Bainite Transformation During Continuous Cooling:

Analysis of Dilatation Data

RAVI RANJAN and SHIV BRAT SINGH

A new approach based on iteration is presented to extract the amount and composition of
bainitic ferrite and austenite from the dilatation curve. The carbon concentration of bainitic
ferrite estimated from the dilatation curve was found to be higher than the solubility of carbon
in a-ferrite that is in paraequilibrium with c-austenite, and it agreed well with the corresponding
value estimated from X-ray diffraction (XRD). A slightly better fit between the experimental
and calculated dilatation curves was obtained with body-centered-tetragonal than with
body-centered-cubic (bcc) bainitic ferrite. These results suggest that the austenite to bainitic
ferrite transformation occurs through a displacive mechanism.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-017-4419-9
Ó The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International 2017

I. INTRODUCTION In general, bainite shares many features, e.g., carbon

EVER since the discovery of bainite in steels, there
has been an intense debate on the mechanism of its
transformation.[1,2] However, the displacive approach
has been shown to be quite appropriate and the theory
of transformation under this framework has advanced
sufficiently; the quantitative theory is used extensively to
design new grades of steels, such as TRIP-aided steels,
bainitic steels, and nanobainitic steels, with an encour-
aging combination of properties.[1–10]
Like other phases, the ability of bainite to affect the
final combination of properties offered by a steel
depends on its volume fraction, composition, and size.
There are some experimental results that indicate that
the carbon concentration in bainitic ferrite is higher than
that dictated by transformation under paraequilibrium
condition.[11,12] At first, the measured high carbon
concentration in bainitic ferrite was attributed to carbon
atoms trapped at dislocations generated as a result of
the transformation.[10,13–15] However, recent experimen-
tal results obtained using three-dimensional atom probe
studies indicate that excess carbon, over and above the
solubility limit in body-centered-cubic (bcc) ferrite (in
equilibrium with austenite), remains in solid solution in
bainitic ferrite.[11,12] Higher solid solubility of carbon in
bainitic ferrite has been attributed to a change in crystal
structure from bcc to body-centered-tetragonal
(bct).[16–19]
supersaturation, morphology, and crystallographic fea-
tures, with martensite.[1,2,4,11,12,20] Therefore, it is often
difficult to distinguish bainitic ferrite from martensite
and quantify their relative fractions in a multiphase
microstructure through conventional microscopy.
Dilatometry can be a useful technique in such cases to
detect the presence of bainite and martensite as these
transformations usually occur in different temperature
ranges. A dilatometer records the change in length of a
material for a given thermal treatment. Therefore, the
recorded data include the contribution from the thermal
effect and associated phase transformation, if any. In
general, the formation of a phase with bcc or bct crystal
structure from face-centered-cubic (fcc) austenitic phase
leads to an expansion, which is clearly reflected in the
dilatation curve. The expansion observed is propor-
tional to the amount of phase formed from austenite.
However, in general, this qualitative relationship alone
is not sufficient to extract the quantitative details of the
phases involved such as their amount and the compo-
sition. Therefore, a method is presented in this work to
extract these details from the experimental dilatation
curve for the transformation of austenite to bainitic
ferrite during continuous cooling. This method was
applied assuming that bainitic ferrite has (i) very small
amount of carbon or (ii) higher carbon with bcc or bct
structure, and the results obtained in these two cases
were compared to obtain an insight into the nature of
bainite transformation.

RAVI RANJAN and SHIV BRAT SINGH are with the Depart-
ment of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of
Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, 721302, India. Contact e-mail:
ravi.ranjan.9007@gmail.com
Manuscript submitted 16 August, 2017.
A. Experimental
A typical TRIP-aided steel with a composition (wt
pct) of 0.20C-1.6Mn-0.5Si-1.2Al-0.25Mo-0.04Nb was
selected for the study.[21] The as-cast material was cut to

METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS A

appropriate size (100 9 20 9 20 mm3) and soaked for 2
hours at 1473 K (1200 °C) in a muffle furnace and then
forged in the temperature range of 1373 K to 1473 K
(1100 °C to 1200 °C) giving 50 pct reduction in thick-
ness. Finally, the forged material was air cooled to room
temperature. A cylindrical sample with 4 mm diameter
and 10 mm length was prepared from the hot-forged
material using wire electric discharge machining. The
thermal treatment on the cylindrical sample was per-
formed in Bähr 805 A/D quenching and deformation
dilatometer having a resolution of 0.05 lm/0.05 °C. The
sample was heated at 5 K/s to 1323 K (1050 °C) and
soaked for 3 minutes. The sample was then cooled at
10 K/s to the ambient temperature. The selected cooling
rate was sufficient to avoid ferrite and pearlite transfor-
mation during cooling. The continuously cooled sample
was cut along the transverse direction in the center, and
the cross section was mechanically polished following
the standard procedure and etched with 2 pct nital for
examination of optical microstructure. In addition,
X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement was performed
to detect the presence of retained austenite in the final
microstructure, if any, and to estimate the lattice
parameters of the phases present. The XRD measure-
ment was performed with Co Ka radiation between the
2h angles of 40 and 130 deg at a step size of 0.02 deg and
time per step of 0.5 seconds in Bruker’s D8 Discover
equipment.
B. Results and Discussion
The experimental dilatation curve, optical microstruc-
ture (2 pct nital etched), and XRD pattern of the sample
cooled at 10 K/s are shown in Figure 1. In Figure 1(a),
the critical transformation temperatures, i.e., bainite
start (BS), bainite finish (Bf), and martensite start (Ms)
(of carbon-enriched austenite remaining untransformed
after the bainite transformation), are also highlighted.
These critical temperatures were taken as the points
where the dilatation curve deviated from the linear
thermal contraction (dashed line in Figure 1(a)) associ-
ated with the cooling of the sample. The dilatation curve
indicates that the final microstructure of the sample
consists of a mixture of bainite and martensite with a
relatively higher amount of the former. However, it was
difficult to distinguish these two phases from the optical
microstructure (Figure 1(b)) and XRD pattern
(Figure 1(c)).
Assuming that the volume change associated with the
austenite (c) to bainitic ferrite (ab) transformation is
isotropic, it can be shown that the change in length
accompanying the transformation is related to the mean
atomic volume (Xp) and the relative amount of the
phases (fp) by
i
Dl 1 fab Xab þ fc Xc  fic Xc
¼ ½1
li 3 fic Xic
where li is the length of the sample at the beginning of
cooling immediately after the austenitization step and Dl
is the change in length at any temperature (T) with
respect to li ; fp and Xp represent the volume fraction and
mean atomic volume of phase p at any temperature,
respectively (p = ab for bainite and c for austenite),
while fic ð¼ 1Þ and Xic correspond, respectively, to the
volume fraction and mean atomic volume of the
austenite at the beginning of cooling immediately after
the austenitization step.
The lattice parameter(s) (mp) of a given phase p at any
temperature T can be calculated from
 
mp ¼ m0p 1 þ bp ðT  298Þ ½2
where m0p is the ambient temperature lattice parameter,
bp is the coefficient of linear thermal expansion of phase
p, and mp represents the lattice parameters (ap and cp).
Further, the mass balance up to the Ms temperature
gives
Cab fab þ Cc fc ¼ C0 ; fab þ fc ¼ 1 ½3
where Cp represents the carbon concentration of phase p
and C0 ð0:2 wt pctÞ is the overall carbon content of the
steel.
The volume fraction of the phases for a given thermal
treatment can be calculated from the experimental
dilatation data (relative change in length vs temperature
or time) using Eq. [1] if the mean atomic volume (Xp) is
known. The mean atomic volume of a phase (Xp)
depends on its crystal structure and lattice .parameter(s).
3
For fcc austenite, it is given simply by ac 4, where ac is
the austenite lattice parameter. The lattice parameter of
austenite at the ambient temperature (a0c ) can be
calculated from its composition.[22] Three cases were
considered in the present work for bainitic ferrite with
respect to its carbon concentration and crystal structure
in view of the recent results described earlier.[16–19] In the
first case (i.e., case 1), the bainitic ferrite was assumed to
have a negligible amount of carbon with a bcc crystal
structure and the equation describing the lattice param-
eter of bcc ferrite at the ambient temperature as a
function of its composition was used.[23] The bainitic
ferrite in the other two cases, 2 and 3, was assumed to
contain higher carbon and it was determined from the
experimental dilatation data by iteration. In case 2, the
crystal structure of bainitic ferrite was taken to be bcc
and the equation proposed by Bhadeshia et al.[24] for the
lattice parameter of bcc bainitic ferrite at the ambient
temperature was used where the effect of carbon is also
incorporated along with other alloying elements. In case
3, on the other hand, it was assumed that bainitic ferrite
has a bct crystal structure and its lattice parameters aab
and cab follow the same equations that describe the
lattice parameters of martensite at the ambient temper-
ature as a function of its composition.[25,26] In all three
cases, it was assumed that substitutional alloying
elements do not partition during the course of austenite
to bainitic ferrite transformation. The mean atomic
volume of bainitic ferrite ðXab Þ is given by a2ab cab =2 with
aab ¼ cab for the bcc crystal structure.
The first step to extract the phase evolution informa-
tion from the experimental dilatation data involved the
METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS A
Fig. 1—(a) Experimental dilatation curve, (b) optical microstructure (etchant: 2 pct Nital), and (c) XRD pattern along with the corresponding
fitted pattern using the Reitveld refinement method and the intensity difference between the two.

