The Mechanism of Acicular Ferrite in Weld Deposits
The Mechanism of Acicular Ferrite in Weld Deposits
The Mechanism of Acicular Ferrite in Weld Deposits
Metals and Ceramics Division, Bldg 4508, Mail Stop 6096, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, United States
Abstract
Research has shown that the acicular ferrite microstructure in steel weld metal, which provides an optimum combination of
strength and toughness, is indeed intragranularly nucleated bainite. It is possible to maximize the content of acicular ferrite by
increasing the intragranular nucleation sites while maintaining a critical weld metal cooling rate and the steel hardenability. This
paper highlights recent research related to nucleation and growth of acicular ferrite during decomposition of austenite.
Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords: Steels; Weld microstructure; Acicular ferrite; Bainite and phase transformations
1. Introduction
In the late 1970s, the importance of an acicular ferrite
microstructure towards optimizing strength and toughness was identied [1]. Since then, extensive research
has been done on acicular ferrite formation and its relation to oxide inclusions, weld metal hardenability and
cooling conditions [**2,**3]. An overview of the hightemperature phase changes that occur in steel weld metal
is presented (see Fig. 1) to describe acicular ferrite formation in the context of the overall microstructure evolution. The weld metal microstructure is aected by
melting, gas dissolution, solidication and solid-state
transformations. Since the weld pool region is heated
to temperatures as high as 2500 K, the liquid steel dissolves oxygen. The extent of oxygen dissolution depends
upon the thermodynamic properties of liquid metal, gas,
and slag phases [4]. As the liquid weld metal cools from
this temperature (Fig. 1a), in the temperature range
20001700 C, the dissolved oxygen and deoxidizing
elements in liquid steel react to form complex oxide
inclusions in the range of 0.11 lm size range. In the
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tionally adding titanium oxide during steelmaking before any other thermomechanical processing [*9,*10].
In this review, recent progress in understanding the
details of nucleation and growth of acicular ferrite, the
parameters that aect the formation of acicular ferrite
during weld cooling, overall transformation kinetics of
acicular ferrite formation and the transitions from acicular ferrite to bainite microstructure are reviewed. The
concepts presented are also applicable to acicular ferrite
that forms in oxide-inoculated structural steels.
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269
Fig. 3. Schematic illustrations of dierent mechanisms for nucleation of acicular ferrite on inclusions: (a) Inclusion surface acts as an inert surface for
nucleation and therefore large inclusions are potent sites. (b) Matching between ferrite and inclusion lattice will decrease the interfacial energy
between inclusion and ferrite in comparison to inclusionaustenite interface. (c) Local depletion of hardening elements such as carbon and/or
manganese which might lead to an increase in driving force for nucleation of ferrite from austenite. (d) Strain energy near the inclusion may increase
due to dierences in thermal expansion between austenite and inclusion, which might reduce the activation energy for nucleation.
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inclusion austenite interface, which may reduce the activation energy for the formation of a ferrite nucleus [36].
In this section, the above mechanisms are evaluated
based on two methodologies. In the rst methodology,
the formation of acicular ferrite involves thermal activation. Based on this assumption, one can dene the nucleation rate per unit volume per second (IV) by the
following equation [**8]:
DG
I V m exp
;
1
kT
where m is the attempt frequency, k is the Boltzmann
constant, T is the temperature in Kelvin and DG* is
the activation energy for nucleation per unit volume of
the matrix. Classical textbook analyses have shown that
DG* is inversely proportional to the square of the chemical driving force. Recent research has focused on relating the activation energy for nucleation on inclusion to
dierent metallurgical variables. In a classical work on
acicular ferrite nucleation, Ricks et al. [*18] used classical nucleation theory to describe the nucleation potency
of inclusion (see Fig. 3a). By assuming a spherical geometry, the activation energy for nucleation on an inclusion
was related to the driving force for the austenite to ferrite transformation (DGc!a
max jvol ), interfacial energies of
austenite-inclusion (rc/inc), ferriteinclusion (ra/inc) and
austeniteferrite (rc/a) [see Fig. 3a]. As per these calculations, the nucleation potency of inclusions will increase
with an increase in their radius, i.e. activation energy decreases as inclusion diameter increases. Furthermore,
the calculations also showed that the activation energy
nucleation of ferrite at the grain boundary is always
lower than at inclusions. It is also known that not all
inclusions provide preferential nucleation sites. This
may be related to possible changes in the interfacial ferriteinclusion (ra/inc) with dierent inclusion types. Recent publications have used the model by Ricks et al.
