Crystallographic aspects of bainite transformation in steels

The kinetic and crystallographic properties of bainite transformation support that the bain deformation occurs via individual atomic jumps at gamma/alpha interfaces with atomic-site correspondence but the elastic strain due to it is relaxed by lattice invariant shear in bainite. Thus the phenomenological theory of martensite transformation can be applied to its crystallography. In order to specify the variant of the solutions in this theory, however, the relaxation of the shape strain in the parent austenite should be considered. In the later stages, the diffusional modification of bainite interfaces follows. (C) 2002 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.