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Measuring Strain-Induced Martensite Content in Austenitic Steels
Measuring Strain-Induced Martensite Content in Austenitic Steels
Several techniques for measuring the strain induced a9-martensite content in EN 1.4318 (AISI 301LN) and
EN 1.4301 (AISI 304) austenitic stainless steels were compared in order to determine a correlation curve between
Ferritescope measurement results and actual a9-martensite contents. The studied methods involved Satmagan
measurement, magnetic balance measurement, X-ray diffraction, density measurement and quantitative optical
metallography. Satmagan, magnetic balance and density measurements were found to give equal a9-martensite
contents. X-ray diffraction results were affected by the texture but averaging of several diffraction peaks improved
the reliability of the results. It was shown that a9-martensite can be detected by means of optical metallography, but
quantitative analysis is time consuming and inaccurate. The relationship between the Ferritescope results and actual
a9-martensite contents measured with the other techniques was found to be linear. According to the results, the
Ferritescope readings can be converted to actual a9-martensite contents by multiplying with a correction factor of
1.7. MST/6120
Mr Talonen and Dr Hänninen are in the Laboratory of Engineering Materials, Helsinki University of Technology, PO Box
4200, FIN – 02015 HUT, Finland (Email: hannu.hanninen@hut.fi). Mr Aspegren is with Outokumpu Stainless Oy, FIN – 95400
Tornio, Finland. Manuscript received 26 January 2004; accepted 24 August 2004.
# 2004 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. Published by Maney on behalf of the Institute.
1506 Materials Science and Technology December 2004 Vol. 20 DOI 10.1179/026708304X4367
Talonen et al. Measuring strain induced a9-martensite in austenitic steels 1507
EN 1.4318 1 mm 0.019 0.094 0.48 0.028 0.002 17.6 1.61 6. 6 0.22 0.14
EN 1.4318 2 mm 0.024 0.106 0.52 0.027 0.001 17.5 1.23 6. 4 0.28 0.17
EN 1.4301 2 mm 0.046 0.050 0.38 0.031 0.002 18.1 1.73 8. 1 0.23 0.24
ship here seems to be linear, except for the two points that
correspond to the Ferritescope readings above 55. Fitting of
a linear function to the linear part of the data gives an
equation with R2~0.987
ca0 (mass%)~0:004{1:712|F : : : : : : : (17)
OPTICAL METALLOGRAPHY
The microstructure of 15% tensile strained EN 1.4318 steel
is shown in Fig. 8. a9-martensite is coloured in dark grey.
The morphology of a9-martensite phase is in agreement with
the literature. It is very finely dispersed and formed on shear
bands of the austenite phase. Some larger coloured areas
can also be seen. These areas may consist of excess
Ferrofluid that has been distributed non-uniformly and
probably does not indicate the ferromagnetic phase.
6 a9-martensite contents (in mass %) measured with the The a9-martensite content was calculated by means of a
magnetic balance and plotted as a function of Ferrite- point count method.26 The measurements were performed
scope reading on the screen of a microcomputer, which was found to be
the easiest way to distinguish between the finely dispersed
DENSITY MEASUREMENTS a9-martensite phase and the austenite phase. Several
micrographs taken at different locations were counted.
The calculated densities of austenite and a9-martensite The number of points in the grid used was 25. Counting the
phases for the test materials are shown in Table 3. The points in the sample shown in Fig. 8 gave an a9-martensite
following equations were derived from the density values to content of 22.4¡2.4% (volume percentages converted to
calculate the a9-martensite content by assuming a linear mass percentages). The Satmagan measurement for the
relationship between a9-martensite content ca9 and density r same sample gave an a9-martensite content of 18.3%.
of the material
EN 1.4318, 1 mm
ca0 (mass%)~4393{555:6|r : : : : : : : : (14) Discussion
EN 1.4318, 2 mm
ca0 (mass%)~4417{558:7|r : : : : : : : : (15) X-ray diffraction results showed high scatter and different
curves were obtained with different techniques. When
EN 1.4301, 2 mm comparing only one austenite and one a9-martensite
reflection cold rolled and tensile strained materials
ca0 (mass%)~4920{621:1|r : : : : : : : : (16)
showed different correlations with the Ferritescope results.
The density measurement results converted to a9-martensite The results correlated best with the other measurement
contents with equations (14) – (16) are shown as a function techniques studied when several diffraction peaks were
of Ferritescope readings F in Fig. 7. Each data point averaged. It is clear that the discrepancy is caused by the
represents an average of three density measurements. As texture.10 Tilting the X-ray beam in the y angle was not
8 a9-martensite phase coloured by Ferrofluid in EN 1.4318 steel after 15% tensile deformation
Published by Maney Publishing (c) IOM Communications Ltd
found to be an effective way to eliminate the effect of the With all the techniques studied both tensile strained and
texture. In the case of X-ray diffraction, another source of cold rolled materials were tested, and in each case the results
error is that only a small amount of material is covered by followed the same line.
