Norihiro Kanno

Effects of transformation stress and deformation before austenitization on nucleation of intragranular bainite

Intragranular bainite is known to be effective to develop toughness greatly in steels. Effects of aging below eutectoid temperature before austenitization, the deformation before solution treatment and the duration of solution treatment on nucleation of intragranular bainite have been examined. In the austenite (γ) region where carbide pre-existed, the stress due to inverse transformation, ferrite (α) to γ, would be introduced into fine austenitized region with lower transus temperature to γ, resulting in the introduction of stable small-angle boundary at high temperatures acting as the nucleation site for intragranular bainite lath. Deformation of α by cold rolling before solution treatment enhances the nucleation of intragranular bainite, suggesting that the above γ region through the inverse transformation is easily deformed by the hardened neighboring α. In the deformed γ region, small-angle boundary would be more easily introduced, acting as nucleation site for intragranular bainite. Intragranular bainite lath grew and hardness decreased by prolonging the duration of solution treatment, indicating that transformation stress introduced by the pre-treatment was influenced by solution treatment. The effect of sulfur addition on formation of intragranular bainite was also analyzed.

High-temperature in-situ TEM straining of the interaction with dislocations and particles for Cu-added ferritic stainless steel.

IntroductionCu is always present in the matrix when ferritic steels were prepared from ferrous scrap. When the ferritic steels are aged thermally, Cu precipitates start appear and disperse finely and homogeneously [1], which may make the steels strengthened by precipitation hardening. In this study, the interaction between Cu precipitates and dislocations was exmined via high-temperature in-situ TEM straining. ExperimentalCu-added ferritic stainless steel (Fe-18.4%Cr-1.5%Cu) was used in the present study. Specimen was aged at1073 K for 360 ks. Samples for TEM observation were prepared by focused ion beam (FIB; Quanta 3D 200i) method. Microstructure of specimen was analyzed by JEM-3200FSK and high-temperature in-situ TEM straining was conducted using JEM-1300NEF. Results and discussionInteraction between Cu precipitates and dislocation is seen from consecutive TEM images acquired by in-situ TEM straining at 1073 K, as shown in Fig.1. The size of Cu precipitates was about 70 nm and several dislocations were present within the field of view. In particular, progressing dislocations contacted with the Cu precipitate at right angle, as indicated by arrows in Fig.1 (b) to (d). This result implies that there is an attractive interaction between dislocations and the Cu precipitate. This is attributed to the fact that Stress field of dislocations was easily relaxed in interface between the Cu precipitate and matrix because of lattice and interface diffusion as well as slip in the interface [2,3]. Furthermore, dislocations pass through the particle after contacting it, so that the interaction with dislocations and particles should be explained by Srolovitz mechanism [4].jmicro;63/suppl_1/i28/DFU083F1F1DFU083F1Fig. 1.TEM images foucused on interaction with dislocations and partticles.