Abstract
A time-of-flight Bragg-edge neutron transmission imaging was used to investigate the microstructure and strain distributions in a gear hardened by a newly developed two-step induction-heating method: precursor (Sample 1) and final product (Sample 2). The edge-position and edge-broadening were determined and mapped with high spatial resolution, which enabled us to confirm the two-dimensional distributions of the microstructure and residual strain. A deep hardened layer was made for Sample 1 in which martensite was formed on the entire teeth and the outer peripheral portion of the gear body. Sample 2 was subjected to double induction-hardening, where a tempered martensite was formed as the thermal refined microstructure between a fine-grained martensite at the tooth surface and a ferrite-pearlite microstructure at the core. The relationship between edge-broadening and the Vickers hardness described by a linear equation was employed to derive the elastic residual strain. The residual strain map for Sample 2 revealed that a steep compressive strain was introduced into the fine-grained martensite at the tooth surface by the super rapid induction-heating and quenching process. The reversal of tension was speculated to occur below 2 mm from the tooth tip, and the strain was almost zero in the core region.
Highlights
A time-of-flight Bragg-edge neutron transmission imaging was used to investigate the microstructure and strain distributions in a gear hardened by a newly developed two-step induction-heating method: precursor (Sample 1) and final product (Sample 2)
The residual stress and microstructure in engineering materials are investigated via conventional techniques, such as electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD)[7], X-ray diffraction (XRD)[8], neutron diffraction[9,10], and the finite element method (FEM)[11]
The Bragg-edge imaging was performed at BL10 NOBORU at the Materials and Life Sciences Experimental Facility (MLF) of the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC)[21]
Summary
A time-of-flight Bragg-edge neutron transmission imaging was used to investigate the microstructure and strain distributions in a gear hardened by a newly developed two-step induction-heating method: precursor (Sample 1) and final product (Sample 2). A different trend was observed for the d110 distribution profile of Sample 2, i.e., d110 decreased gradually from the tooth tip and reached a constant value of ~ 2.026 Å upon approaching a distance of 15 mm, suggesting that the core material zone with ferrite and pearlite matrix was reached.
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