the measurement. Satmagan measurements and density Optical microscopy was shown to be applicable to detect
measurements give an average value of a9-martensite a9-martensite. Point counting gave slightly higher a9-
content whereas the X-ray diffraction measurements martensite content than the Satmagan measurement. The
cover only a very thin layer on the specimen surface. very fine morphology of the a9-martensite phase makes
Therefore, if the distribution of a9-martensite within the point counting difficult. In addition, non-uniform distribu-
specimen is not uniform, comparison of the XRD results tion of Ferrofluid may cause false indications and, there-
with the other methods covering a larger volume or the fore, lead to overestimation of the a9-martensite content.
whole specimen should not be performed. Comparison of the results with the calibration curves
The Satmagan measurements, the magnetic balance presented in the literature shows that the curves presented
measurements and the density measurements showed by Hecker et al.7 and by Peterson18 strongly overestimate
similar correlations between the measured a9-martensite the actual a9-martensite contents. The curves determined by
contents and the Ferritescope measurement results. The Rintamaa14 and Hünicke19 are in a better agreement with
results can, therefore, be considered representative. The the results obtained in this investigation, especially at low
relationship between Ferritescope readings and measured a9-martensite content.
a9-martensite contents was found to be linear when the
Ferritescope reading was below the value of 55 (the
corresponding a9-martensite content is 90%). The measure-
ment range of Ferritescope is 0 – 60% d-ferrite. Therefore, Conclusions
the non-linearity of the correlation curve at the high a9-
contents is most probably caused by the limitation of the A Ferritescope may be used to measure strain induced a9-
Ferritescope. This assumption is supported by the fact that martensite, but a calibration curve is needed to convert the
similar behaviour was observed in the case of all compared results to actual a9-martensite content. The Satmagan
methods. device and density measurements were found to give
The reproducibility of the density measurement technique consistent results and the relation between the measured
was found to be unsatisfactory, but averaging of the results a9-martensite content and Ferritescope readings is linear
from several measurements resulted in a similar curve to the below Ferritescope readings of 55 (a9-martensite content of
magnetic balance technique and the Satmagan measure- 90%).
ments. The accuracy of the density measurements could be A magnetic balance based on a permanent magnet was
improved by using a liquid with higher density for volume found to be a reliable and rapid way to measure a9-
determination and larger specimens. martensite content. The results correlated well with the
The magnetic balance technique proved to be an accurate Satmagan and density measurement results. The limitation
and easy way to measure the a9-martensite content. As of the method is its sensitivity to the size and shape of the
discussed earlier in this paper and by Livitsanos and specimen.
Thomson,15 the method is sensitive to the size of the It was observed that a9-martensite content is higher on
specimen, especially to the thickness of the specimen. Other the steel surfaces than in the interior. Therefore, X-ray
possible sources of error are surface roughness and diffraction measurements must to be performed on the
curvature. When using a magnet with a tapered tip the electropolished surfaces to obtain representative results.
effect of surface roughness is most probably negligible. The Electropolishing is recommended also for other methods
effect of curvature was not studied in this investigation, but that do not cover the whole volume of the specimen
it needs further consideration if curved specimens are to be (Ferritescope and magnetic balance). The results of X-ray
measured. Livitsanos and Thomson15 also discussed diffraction measurements were affected by the texture. The
whether the stress state during deformation or the texture effect of the texture can be reduced by averaging several
affects the magnetic measurement. It was concluded that diffraction peaks.
these factors do not have any influence on the measurement. Optical metallography was found to be applicable to
This is supported by the results presented in this paper. detect a9-martensite. Quantitative analysis by means of
point counting is, however, inaccurate and time consuming 9. j. durnin and k. a. ridal: J. Iron Steel Inst., 1968, 206, 60 –
because of the fine morphology of the a9-martensite phase 67.
and the possible false indications caused by non-uniform 10. r. d. arnell: J. Iron Steel Inst., 1968, 206, 1035 – 1036.
distribution of Ferrofluid. 11. r. w. cheary and y. ma-sorrell: J. Mater. Sci., 2000, 35,
1105 – 1113.
According to the results of this investigation, the 12. p. rozenak and d. eliezer: Mater. Sci. Eng., 1984, 67, L1 – L4.
Ferritescope readings F can be converted to the actual a9- 13. c. p. livitsanos and p. f. thomson: Mater. Sci. Eng., 1977, 30,
martensite contents ca9 with equation 93 – 98.
ca0 (mass%)~1:7|F : : : : : : : : : : : (18) 14. r. rintamaa: ‘The effects of austenite stability on the
formability of austenitic stainless steels’, Licentiate’s thesis,
Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of Processing
and Heat Treatment of Materials, Finland, 1981 (in Finnish).
15. c. p. livitsanos and p. f. thomson: J. Mater. Sci., 1977, 12,
Acknowledgements 2209 – 2213.
16. f. lecroisey and a. pineau: Metall. Trans., 1972, 3, 387 – 396.
This investigation is a part of the 5th Framework project 17. w.-s. lee and c.-f. lin: Scr. Mater., 2000, 43, 777 – 782.
LIGHT&SAFE financed by European Commission. 18. s. f. peterson: ‘Formability of austenitic stainless steels’, MSc
thesis, Colorado School of Mines, USA, 1996.
19. u.-d. hÜnicke: ‘Neue Methoden zur Beurteilung der Umfor-
meigenschaften von Feinblechen aus nichtrostenden Edelstahl-
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