Thermodynamic investigation of the austenite and the delta ferrite in the system Fe-Cr-Mn-N

The nitrogen solubility was measured in a wide range of temperatures including both the austenitic and the ferritic phase of iron-chromium-manganese alloys. The mass contents of the samples were 6.0 to 20.5 % Cr and 5.7 to 16.6 % Mn. Parameters describing the austenite and the delta ferrite in the system Fe-Cr-Mn-N were calculated analyzing all available experimental data. This evaluation yielded an improvement of the known parameters describing the austenitic phase by means of the regular solution model. At the first time, accurate thermodynamic parameters describing the delta phase both in the systems Fe-Mn-N and Fe-Cr-Mn-N could be deduced. By means of the phase diagram program package PD-pp the austenite-delta ferrite phase boundaries of the investigated alloys were calculated. They were compared with experimentally determined temperatures and nitrogen concentrations in the two-phase region. There is a good correspondence between theory and experiment. Using published data describing the melt a calculation of phase diagrams in the high temperature region can be performed.