Institute of Metals Division - Isothermal Formation of Martensite at Subzero Temperatures in a High Chromium Steel

isothermal formation of martensite occurs in the range of —65o to —197oC and is always preceded by some athermal transformation. By rapid cooling the isothermal, but not the athermal, component of transformation can be suppressed. Stabilization against isothermal transformation can be induced by cycling from below M. to room temperature. A LTHOUGH the transformation of austenite to XV martensite is generally believed to occur only on cooling, recent evidence indicates that this reaction can also occur at constant temperature. Isothermal formation of martensite was observed in tool steel by Fletcher, Averbach, and Cohen.'. They found that the hardening reaction that occurs during the quenching of a plain carbon or low carbon alloy tool steel does not stop immediately when room temperature is reached; instead austenite continues S. C. DAS GUPTA is Research Fellow, Department of Metallurgy, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind. B. S. LEMENT, Associate Member AIME, is on the Research Staff, Department of Metallurgy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. Discussion on this paper, TP 3123E, may be sent, 2 copies, to AIME by Dec. 1, 1951. Manuscript, April 16, 1951. Detroit Meeting, October 1951. This paper represents part of a thesis by S. C. Das Gupta submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Metallurgy to the University of Notre Dame. to transform at room temperature although at a decreasing rate. Since only a small amount of austenite transforms in this fashion, isothermal formation of martensite was considered to be merely a "tailing off" effect of the main hardening reaction. Another point of view was advanced by Kurd-jumov and Maksimova"' * who reported that the austenite-martensite reaction could be suppressed by rapid cooling of a 6 pct Mn-0.6 pct C steel in liquid nitrogen and that as much as 25 pct martensite could be formed by reheating to and holding at subzero temperatures above that of liquid nitrogen. These investigators came to the conclusion that martensite is thermally nucleated at certain special regions in the austenite and subsequently grows to observable dimensions. Isothermal transformation of austenite to martensite was cited by Fisher, Hollomon, and Turnbull" as evidence supporting another nucleation and growth theory of martensite formation. According