Austenite Formation from Martensite in a 13Cr6Ni2Mo Supermartensitic Stainless Steel

The influence of austenitization treatment of a 13Cr6Ni2Mo supermartensitic stainless steel (X2CrNiMoV13-5-2) on austenite formation during reheating and on the fraction of austenite retained after tempering treatment is measured and analyzed. The results show the formation of austenite in two stages. This is probably due to inhomogeneous distribution of the austenite-stabilizing elements Ni and Mn, resulting from their slow diffusion from martensite into austenite and carbide and nitride dissolution during the second, higher temperature, stage. A better homogenization of the material causes an increase in the transformation temperatures for the martensite-to-austenite transformation and a lower retained austenite fraction with less variability after tempering. Furthermore, the martensite-to-austenite transformation was found to be incomplete at the target temperature of 1223 K (950 degrees C), which is influenced by the previous austenitization treatment and the heating rate. The activation energy for martensite-to-austenite transformation was determined by a modified Kissinger equation to be approximately 400 and 500 kJ/mol for the first and the second stages of transformation, respectively. Both values are much higher than the activation energy found during isothermal treatment in a previous study and are believed to be effective activation energies comprising the activation energies of both mechanisms involved, i.e., nucleation and growth. (C) The Author(s) 2016.