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Research Institute of Iron and Steel Technology, Yonsei University, Seoul 120-749, Republic of Korea
b
Department of Metallurgical Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul 120-749, Republic of Korea
Received 17 October 2007; received in revised form 22 November 2007; accepted 27 November 2007
Available online 22 January 2008
Abstract
The uncontrolled distortion of steel parts has been a long-standing and serious problem for heat treatment processes, especially
quenching. To get a better understanding of distortion, the relationship between transformation kinetics and associated distortion
has been investigated using a low-alloy chromium steel. Because martensite is a major phase transformed during the quenching of steel
parts and is inuential in the distortion, a new martensite start (Ms) temperature and a martensite kinetics equation are proposed. Oil
quenching experiments with an asymmetrically cut cylinder were conducted to conrm the eect of phase transformations on distortion.
ABAQUS and its user-dened subroutines UMAT and UMATHT were used for nite element method (FEM) analysis. The predictions
of the FEM simulation compare well with the measured data. The simulation results allow for a clear understanding of the relationship
between the transformation kinetics and distortion.
2007 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Finite element method; Martensitic transformation; Transformation kinetics; Distortion; Low-alloy steel
1. Introduction
Heat-treating processes have traditionally been used to
greatly enhance the mechanical properties of steel parts
such as bearings, gears, shafts, etc. Unfortunately, heat
treatments such as carburizing, quenching and tempering
often cause excessive and uncontrolled distortion. This
type of distortion is still a major issue in the production
of quality parts. Many research groups have examined
the causes of distortion and found that the phase transformations as well as thermal stresses that occur during the
heat treatment play an important role.
Denis et al. [1,2] have investigated the eects of stress on
the phase transformation kinetics and transformation plasticity. Inoue et al. have studied the relation between phase
transformations and residual stresses [3], as well as the
Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 2 2123 2831; fax: +82 2 312 5375.
E-mail address: yklee@yonsei.ac.kr (Y.-K. Lee).
1359-6454/$34.00 2007 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.actamat.2007.11.039
Table 1
Chemical compositions of AISI 5120 steel (wt.%)
C
Mn
Si
Cr
P, S
Fe
0.21
0.89
0.24
1.25
<0.01
Bal.
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is used in developing the kinetic models of both the diusive and diusionless transformations during cooling. The
kinetic equations of diusive transformations were
obtained by optimization as follows:
Ferrite transformation
dV F
59093
3:48
91073 Ae3 T exp
V 0:10
F
RT
dt
1 V F
2:97
Pearlite transformation
dV P
40384
2:12
24647 Ae1 T exp
V 0:42
P
RT
dt
1 V P
1:46
Bainite transformation
dV B
39538
3:10
91111 Bs T exp
V 0:53
B
RT
dt
1 V B
3:68
where Ae3 , Ae1 and Bs are the transformation start temperatures of ferrite, pearlite and bainite, respectively. Vi is the
volume fraction of product phase i.
Fig. 1 shows a dilatometric curve measured at the cooling rate of 50 C s1 and the volume fractions of product
phases calculated by the conversion routine. The microstructure of the sample was conrmed by optical
microscopy.
2.2. Martensitic transformation
A number of empirical formulae have been proposed
to predict the Ms temperature as a function of the chemical composition of steels [1720]. The eect of the alloying element on the Ms temperature of iron-based binary
alloys has been investigated in many studies, and Liu
et al. [21] have summarized the results. The measured
Fig. 1. Dilatometric curve of AISI 5120 steel measured at a cooling rate of 50 C s1 and its predicted volume fractions of product phases by the
conversion routine.
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Fig. 2. Comparison between the KoistinenMarburger equation and Eq. (7) from this study with the measured (a) M50 and (b) M90 temperatures where
the martensite fractions are 50 and 90 vol.%, respectively.
ferrite
C P 8938:11 444417:483=T 786:886T 0:5
20:662T 0:00529T 2 ;
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ferrite + cementite
C P 1091:734 3768:92=T 175:576T
0:5
5:742T 0:00227T 2
10
where T is temperature in Kelvin. A simple rule of mixtures
is applied to obtain the heat capacity for multiphase
conditions.
The enthalpy change due to a phase transformation, i.e.
latent heat, causes heat absorption or heat generation of
the system. In this study, the latent heat of the diusive
transformations is calculated based on the thermodynamics
of the transformation. The latent heat for ferrite formation
is calculated at the temperature at which the austenite
decomposition is thermodynamically complete, while the
latent heat of the pearlite formation is calculated by the
rule of mixtures between the latent heats of the cementite
and ferrite formation. Although bainite is composed of
ferrite and cementite-like pearlite, the latent heat of the
bainite formation contains an additional shear energy
value of 600 J mol1, which was reported by Nanba et al.
[31]. The calculated latent heats of ferrite, pearlite and bainite are: DHF = 5.95 108, DHP = 5.26 108 and DHB =
5.12 108 (J m3), respectively.
Only a few studies have reported the latent heat of martensite formation. Recently, Cho et al. [32] suggested the
following equation to calculate the Gibbs free energy
change as the latent heat of martensite transformation:
T Ms
C
DG DG 1
11
T 0 Ms
where DGC is the Gibbs free energy change between austenite and martensite at the Ms temperature. According to
Kunze and Beyer [33], DGC is 2100 J mol1 for the formation of plate martensite and (1200 + 3128yCr + 29260yMn +
6470yNi + 21000yC) J mol1 for lath martensite, where yi is
the site fraction of element i. T0 is a thermodynamic equilibrium temperature at which the chemical free energies of
austenite and martensite are equal and is usually expressed
as T0 = 1/2(Ms + As) [34]. As is the austenite start temperature from martensite and Andrews formula [19] is used to
calculate the As temperature of AISI 5120 steel. The latent
heat of the martensite formation of AISI 5120 steel is
calculated using Eqs. (7) and (11). The value for the latent
heat for martensite formation is DHM = 3.14 108 (J m3).
The published stressstrain curves of AISI 5120 steel
with dierent microstructures are used for the stress analysis [35]. The stressstrain curves were generated as a
function of temperature using Instron and Gleeble
machines. In addition, the hardness is also an important
means to assess the mechanical properties after heat
treatment. In this study, the empirical formula proposed
by Maynier et al. [36] was used to predict the hardness
after cooling. The values of the phase transformation
plasticity of AISI 5120 steel are taken from recently
measured data [37]. The thermal and transformation
expansions are calculated by the equations used in the
previous work [16].
Fig. 3. Shape and dimension of the cut cylinder specimen of AISI 5120
steel.
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Fig. 5. Comparison between the predicted and measured surface temperatures at each dierent position of the cut cylinder during oil quenching.
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Fig. 8. Relationship between the distortion and microstructure changes in the asymmetrically cut cylinder specimen during oil quenching: (a) bainite and
(b) martensite.
Fig. 9. Eect of phase transformations on the distortion of the cut cylinder during oil quenching: (a) distortion with transformations and (b) distortion
without transformations.
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Fig. 10. Variations in the axial stress (rz), radial stress (rr) and hoop stress (rh) during oil quenching of the cut cylinder: (a) without phase transformations
and (b) with phase transformations. The subscripts (C, S and cut S) indicate the node positions of the cut cylinder at which the stresses were calculated.
Fig. 11. Eect of martensite kinetics on the nal distortion after oil
quenching. Two dierent kinetic equations were compared: the Koistinen
Marburger equation and Eq. (7) proposed in this study. The measured
values at P1P9 were referred to previously in Fig. 7.
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