has been used to explain acicular ferrite transformation
both in welds and structural steels by calculating a
reduction in activation energy for nucleation due to
one or more phenomena listed: (i) increase in the inclusion radius [21]; (ii) reduction of interfacial energy by
lattice matching (see Fig. 3b) [*23,*24], (iii) increase in
the DGc!a
max jvol by local depletion of substitutional alloying elements including manganese [37] or (iv) local
depletion of carbon [27,*28] near the inclusion.
In the alternative methodology, the nucleation of
acicular ferrite can be understood by a theory based
on bainite nucleation [**8,*38]. In this theoretical treatment, the activation energy is assumed to be proportional to the driving force for transformation, as given
by the following equation:
DG bT ;
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271
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273
Fig. 5. Schematic illustrations of dierent mechanisms by which bainite transformation can be stied to obtain predominantly acicular ferrite: (a)
Austenite grain size eect: with large grain size, the cc grain boundary area per unit volume decreases for a given inclusion density. (b) Poisoned
austenite grain boundary: by forming a thin layer of allotriomorphic ferrite, the cc grain boundary can be made ineective due to reduced area of
favorably oriented a/c interface, as well as, carbon enrichment near the interface (c) Presence of potent inclusions: for a given austenite grain if we
increase the number of potent inclusions, then acicular ferrite nucleation will be favored [6].
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1 n1 bhn
dt
h
K2
DG0m
K 2 DG0m GN
n ;
1
exp
rRT
RT
r
4
where K1 is a parameter related to austenite grain
boundary surface area per unit volume, u is the ferrite
subunit volume, n is the extent of transformation, h is
the maximum bainite volume fraction that can form at
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275
Fig. 7. Comparisons of overall transformation kinetic model (black lines) predictions with the experimentally measured isothermal bainite and
acicular ferrite kinetics in FeCMn steel welds (open circles) with two dierent inclusion characteristics during continuous cooling at 50 K/s. (a)
Data from a sample with no intentional titanium addition shows sluggish transformation kinetics compared to (b) rapid kinetics measured from the
sample with 17 wt. PPM titanium addition. (c) Corresponding optical micrograph from the sample with kinetic data shown in (a) shows
predominantly bainite microstructure. (d) Optical micrograph from the samples with kinetic data shown in (b) shows predominantly acicular ferrite
microstructure [54].
3. Future work
In the beginning of this review, it was stressed that
acicular ferrite formation depends on various high-temperature phase transformation sequences (see Fig. 1).
Therefore, these reactions must follow a particular
direction to allow for acicular ferrite formation at
low temperature. This points to the obvious need for
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4. Conclusions
High-temperature transformation sequences in welds
that aect acicular ferrite formation were highlighted.
Evidence for the similarity between bainite and acicular
ferrite transformations is overwhelming. Using nucleation on inclusions and autocatalytic nucleation on preexisting ferrite plates, the nucleation of acicular ferrite
can be described. The most probable mechanisms for
nucleation on inclusions are either due to the generation
of thermal strains in the austenite or the formation of
solute-depleted regions. The experimental measurements
of acicular ferrite growth under externally imposed elastic and plastic strains illustrated the complex interplay
between thermalmechanicalchemicalcrystallographic
parameters. Now, it is possible to model the acicular ferrite formation by using bainitic kinetic models. The
importance of computational models that describe the
overall microstructure evolution in the context of predicting acicular ferrite formation is stressed.
Acknowledgments
Research sponsored by the Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, and Assistant Secretary for Energy Eciency and Renewable Energy, Industrial
Technologies Program, Industrial Materials for the Future, US Department of Energy, under contract DEAC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC. The author
also thanks Dr. Z. Feng of ORNL for translating one
of the research paper published in Chinese language.
The author thanks Drs. J. M. Vitek and R. L. Klueh
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