Evolution of Precipitates and Martensite Substructure During Continuous Heat Treatment

Abstract

In this work, a new theoretical approach is presented, which allows for a thermodynamics-based simulation of the precipitate evolution in the Fe-C martensitic microstructure. The approach is based on a recently developed treatment of the interaction between solute atoms with potential trapping sites, such as substitutional solute atoms, crystal defects or second-phase precipitates. The amount as well as the type and distribution of secondary precipitates during tempering in the temperature range between 50° and 700°C is simulated with the thermo-kinetic software MatCalc and qualitatively compared to selected experimental data from literature.