Microstructure diagrams

Carbon steels as received "off the shelf" have been worked at high temperature (usually by rolling) and have then been cooled slowly to room temperature ("normalised"). The room-temperature microstructure should then be close to equilibrium and can be inferred from the Fe-C phase diagram (Fig. 11.1) which we have already come across in the Phase Diagrams course (p. 342). Table 11.1 lists the phases in the Fe-FejC system and Table 11.2 gives details of the composite eutectoid and eutectic structures that occur during slow cooling. 

The figure below shows the isothermal transformation diagram for a coarse-grained, plain-carbon steel of eutectoid composition. Samples of the steel are austenitised at 850°C and then subjected to the quenching treatments shown on the diagram. Describe the microstructure produced by each heat treatment. 

Eutectics and eutectoids are important. They are common in engineering alloys, and allow the production of special, strong, microstructures. Peritectics are less important. But you should know what they are and what they look like, to avoid confusing them with other features of phase diagrams. 

Time-temperature-transformation (T-T-T) diagrams are used to present the structure of steels after isothermal transformation at different temperatures for varying times. The T-T-T diagram for a commercial eutectoid steel is shown in Fig. 20.48a. Also shown on the curves are the points at which the microstructures illustrated in Figs. 20.46 and 20.47 are observed, and the thermal treatments producing these structures. When a steel partially transformed to, say, pearlite, is quenched from point a in Fig. 20.48a to below nif, the untransformed austenite transforms to martensite. 

Figure 2.42. The Cu-Zn system phase diagram and microstructure scheme of the diffusion couple obtainable by maintaining Cu and Zn blocks in contact for several days at 400°C. Shading indicates subsequent layers, each one corresponding to a one-phase region. The two-phase regions are represented by the interfaces between the one-phase layers (adapted from Rhines 1956).

Figure 5.29. Fe-rich region of the Fe C phase diagram. Stable Fe-C (graphite) diagram solid lines metastable Fe-Fe3C diagram dashed lines. The following current names are used ferrite (solid solution in aFe), austenite (solid solution in 7Fe) and cementite (Fe3C compound). Pearlite is the name given to the two-phase microstructure which originates from the eutectoid reaction ...

A final advantage of the cosputtered CCS approach is that rf bias, typically 10 W, under independent control can be supplied to the substrate as indicated in the schematic diagram (Fig. 10.2). We speculate that the role of substrate bias is to increase surface mobility during film growth. This changes the microstructure and decreases the defect density of the as-grown film, which is related to the leakage behavior of... 

The authors discuss Schroeder s paradox, referred to elsewhere in this review, and the fact that liquid water uptake increases but saturated water uptake decreases with temperature. And, at low temperature, the water uptake by membranes in contact with saturated vapor is greater than that by membranes in contact with liquid water, which suggests a fundamental difference in membrane microstructure for the two situations. An energy level diagram of thermodynamic states versus temperature was proposed, based on this Flory—Huggins-based model. 

Fig. 15.4 Schematic ternary-phase diagram of an oU-water-surfactant microemulsion system consisting of various associated microstructures. A, normal miceUes or O/W microemulsions B, reverse micelles or W/O microemulsions C, concentrated microemulsion domain D, liquid-crystal or gel phase. Shaded areas represent multiphase regions.

The effect of adding a surfactant, (NaDDS), was also investigated. One such case only is shown in Fig. 6 where BE is replaced by a 5 1 mixture of BE-NaDDS. The main effect of NaDDS is to increase the miscibility range of the oil in water. Various ratios of BE-NaDDS were used and, as a first approximation, the change in the phase diagram is directly proportional to the concentration of NaDDS. The addition of a surfactant probably stabilizes the microstructures which were already present in the ternary system BE-DEC-H O and decreases the quantity of BE needed to solubilize DEC. Therefore the presence of a surfactant is useful but not essential to the stability of microemulsions. 

FIGURE 5.4 Diagram showing the three locations of oil in the product microstructure after deep-fat frying from Bouchon et al. (2003). 

Copper ions have been reduced in colloidal assemblies differing in their structures (55,56). In all cases, copper metal particles are obtained. Figure 9.3.1 shows the freeze-fracture electron microscopy (FFEM) for the various parts of the phase diagram. Their structures have been determined by SAXS, conductivity, FFEM, and by predictions of microstructures that require only notions of local curvature and local and global packing constraints. 

Figure 5.115 Stress-strain diagrams for lithiumaluminosilicate glass ceramic reinforced with 50% SiC fibers in various orientations. From Ceramic Microstructures, by W. E. Lee and W. M. Rainforth, p. 103. Copyright 1994 by William E. Lee and W. Mark Rainforth, with kind permission of Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Nowadays it is established that confocal microscopy observation can be a more sensitive method to assess die phase state of mixed biopolymer systems than the traditional centrifugation or viscometric methods (Alves et al., 1999, 2001 Vega et al., 2005). Indeed, microscopy can demonstrate that a system may be already phase-separated at compositions well below the apparent binodal line (as determined by these other methods). The report of Alves et al. (2001) demonstrates the relationship between specific compositional points in the phase diagram (Figure 7.1) and the observed microstructure (Figures 7.2 and 7.3) for water + gelatin + locust bean gum (LBG). The white areas in Figures 7.2 and 7.3 corre-... 

---