Austenite dendrite morphology in lamellar graphite iron

Abstract

Primary austenite has been underestimated in general when the theories of nucleation, solidification, microstructure formation and mechanical properties were established for cast iron and particularly for lamellar cast iron. The present work aims to investigate the primary austenite morphology of as cast samples of a hypoeutectic lamellar cast iron produced with different cooling rates. Morphological parameters as the area fraction primary austenite, the secondary dendrite arm spacing, the dendrite envelope surface, the coarseness of the primary dendrite expressed as the relation between the volume of the dendrite and its envelope surface and the coarseness of the interdendritic space also known as the hydraulic diameter are measured. Furthermore, the role of the size of the investigation area is revealed to be sequential investigation. A strong relation between all measured morphological parameters and the solidification time has been established, except the volume fraction of primary austenite, which is constant for all cooling conditions.