The nucleation of martensite in steel

• Calculations of the total energy for transforming austenite to martensite in the form of thin ellipsoidal plates, fully coherent with the austenite, show that the process may be spontaneous in the presence of pre-existing dislocations. It is found that dislocations, or groups of dislocations, in the austenite are suitable sites for martensite nucleation in that their strain fields may interact favourably with the strain field associated with the Bain deformation thereby eliminating the energy barrier to nucleation. The driving force for twinning to occur virtually simultaneously with nucleation is large and when this happens energy is released for thickening and growth of the nucleus. It is also found that the strain energy of coherent plates of martensite, whether twinned or untwinned, is a function of their orientation in the austenite, although the lowest strain energy case occur nevertheless over a relatively wide range of orientations

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Materialteknik -- Annan materialteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Materials Engineering -- Other Materials Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Engineering Materials

Materialteknik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)