Institute of Metals Division - A Study of Reversion Phenomena in the Carbon-Alpha-Iron System

The results of this study indicate that sudden increases in aging temperature lead to reversion phenmena in carbon in the a, iron system. These phenomena are thought to be associated with the dissolution of carbide precipitates. Reversion is studied with respect to three variables: 1) Specimen grain size, 2) the initial amount of carbon in solution, and 3) difference between initial and final aging temperature. It is found that of these variables the initial carbon concentration has the greatest effect on reversion. THE solid solution of carbon in n iron has been the subject of numerous investigations throughout the past few years. Despite the great amount of effort which has been put forth toward understanding this system, however, there persist a number of interesting aspects of the system which are open to further research' Studies Of the precipitate which forms as a result of aging a supersaturated solution of carbon in a, iron appear to be particularly interesting. The present work is an attempt to determine certain