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 A degrees 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(A (R)) and calculations from different empirical formulas. It is concluded that martensite-start temperature depend on chemical composition and grain size of austenite.