Effect of Intercritical Annealing Temperature on Phase Transformations in Medium Carbon Dual Phase Steels

This paper presents a study concerning phase transformations during quenching of a medium carbon dual phase steel using thermodynamic equilibrium calculations and dilatometry. Medium carbon steel was subjected to the intermediate quenching to produce a fine grained ferrite/martensite dual phase steel. 4 samples quenched after intercritical annealing at 725, 730, 740, and 750 °C. Martensite-start and bainite-start temperatures were calculated from dilatometric curves using plastodilotemeter. Experimental findings are supported by calculated phase diagrams and equilibrium phase compositions using ThermoCalc® and calculations from different empirical formulas. It is concluded that martensite-start temperature depend on chemical composition and grain size of austenite.