Teach yourself phase diagrams

Do not attempt problems 3.1 to 3.5 until you have worked through the Teaching Yourself Phase Diagrams section at the end of the book. 

We can find a good example of this diffusion-controlled growth in plain carbon steels. As we saw in the "Teaching Yourself Phase Diagrams" course, when steel is cooled below 723°C there is a driving force for the eutectoid reaction of... 

To make martensite in pure iron it has to be cooled very fast at about 10 °C s h Metals can only be cooled at such large rates if they are in the form of thin foils. How, then, can martensite be made in sizeable pieces of 0.8% carbon steel As we saw in the "Teaching Yourself Phase Diagrams" course, a 0.8% carbon steel is a "eutectoid" steel when it is cooled relatively slowly it transforms by diffusion into pearlite (the eutectoid mixture of a + FejC). The eutectoid reaction can only start when the steel has been cooled below 723°C. The nose of the C-curve occurs at = 525°C (Fig. 8.11), about 175°C lower than the nose temperature of perhaps 700°C for pure iron (Fig. 8.5). Diffusion is much slower at 525°C than it is at 700°C. As a result, a cooling rate of 200°C s misses the nose of the 1% curve and produces martensite. 

Teaching yourself phase diagrams, part 1 components, phases and structures... 

Teaching yourself phase diagrams part 2 one and two component systems... 

Chapter 3 and Teaching yourself phase diagrams phase diagrams... 

Teach yourself Phase Diagrams, Engineering Tripos, PART IB, Paper 3, pl3... 

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