DECOMPOSITION RATE OF SUPERCOOLED AUSTENITE IN Cr--Mo--V STEELS

K. A. Lanskaya, O. V. Basargin, UDC 669.017.3:669.15'26'28'292-194

A. G. Rakhshtadt, and L. A. Roich

We present results from a study of Cr--Mo--V steels with small Nb additions and various
quantities of molybdenum (see Table i).
Phase and structural transformations in steels (including the solution of carbides dur-
ing austenitizing) are accompanied by changes in volume, which permitted the dilatometric
method to be used in the investigation. The basic studies were made at the Institute of Pre-
cision Alloys of the Central Scientific-Research Institute of Ferrous Metallurgy (TsNIIChER-
MET) with the Formastor-F induction dilatometer. We determined the effect of austenitizing
conditions on the solubility of carbides and the change points, and also investigated the
composition of supercooled austenite during continuous cooling and under isothermal condi-
tions.
To optimize the austenitizing conditions, we investigated the effect of heating tempera-
ture in the range of I050-1250°C with holding from 5 to 15 min on the solubility of carbides
in steel with 3% Mo. Figure 1 shows the change in the length of samples (Al) at the austen-
itizing temperature and the position of M s in relation to this temperature. It can be seen
that M s decreases with rising austenitizing temperatures, and the length of the sample de-
creases. The reduction in the volume of the sample can be considered from two viewpoints.
We first analyzed the possibility of creep at high temperatures under the influence of pres-
sure. Analysis of the stresses occurring in the sample showed that they were less than 0.i
MPa under the given testing conditions and therefore could not induce creep.
Let us propose another explanation -- compression induced by the solution in austenite
of MC carbides as well as M2aC6 and MTCa. According to H. G. Goldschmidt, these carbides
have a lower density than austenite. In particular, the density of VC is 5.65 g/cm 3, while
that of austenite is at least 8 g/cm 3. Hence, it was considered that the reduction in the
volume of the samples in the process of holding at austenitizing temperature is due to the
solution of carbides. The change in the length of the sample Al in relation to the holding
time at different austenitizing temperatures is shown in Fig. 2a. Since the change in length
is associated with the solution of carbides, this process will occur at the highest rate at
temperatures above I150°C. In connection with the fact that strong grain growth was ob-
served at 1250 °, austenitizing was conducted at 1200 ° .
The study of the effect of molybdenum on the solubility of carbides showed that the
higher the molybdenum content, the smaller the change in the dimensions of the sample during
austenitizing (Fig. 2). However, it does not follow that molybdenum slows down the solution
of carbides. A c c o r d i n g to phase chemical analysis, about 3% of the carbides are dissolved
in steels with 0.6 and 3% Mo after austenitizing at 1250 ° for i 0 min (grain size grade 7),

TABLE 1

z Composition Phase
composition
c t Mo_____!l
cr I VZNb
, 0.o51o.2 l o,o 3.o o.,,, ÷
2 0,6216,0[3,2 3'IIO'08tO;÷MC'
I ÷M,C
+'M2aC6÷[_
o,o4[o,~15,2 3.1to.141~+M.c+Mc+l
/+M-'c,
Note. The steels also contained
~0.4% Si~ ~0.6% Mn, <~ 0.01%
S, and ~<0.015% P.
I. P. Bardin Central Scientific-Research Institute of Ferrous Metallurgy. N. E. Bauman
Moscow Technical College. Translated from Metallovedenie i Termicheskaya Obrabotka Metallov,
No. I, pp. 3-6, January, 1983.

6 0026-0673/83/0102-0006507.50 © 1983 Plenum Publishing Corporation

 Ms, °C

330
270 ~ Fig. i. Effect of austeniti:zing temperature
210 (15 min) on M s and length Al at austenitiz-
Al, gm ing temperature.

-20
-go ' KN~

-6o
i050 iiO0 i I E O i200 t, °C

and about 6% of the carbides in steel with 5% Mo. Austenite is highly saturated with molyb-
denum in a quantity proportional to its concentration in the steel, which leads to an in-
crease in the volume, since the atomic radius of molybdenum is larger than that of iron. For
this reason~ the larger the molybdenum content of the steel (with equal amounts of other al-
loying elements), the smaller the change in the length of the sample during austenitizing.
Molybdenum also affects the range of the y ~ ~ transformations and Ms, as well as the
amount of retained austenite in the steel (Fig. 3). With increasing amounts of molybdenum
in the steel the position of M s decreases, while the amount of retained austenite in the
structure increases.

