Internal stresses of pearlitic steel monitored by in-situ neutron diffraction during phase transformation and thermal aging

Morooka, Satoshi  ; Kawasaki, Takuro   ; Harjo, S.   ; Nakada, Nobuo*; Tsukada, Yuki*

Hierarchical microstructure of pearlite and martensite in steel is caused by internal stress due to phase transformation. If internal stress can be quantitatively evaluated and controlled, new microstructure control technology will be created. However, internal stress due to eutectoid transformation is not easy to measure because thermal stress and transformation stress are superimposed. The purpose of this study is to quantitatively evaluate the internal stress evolved from pearlitic transformation by In-situ neutron diffraction technique. A pearlitic steel of 0.8C-1.5Mn wt.% was used in this study, and the following thermal process was performed; the solution heat treatment at 1323K for 1.8ks followed by immediate the isothermal heat treatment at 873K for 1.8 ks to obtain a predominantly pearlitic structure included lamellar ferrite and cementite. The austenitic-to-pearlitic transformation during the thermal process was monitored with a TAKUMI neutron diffractometer at J-PARC-MLF. The Rietveld refinements of diffraction patterns were performed using Z-Rietveld software to track the phase fractions and the lattice parameters. The elastic strains state of the ferrite and the austenite phases at 873K were observed from the evolutions of the lattice constants of ferrite and the austenite during pearlitic transformation. In particular, the cubical expansion during the transformation derived the hydrostatic pressure and resulted a compressive elastic strain in ferrite. On the other hand, the elastic strains state in cementite that was predicted by an amount of internal stress relaxation during thermal aging after pearlitic transformation, was approximately -0.28%. These results show that internal stresses during transformation can be quantitatively evaluated using in-situ neutron diffraction method.