The morphological evolution of primary austenite during isothermal coarsening

Abstract

The morphological evolution of primary austenite in an industrial hypoeutectic lamellar cast iron was studied under isothermal conditions for coarsening times varying from 0min to 96h. The dendritic austenite structure formed during the primary solidification suffered major morphological changes during the isothermal coarsening process. After a sufficient coarsening time, dendrite fragmentation, globularization, and coalescence of austenite were studied using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique. This study confirmed that the secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS) is an inappropriate length scale to describe the primary austenite coarsening process for longer times. The application of shape independent quantitative parameters confirmed the reduction of the total interfacial area during microstructural coarsening. The modulus of the primary austenite, Mγ, which represents the volume-surface ratio for the austenite phase, and the spatial distribution of the austenite particles, measured as the nearest distance between the center of gravity of neighboring particles, Dγ, followed a linear relation with the cube root of coarsening time during the whole coarsening process. The mean curvature of the austenite interface, characterized through stereological relations, showed a linear relation to Mγ and Dγ, allowing the quantitative characterization and modeling of the complete coarsening process of primary austenite.