Figure 4a shows the decomposition of supercooled austenite for steels with 0.6, 3, and
5% Mo during continuous cooling at rates from 3000 to 3 deg/min. The steels were quenched
to martensite even with cooling at a rate of 50 deg/min, i.e., lower than the cooling rate
in air of samples 3 mm in diameter. After cooling at rates of 3000 to 500 deg/min only the
boundaries of prior austenite grains were visible and martensite crystals with a microhard-
hess H 620 under a load of 0.2 N were barely noticeable. After cooling at rates of 300, 150,
and 50 deg/min there were highly etched sections within the grains where dispersed carbides
are precipitated in the process of cooling. This is indicated by the lower microhardness --
down to H 400 (Vcool = 150 deg/min) -- and also the rise in M s for the steel with 3% Mo to 270 ° ,
compared with 230 ° for the steel with 5% Mo (Vcool = 50 deg/min). With cooling at rates of
20 and i0 deg/min, in steels with 3 and 5% Mo some of the austenite is transformed to ferrite,
and the untransformed section into martensite during subsequent cooling. In this case M s
rises, which indicates the precipitation of carbides from austenite. The microhardness is
H 240-360 after cooling at such rates. With cooling at rates of 5 and 3 deg/min in steels
with 3 and 5% Mo, the austenite completely decomposes to a f e r r i t e ~ a r b i d e mixture, which is
indicated by the lack of M s on the diagrams, the character of the structure, and the micro-
hardness values (H 170).
To avoid the possibility of carbides precipitating in the process of isothermal cooling,
the samples were cooled from the austenitizing temperature to the isothermal holding tempera-
ture at a rate of 3000 deg/min. The T-T-T diagram for steels with 0.6, 3, and 5% Mo is shown
in Fig. 4b. Lines corresponding to the beginning of carbide precipitation from austenite

0 E fO i5 0 5 iO T , rain

-fo

:zh
ff

I-"--,
b
Fig. 2. Effect of holding time T at different austenitizing
temperatures (a) and holding at 1200°C on the length of
steel with different amounts of molybdenum (b).
 t,~c

Fig. 3. Ranges of ~ ÷ Y(O) and y ÷ e(A)

?00 ~ 20
~ -Are transformations, M s ([]), and amount of
x
retained austenite (×) in relation to
5OO / . fO
molybdenum content of the steel.
300 c~.

foo
o|
0 f 2 3 q ~lqo

(precipitation of secondary carbides occurs above the line but not below it) were also drawn
on the diagram. For steels with 3 and 5% Mo these lines almost coincide, but for the steel
with 0.6% Mo the curve shifts to a lower temperature and shorter holding time.
In steel with 3% Mo the precipitation of carbides at 850 ° begins without an incubation
period and proceeds at a high rate, as the result of which austenite is impoverished in car-
bon and alloying elements and begins to transform to ferrite in about 50 min. However~ as
the results of the microstructural analysis showed, the y + ~ transformation is not complete
at 850 ° even after 200 min.

At 800 ° the start of carbide precipitation was recorded with the dilatometer in 3-4 min,
and the start of the y ÷ ~ transformation was recorded in 12 min. The highest rate of aus-
tenite decomposition occurred in 80 min. With holding for 260 min, the austenite is complete-
ly transformed to ferrite, which is confirmed by the results of metallographic analysis and
the absence of M s during cooling. With decreasing isothermal holding temperatures the in-
cubation period of carbide precipitation increases. Despite this fact, the y ÷ ~ transfor-
mation occurs at a fairly high rate at 750 ° , although it is not completed even after 320 min.
This is indicated by the sections with high microhardness (H 420) within the ferrite matrix
(H 170) and also by the transformation of austenite impoverished in carbon and alloying ele-
ments to martensite during subsequent cooling (M s = 570°).
At 700 ° the start of carbide precipitation is recorded with the dilatometer in about 30
min, and the start of the y ÷ ~ transformation is about 130 min. At this temperature the
decomposition of austenite is slight; after holding for 290 min one observes ferrite only in
narrow boundary areas.

At 650 ° the precipitation of carbides begins in about 50 min and ends in about 200 min.
Decomposition of austenite at this temperature is not observed even after holding for 380
min. As the results of the microstructural analysis showed, carbides are precipitated even-
ly through the grains at this temperature.

According to the chemical and x-ray structural analyses, only MC is precipitated in the
range of 850-650 ° during isothermal decomposition of austenite in steel with 3% Mo.

J
I
A + CI + CII

8OO " ~+c

A+C z ~ ~ '
600 - -

90O

200
0 fO fo 2 fO3 fOq 0 fO f02 fO 3 T , $eC
a T ~ S~C
b

Fig. 4. C-C-T (a) and T-T-T diagrams (b) for steels

with 5 (solid lines), 3 (dashed lines), and 0.6% Mo
(dotted lines); austenitizing at 1200°C for 15 min.
 The effect of molybdenum during isothermal decomposition of supercooled austenite is
evident in the higher temperature of the y + ~ transformation. Also, with increasing amounts
of molybdenum the ¥ + ~ transformation shifts to shorter holding times, i~e., molybenum
lowers the resistance of austenite to decomposition in this transformation range.

CONCLUSIONS
i. Carbides are dissolved at the highest rate at 1200-1250°C in the first 10-15 min.
2~ The critical quenching rate for steel with 3% Mo is 50 deg/min; with smaller amounts
of Mo the critical rate increases.
3. Isothermal decomposition of supercooled austenite to a ferrite--carbide mixture be-
gins with preliminary precipitation of secondary MC, which at temperatures below 850 ° occurs
after a certain incubation period that increases as the temperature is lowered.
4. With increasing amounts of molybdenum for 0.6 to 5% the temperature range of the dif-
fusional y ÷ ~ transformation shifts to higher temperatures, M s drops, and the amount of re-
tained austenite increases.

STRUCTURAL SUPERPLASTICITY OF Ag--35% Cu--5% In ALLOY

V. N. Fedorov, B. N. Efremov, UDC 539~214:669.22'29'782

and I. I. Kurbatkin

Alloys based on the Ag--Cu--In system are widely used in various industries as welding
materials and corrosion protection coatings.
Alloys of this sytem preserve their two-phase structure up to the melting point [i].
Hence the present work deals with the possibility of using their superplasticity for high-
temperature forming.
The Ag--35% Cu--5% In alloy studied was melted in an induction furnace under a layer of
incandescent charcoal. The charge consisted of M-00k copper, Sr 999.9 silver, and IN-0 ind-
ium. To study the as-cast alloy, rods i0 m m in diameter and 200 m m long were cast. To study
the hot-extruded alloy, ingots 75 m m in diameter and 40 mm long were cast. Then to produce
10-mm-diameter rods the ingots were extruded in a 600-ton press at 400°C chamber temperature
and at 680-700°C ingot temperature. The mechanical properties were determined with an im-
proved version of the R-05-type tensile testing machine at 650-700°C and at a strain rate of
0.1-30 mm/min (~ = 1.7 × 10 -4 to 0.5 × 10 -I sec-1). Heating of the standard cylindrical ten-
sile specimens with gauge length i0 mm and diameter 4 mm was carried out in an electric tube
furnace for 15 min. The size of the s-phase particles (dark colored in the photographs) and
the volumetric ratio of the phases were identified by quantitative metallography [2]. Speci-
mens for metallographic studies were mechanically polished and then etched with a saturated
aqueous solution of 90% (NH4)2S208 plus 10% K 2 C r 2 O T .
It is known that a finely dispersed structure is a necessary condition for superplastic-
ity in a two-phase alloy. To produce a cast alloy with a finely dispersed structure, the in-
fluence of casting conditions (cooling rates) on ingot structure was studied. Cooling rates
were varied from 0.15 deg/sec (crystallization in the crucible during furnace cooling) to
50 deg/sec (casting into a water-cooled mold). The mean value of cooling rate for each ingot
was calculated from its cooling curve in the temperature range 950-300°C.
Metallographic analysis has shown that the cast structure of the alloy is sensitive to
cooling rate (Fig. i). With increasing cooling rate, considerable refinement of both primary
crystals of the copper ~ p h a s e and the eutectie particles occurs. Quantitative metallograph-
ic analysis of the structure of the alloy cast in a water-cooled m o l d has shown that this
casting method promotes formation of a well-dispersed structure; however, this does not elimi-
nate the variation of the grain size in the structure of the alloy, caused by the presence of

State Project Institute of Nonferrous Metal Forming (GIPROTsVETMETOBRABOTKA). Trans-

lated from Metallovedenie i Termicheskaya Obrabotka Metallov, No. i, pp. 6-8, January~ 1983.

0026-0673/83/0102-0009507.50 © 1983 Plenum Publishing Corporation 9