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Modelling of The Fraction of Martensite in Low-Alloy Steels: Sciencedirect
Modelling of The Fraction of Martensite in Low-Alloy Steels: Sciencedirect
Modelling of The Fraction of Martensite in Low-Alloy Steels: Sciencedirect
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ScienceDirect
Materials Today: Proceedings 2S (2015) S561 – S564
Abstract
Thermodynamics-based modelling of the fraction of martensite formed upon quenching in low-alloy steels is developed. The
adopted modelling approach has two distinct features: 1) it applies the driving force of the transformation, i.e. the difference of
Gibbs energy between austenite and martensite, from thermodynamic calculations; 2) it predicts the sigmoidal shape of
transformation to capture also the initial 10-20% of martensite formation, which is distinct from some previous modelling using
e. g. the Koistinen-Marburger equation. It is found that the general equation can describe the experimental data of martensite
fraction versus quenching temperature for plain carbon steels and low-alloy steels well. Furthermore, the only model parameter
that is needed is linearly proportional to the martensite start temperature of the steel, which opens the possibility for a
thermodynamics-based simple but yet predictive model if it is coupled with the previously developed thermodynamics-based
model for the Ms temperature.
© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the chairs of the International Conference on Martensitic Transformations
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
2014. This
Selection andis Peer-review
an open access article
under under theofCC
responsibility the BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
chairs of the International Conference on Martensitic Transformations 2014.
1. Introduction
The athermal martensite starts to form at quenching to the martensite start temperature, Ms. However, further
undercooling is required to form more martensite since the elastic and plastic accommodation of the transformation
strains require an additional driving force [1-3]. The fraction of martensite is critical to the performance of steels
since it influences the mechanical properties such as strength and toughness, directly, and a precise description of the
2214-7853 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the chairs of the International Conference on Martensitic Transformations 2014.
doi:10.1016/j.matpr.2015.07.347
562 F. Huyan et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2S (2015) S561 – S564
fraction of martensite with undercooling can be utilized in process design or optimization of the properties. For
instance, such a model is valuable in the design of TRIP steels or dual-phase steels.
The model applied most widely is the Koistinen-Marburger (K-M) equation [1] where the fraction of martensite, f,
is expressed as
The chemical driving force is defined as the difference of the molar Gibbs energy between the parent phase and
the product phase as
Gm Gm Gm GZ (2)
d Gm
df b f 1 f (3)
Gm
in which a is a parameter from the integration and ΔG is denoted as the normalized driving force as
T Ms
G Gm Gm (5)
Moreover, since
Gm Hm Sm T (6)
F. Huyan et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2S (2015) S561 – S564 563
in which ΔHmγ-α and ΔSmγ-α are the molar enthalpy and the entropy of the martensitic transformation, respectively.
Furthermore, if we assume that both are constant in the transformation temperature interval, equation 4 could be
written as a function of temperature as
1
f b
(7)
1 a Ms T
in which
b
a a S (8)
Fig. 1 shows one result of the fitting. The experimental data are from a Fe-0.8C steel containing small amounts of
alloying elements [8]. The steel was quenched after full austenitization and the fraction of martensite was detected
with dilatometry. Fig. 1(a) shows the fitting using the present model. The normalized driving force ΔG is applied as
the variable, and the thermodynamic quantities were calculated with the Thermo-Calc software [9] and the TCFE6
database according to equation 2 and 5. Fig. 1(b) shows the same experimental data which instead is plotted versus
the temperature. The data are fitted with the present model and the K-M model equation 1. Both models give good
agreement with the experimental data when the fraction of martensite is higher than about 20%, however, the K-M
model deviates from the experimental data significantly before about 20% of martensite.
a) b)
100 100
F raction of martensite (%)
F raction of martensite (%)
experimental
experimental K -M
present present
75 75
50 50
25 25
F e-0.80C
F e-0.80C
0 0
Fig. 1. Fitting of experimental data of fraction of martensite for a Fe-0.8C steel with a) driving force and b) temperature.
By fitting to various experimental data from literature using chemical driving force as the variable, it was found
that the parameter a is approximately 0.05. Subsequently, the parameter a was fixed to be 0.05, and the fitting results
for parameter b including errors bars are plotted versus Ms in Fig. 2(a). The experimental data selected here were
plain carbon steels and low-alloy steels examined with metallographic method, that is, after quenching to a certain
temperature, the steel is held at, or at a slightly higher temperature for a certain time to form tempered martensite,
which is darkened and could be distinguished from the martensite formed during the subsequent quenching. The
quenching rate used in the metallographic method is much faster than the quenching rate using other methods, e.g.
dilatometry measurement. The fitting results for parameter b show a linear relationship with Ms as
b 0.006 Ms 1.502 (9)
Such linear relationship could possibly be related to the increasing activation energy for dislocation movement
with decreasing temperature.
564 F. Huyan et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2S (2015) S561 – S564
Thus, combining equations 4 and 9 and setting a = 0.05, the fraction of martensite could be predicted with the
normalized chemical driving force which could be further transformed into the temperature scale. The prediction for
four steels is shown in Fig. 2(b) in black solid lines and there is a good agreement with experimental data. The red
dashed lines are fitted with equation 4 using a fixed parameter of a as 0.05. It should be mentioned that these four
steels were used for fitting in Fig. 2(a) as well.
a) b)
b (fitting parameter)
40
2 y=0.006*x+1.502
20
R 2=0.876
0
1
0 100 200 300 400 0 100 200 300 400
M s (°C ) T emperature (°C )
Fig. 2 a) Fitting parameter b versus Ms, error bars from fitting; b) fitting and prediction results for 4 steels. 1946 G&S [10], 1949 H&C [11], 1953
M&K [12], 1972 M&K [13].
The present model should be applied to the steels which are directly quenched. The validation of the present
model for commercial steels, as well as the effect of cooling rate, will be discussed in future works. In addition, it is
interesting to note that the suggested model could become predictive when it is coupled with a thermodynamics-
based model of Ms such as presented in Ref. [7].
4. Conclusion
Thermodynamics-based modeling was performed to describe the fraction of martensite with undercooling. The
model applies chemical driving force as the variable and the sigmoidal shape of the model enables a satisfactory fit
with experimental data. By fitting to various experimental data from direct quenching experiments in the literature, it
is found that the only model parameter needed is linearly proportional to the martensite start temperature of the steel.
This means that the model could be of predictive nature when coupled with a thermodynamics-based Ms model.
References