Modeling Bainitic Transformations during Press Hardening

We revisit recent findings on experimental and modeling investigations of bainitic transformations under the influence of external stresses and pre-strain during the press hardening process. Experimentally, the transformation kinetics in 22MnB5 under various tensile stresses are studied both on the macroscopic and microstructural level. In the bainitic microstructure, the variant selection effect is analyzed with an optimized prior-austenite grain reconstruction technique. The resulting observations are expressed phenomenologically using a autocatalytic transformation model, which serves for further scale bridging descriptions of the underlying thermo-chemo-mechanical coupling processes during the bainitic transformation. Using analyses of orientation relationships, thermodynamically consistent and nondiagonal phase field models are developed, which are supported by ab initio generated mechanical parameters. Applications are related to the microstructure evolution on the sheaf, subunit, precipitate and grain boundary level.

Mean field model of phase transformations in steels during cooling, which predicts evolution of carbon concentration in the austenite

The objectives of the paper were twofold. The first was exploring possibility of fast and reliable modelling of phase transformations during cooling of steels, accounting for the evolution of the carbon concentration in the austenite. Existing discrete models require long computing times and their application to optimization of industrial processes is limited. Therefore, a model based on the modified JMAK equation was proposed. Control of the carbon concentration in the austenite during ferritic and bainitic transformations allowed to predict incomplete austenite transformation and occurrence of the retained austenite. Moreover, prediction of the onset of pearlitic transformation after the bainitic was possible. The model was validated by comparison the predictions with the results of physical simulations. Numerical simulations for various industrial processes were performed. Problem of the difference in the incubation time between isothermal and constant cooling rate tests was raised.

Study on Bainite/Martensite Transformation in Reheated Weld Metals

A new combination of laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM) and electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD) with a field-emission scanning electron microscope (SEM) is utilized to study the mechanism of bainite transformation in reheated low carbon bainitic weld metal. The LSCM observations show that laths grow on the surface at various rates, from 30 μm/s to 240 μm/s, which is greatly larger than those referred in literature for bainite. In order to confirm that the laths are bainite and not surface martensite, additional experiments were performed. The crystallographic characteristics of surface bainite were compared with those of bulk bainite obtained during isothermal treatments and those of bulk martensite obtained by water quenching. By means of a dedicated EBSD data-treatment software, orientation relationship, variant selection and packet groups were identified; it was shown that both the surface laths and bulk bainite share the same misorientation, habit plane, and have similar variant distribution. Experiments are running to compare these features with those of bulk martensite. If the distinction between martensite and bainite is successful, the very high growth rates of the surface laths could be used to discuss the displacive/diffusive nature of bainitic transformations.