the hypoeutectoid steels are therefore ferrite and peariite, and of the hypereutectoid steels, cementite and peariite. 

There are several hundred types of steels that use these principles separately or in combination. Some of these are generic, many are proprietary. Among them are various microaUoyed ferrite—peadite steels having limited peadite amounts and the low carbon bainites, as weU as the dual-phase steels. 

Coarse pearlite Fine pearlite Upper Bainite... 

The final note is that pearlite and bainite only form from undercooled y. They never form from martensite. The TTT diagram eannot therefore be used to tell us anything about the rate of tempering in martensite. 

In order to produce martensite and bainite the tube must have been overheated to at least the A3 temperature of 870°C (Fig. 13.4). When the rupture occurred the rapid outrush of boiler water and steam cooled the steel rapidly down to 264°C. The cooling rate was greatest at the rupture edge, where the section was thinnest high enough to quench the steel to martensite. In the main bulk of the tube the cooling rate was less, which is why bainite formed instead. 

The microstructure at position (ii) consisted of grains of ferrite and colonies of pearlite. It was noticed that the pearlite had started to "spheroidise" (see Problem 5.2). The microstructure at position (i) consisted of grains of ferrite and grains of lower bainite in roughly equal proportions. Estimate the temperatures to which the tube been heated at positions (i) and (ii). Explain the reasoning behind your answers. 

There are other intermediate kinds of transformations, such as the bainitic and massive transformations, but going into details would take us too far here. However, a word should be said about order-disorder transformations, which have played a major role in modern physical metallurgy (Barrett and Massalski 1966). Figure 3.17 shows the most-studied example of this, in the Cu-Au system the nature of the... 

Fig. 20.46 Some of the pearlitic and bainitic microstruciures observed in euiectoid steels after...

At lower transformation temperatures (<770K approx.) a second reaction, the formation of bainite intervenes. Like pearlite, the bainite constituent in steels consists of a mixture of ferrite and an iron carbide and is formed by... 

Finally, at even lower transformation temperatures, a completely new reaction occurs. Austenite transforms to a new metastable phase called martensite, which is a supersaturated solid solution of carbon in iron and which has a body-centred tetragonal crystal structure. Furthermore, the mechanism of the transformation of austenite to martensite is fundamentally different from that of the formation of pearlite or bainite in particular martensitic transformations do not involve diffusion and are accordingly said to be diffusionless. Martensite is formed from austenite by the slight rearrangement of iron atoms required to transform the f.c.c. crystal structure into the body-centred tetragonal structure the distances involved are considerably less than the interatomic distances. A further characteristic of the martensitic transformation is that it is predominantly athermal, as opposed to the isothermal transformation of austenite to pearlite or bainite. In other words, at a temperature midway between (the temperature at which martensite starts to form) and m, (the temperature at which martensite... 

On tempering or annealing martensite, bainite or even pearlite at even higher temperatures (about 970K) a structure consisting of coarse cementite spheroids (readily visible in a light microscope) in a ferrite matrix is obtained. This is the most stable of all ferrite/cementite aggregates, and it is also one of the softest. 

The structures and phase transformations observed in steels have been dealt with in some detail not only because of the great practical importance of steels, but also because reactions similar to those occurring in steels are also observed in many other alloy systems. In particular, diifusionless transformations (austenite -> martensite), continuous precipitation (austenite -> pearlite) and discontinuous precipitation (austenite -> bainite and tempering of martensite) are fairly common in other alloy systems. 

Bainite a structure produced in carbon and alloy steels by rapid cooling to a temperature above that at which martensite is formed, followed by slower cooling. 

Constituent properties of bainite, 23 280 of martensite, 23 280-281 of pearlite, 23 280 of tempered martensite, 23 281-282 Constrained geometry catalysts, 16 81 20 193... 

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