Effect of Retained Austenite on Properties of Austempered Ductile Iron

Austempered ductile iron (ADI) exhibits a favourable combination of strength and toughness, and has been used as a substitute for quench-tempered or carburise-quenched steel. A characteristic feature of bainite transformation of cast iron, as opposed to carbon steel, is that precipitation of carbide is suppressed by the high concentration of silicon. Thus, a favourable structure, consisting of bainitic ferrite and retained austenite without carbide, can be provided by the optimum austempering treatment. Such microstructure and the mechanical properties of the iron are significantly affected by the conditions of the austempering treatment and the chemical composition. In this study, several grades of ductile iron were austempered under various conditions. The relationship between the impact strength, the quantity of retained austenite and the isothermal transformation curve was investigated. The stability of the retained austenite is considered important, because ADI contains a large amount of retained austenite which contributes to the improvement of ductility and toughness and which may transform to martensite when held at low temperature or subjected to stress. In this study, the stability of the retained austenite at low temperatures was examined by holding or stressing to establish the relations between transformation and temperature, stress and strain.

When the austempering time is short, the untransformed austenite partially transforms to martensite during air cooling, due to the lower carbon content, resulting in lower impact strength. As the austempering time increases, the untransformed austenite is stabilised by carbon-enrichment and there is little transformation to martensite, resulting in a large amount of retained austenite and higher impact strength. When the austempering time becomes much longer, the carbon-enriched austenite decomposes, presumably to bainitic ferrite and carbide, decreasing impact strength. In increasing the silicon content, precipitation of carbide in bainite is suppressed and both the maximum impact value and the content of retained austenite increase. The decreasing rates after the maxima through an additional isothermal holding becomes smaller.

By holding at temperatures down to –40°C, the decrease in retained austenite and the increase in hardness are both small. The retained austenite is stable under stress lower than that required to cause plastic deformation. Compressive stress hinders the martensitic transformation, because the transformation is accompanied by volume expansion.