The paper proposes a methodology useful in verification of results of dilatometric tests aimed at determination of temperatures defining

the start and the end of eutectoid transformation in the course of ductile cast iron cooling, based on quenching techniques and

metallographic examination. For an industrial melt of ductile cast iron, the effect of the rate of cooling after austenitization at temperature

900°C carried out for 30 minutes on temperatures TAr1

start and TAr1

end was determined. The heating rates applied in the study were the

same as the cooling rates and equaled 30, 60, 90, 150, and 300°C/h. It has been found that with increasing cooling rate, values of

temperatures TAr1

start and TAr1

end decrease by several dozen degrees.

Eutectoid growth, as the important reaction mechanism of the carbon steel heat treatment, is the basis to control the microstructure and

performance. At present, most studies have focused on lamellar growth, and did not consider the nucleation process. Mainly due to the

nucleation theory is inconclusive, a lot of research can support their own theory in a certain range. Based on the existing nucleation theory,

this paper proposes a cooperative nucleation model to simulate the nucleation process of eutectoid growth. In order to ensure that the

nucleation process is more suitable to the theoretical results, different correction methods were used to amend the model respectively. The

results of numerical simulation show that when the model is unmodified, the lateral growth of single phase is faster than that of

longitudinal growth, so the morphology is oval. Then, the effects of diffusion correction, mobility correction and ledges nucleation

mechanism correction on the morphology of nucleation and the nucleation rate were studied respectively. It was found that the

introduction of boundary diffusion and the nucleation mechanism of the ledges could lead to a more realistic pearlite.

This scientific paper presents the research on influence of austenitizing temperature on kinetics and evolution of the spheroidal plain cast

iron during eutectoid reaction in isothermal conditions. The cast iron has been austenitized in temperatures of 900, 960 or 1020°C. There

were two temperature values of isothermal holding taken into consideration: 760 or 820°C. The order of creation of reaction products and

their morphology have been analyzed. The particular attention has been paid to the initial stage of transformation. The qualitative research

has been executed using the transmission electron microscope (TEM), as well as quantitative research (LM). The influence of austenitizing

temperature has also been determined on transformation kinetics and structural composition. It was found that the increase of austenitizing

temperature is conductive to the initial release of structures by metastable system. A reduction of time was observed of the initial stage of

transformation at temperature close to Ar12 with its simultaneous elongation at temperature close to Ar11, with an increase of austenitizing

temperature. The dependences obtained by the metallographic method confirm the prior results of dilatometric research of eutectoid

reaction.

This work presents the qualitative and quantitative changes in the products of isothermal transformation (reaction) in a ductile cast iron

austenite after supercooling to the temperature range Ar1. The austenitizing temperature considered in this work was 900, 960 or 1020°C.

The eutectoid reaction was investigated by metallographic examination at a holding temperature right below Ar11 (820°C) or right below

Ar12 (760°C). The quantitative metallographic examination was carried out with a light microscope (LM). The initial transformation stage

products were identified with a transmission electron microscope (TEM). The selected samples were studied for chemical

microsegregation of manganese, silicon, phosphorus, and carbon with an X-ray microanalyser (MAR). The tested cast iron material was

found to predominantly feature a eutectoid reaction in the metastable system the ratio of which was increasing with the austenitizing

temperature. The austenitizing temperature was found to be conducive to the evolution kinetics of individual phases and to the

graphitization kinetics of the eutectoid cementite that was formed during the contemplated reaction.

Divorced eutectoid growth of cementite in AISI 1080 steel is investigated as a function of cooling rate for incomplete austenitization-based heat treatment. Furthermore, a fundamental mathematical relationship is established through analytical treatment that correlates divorced eutectoid growth with effective cooling rate and degree of undercooling in view of bulk diffusion controlled growth model. As the cooling rate increases, the divorced eutectoid growth of cementite is gradually ceased. The result predicted by the analytical model closely matches with the experimental result (%Deviation ≤ 7).