Kinetics of the abnormal austenite–ferrite transformation behaviour in substitutional Fe-based alloys

Abstract The kinetics of the recently discovered abnormal austenite (γ)–ferrite (α) transformation of substitutional Fe–Co and Fe–Mn alloys were measured by dilatometry and compared with the, also measured, corresponding normal transformation behaviour. A phase transformation model, involving site saturation, interface-controlled continuous growth and incorporating an impingement correction, has been employed to extract the migration velocity of the γ/α interface. It was found that the normal transformation process could be well described assuming a constant nucleus density and interface migration velocity. The thus assessed misfit-accommodation, deformation Gibbs energy is of the same order of magnitude as the chemical Gibbs energy change driving the transformation. A large austenite grain size was shown to be the precondition for the occurrence of abnormal kinetics. The abnormal transformation process involves the occurrence of additional peaks in the transformation rate for the first stage of the transformation. An autocatalytic type of nucleation was successfully incorporated in the above model to describe the occurrence of the repeated nucleation during the abnormal transformation.