estimation of linear thermal expansion coefficients of

austenite (c) and bainitic ferrite (ab). The linear thermal
expansion coefficient of austenite was simply obtained
by iteratively fitting the experimental dilatation data in
the linear region above Bs (Figure 1(a)) to Eq. [1] and
taking fab ¼ 0. The objective of the iteration was to
obtain the best-fit value of the linear thermal expansion
coefficient of austenite that gives the best match between
the experimental and calculated dilatation curves, as
reflected by a high correlation coefficient (r2) value close
to 1 in the temperature range above the Bs temperature.
However, the thermal expansion coefficient value of
bainitic ferrite cannot be obtained in the same way since
fab 6¼ 1 at any temperature in the thermal cycle. There-
fore, to obtain this value and the relative amount of
austenite and bainitic ferrite and its carbon concentra-
tion, the dilatation curve starting from the Bs temper-
ature up to the Ms temperature was fitted using Eqs. [1]
and [2] together with the mass balance equation
(Eq. [3]). The appropriate lattice parameter values of
austenite and bainitic ferrite, as discussed previously,
were used together with the linear thermal expansion
coefficient of austenite, as determined earlier. Equa-
tions [1] through [3] were then solved simultaneously
using an iterative procedure to obtain the best possible
match between the experimental and the calculated
dilatation curves, as given by a very high value of the
Fig. 2—Flow chart showing the steps of calculation to extract the
correlation coefficient (r2  1). The carbon concentra- phase evolution information (amount and composition) along with
tion in bainitic ferrite was taken to be constant, while thermal expansion coefficients of the phases from the experimental
austenite was allowed to be enriched with carbon as the dilatation curve.
transformation progressed and the lattice parameters of
both the phases were updated accordingly. It should be of unknown variables in the temperature range below Bs
noted that the entire dilatation curve above the Ms is three, i.e., Cc, fab , and bab , and they can be obtained
temperature was fitted simultaneously with a single set easily from the three equations following the approach
of parameters. A flow chart summarizing the procedure discussed in the previous paragraphs. For cases 2 and 3,
is shown in Figure 2. however, no prior assumption was made with respect to
For case 1, the carbon concentration in bainitic ferrite the carbon concentration of bainitic ferrite. This
was assumed to be negligible. Therefore, Eq. [3] can be increases the number of unknowns to four (i.e., Cab in
simplified to Cc fc  C0 , fab þ fc ¼ 1 so that the number addition to Cc, fab , and bab ) in these two cases, and it is

METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS A

Fig. 3—Experimental and calculated dilatation curves for (a) case 1, (b) case 2, and (c) case 3, and (d), (e), and (f) corresponding extracted phase
evolution data, i.e., volume percentage of bainitic ferrite and austenite and carbon concentration (at. pct) in austenite, as a function of tempera-
ture.

METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS A

 Table I. Data Obtained Iteratively from the Experimental Dilatation Curve
Amount
(Pct)
Type ab c ab
Case 1 98 2 negligible
(Figures 3(a) and (d))
Case 2 97 3 0.811
(Figures 3(b) and (e))
Case 3 97 3 0.811
(Figures 3(c) and (f))
not possible to get a unique set of solutions through the
approach discussed previously. Therefore, in cases 2 and
3, the experimentally measured MS temperature of the
austenite left untransformed after the bainite transfor-
mation was used as additional data during the iteration.
The measured MS temperature of 385 K (112 °C)
(Figure 1(a)) corresponds to 4.070 at pct (0.890 wt pct)
carbon in austenite, according to the equation proposed
by Andrews.[27]
The results of the analysis are summarized in Figure 3
and Table I. The experimental and calculated dilatation
curves for the three cases are shown in Figures 3(a)
through (c). The corresponding extracted phase evolu-
tion data, i.e., volume percentages of austenite and
bainitic ferrite and carbon concentration (at. pct) in
austenite, are presented in Figures 3(d) through (f). In
addition, the critical transformation temperatures are
highlighted in Figure 3.
Table I indicates that the linear thermal expansion
coefficient values for the three cases are nearly the same
for a given phase. Moreover, in general, a good match is
obtained between the calculated best-fit curve obtained
through iteration and the experimental dilatation curve
in cases 2 and 3 (Figures 3(b) and (c)), with case 3 being
the best; the fit is relatively poor in case 1 (Figure 3(a)).
Moreover, the highlighted critical temperatures in case 3
(Figure 3(c)) are close to the corresponding values
obtained by the simple tangent method (Figure 1(a)).
The calculated amount of the austenite remaining
untransformed up to Ms was around 2 pct in case 1
and around 3 pct in cases 2 and 3 (Figures 3(d) through
(f) and Table I). More significantly, the results in
Figure 3(d) and Table I reveal that the estimated carbon
concentration of the untransformed austenite is 45.445
at. pct (9.11 wt pct) in case 1, which is unrealistically
high (the maximum solubility being 2.1 wt pct[28]).
Moreover, the calculated best-fit dilatation curve begins
to deviate from the experimental one well above the Ms
temperature (Figure 3(a)). It was impossible to fit the
entire dilatation curve with this assumption. These
inconsistencies lead to the conclusion that the underly-
ing assumption of very low carbon bainitic ferrite for
case 1 is not correct. Cases 2 and 3 give a better
description of the experimental results. The small
deviation between the calculated and the experimental
curves (Figures 3(b) and (c)) below Ms is simply because
the data below Ms were not fitted. For cases 2 and 3, the
METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS A
Carbon Concentration Linear Thermal
At Pct Expansion Coefficient
[Wt Pct] (9 105 K)
c ab c
45.445 1.631 2.338
[9.110]
4.070 1.512 2.369
[0.179] [0.890]
4.070 1.507 2.423
[0.179] [0.890]
carbon concentration in the untransformed austenite
was taken as 4.070 at. pct (0.890 wt pct) for the iteration,
as stated earlier. The corresponding carbon concentra-
tion in bainitic ferrite in cases 2 and 3 obtained from
iteration was 0.811 at. pct (0.179 wt pct), which is close
to the carbon concentration of 0.909 at. pct (0.2 wt pct)
of the steel or the parent austenite (c), which transforms
to bainite during cooling. The results clearly indicate
that the carbon concentration of bainitic ferrite is higher
than the solubility of carbon in a-ferrite that is in
paraequilibrium with c-austenite. To confirm this, the
bainitic ferrite lattice parameter was estimated using the
Rietveld method from the XRD pattern using X’Pert
High Score Plus (Figure 1(c)), and its corresponding
carbon concentration was obtained using the equation
proposed by Bhadeshia et al.[24] The difference between
the calculated and experimental intensity of the XRD
pattern shown in Figure 1(c) suggests a good match is
obtained between the two. A lattice parameter value of
2.8733 Å was estimated for the bainitic ferrite. This
value corresponds to a carbon concentration of 0.898 at.
pct (0.198 wt pct) and agrees well with the carbon
concentration value of 0.811 at. pct (0.179 wt pct) in the
bainitic ferrite obtained from the dilatation data. The
results, thus, indicate that the austenite to bainitic ferrite
transformation proceeds through a displacive mecha-
nism. Since the best fit to the experimental dilatation
curve was obtained in case 3, the values of the critical
transformation temperatures (Bs and Bf), the thermal
expansion coefficients, and the amount and composition
of the phases corresponding to this case represent the
actual material and transformation characteristics.
II. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
A procedure involving iteration has been presented to
extract the phase evolution information, i.e., amount
and composition of the phases (bainitic ferrite and
austenite), from the experimental dilatation curve for
the transformation of austenite to bainitic ferrite during
continuous cooling. The carbon concentration of
bainitic ferrite estimated by this method agreed well
with the corresponding value estimated from the XRD
analysis, and it was found to be higher than the
solubility of carbon in a-ferrite that is in paraequilib-
rium with c-austenite. Bainitic ferrite with bct crystal
structure was found to give slightly better fit of the
calculated dilatation curve to the experimental dilata-
tion curve than with bcc structure. The results suggest
that austenite to bainitic ferrite transformation takes
places by a displacive mechanism.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Head of the
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineer-
ing, Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur, In-
dia), for providing the laboratory facility. The authors
also thank the Ministry of Steel and Department of
Science and Technology, Government of India, for the
partial financial support.
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METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS A