Kinetics and microstructural modeling of isothermal austenite-to-ferrite transformation in Fe-C-Mn-Si steels

During the multi-stage processing of advanced high-strength steels, the austenite-to-ferrite transformation, generally as a precursor of the formation of other non-equilibrium or metastable structures, has a severe effect on the subsequent phase transformations. Herein, a more flexible kinetic and microstructural predictive modeling for the key austenite-to-ferrite transformation of Fe-C-Mn-Si steels was developed, in combination with the classical nucleation theory, the general mixed-mode growth model based on Gibbs energy balance, the microstructural path method and the kinetic framework for grain boundary nucleation. Adopting a bounded, extended matrix space corresponding to a single ferrite grain, both soft-impingement and hard-impingement can be naturally included in the current modeling. Accordingly, this model outputs the ferrite volume fraction, the austenite/ferrite interface area per unit volume, and the average grain size of ferrite, which will serve as the input parameters for modeling the subsequent bainite or martensite transformations. Applying the model, this work successfully predicts the experiment measurement of the isothermal austenite-to-ferrite transformation in Fe-0.17C-0.91Mn-1.03Si (wt%) steel at different temperatures and explains why the final-state average grain size of ferrite has a maximum at the moderate annealing temperature. Effectiveness and advantages of the present model are discussed arising from kinetics and thermodynamics accompanied with nucleation, growth and impingement.