The influence of chromium on the pearlite-austenite transformation kinetics of the Fe–Cr–C ternary steels

The Fe–Cr–C ternary steels containing different contents of Cr were successfully cast and further processed in the lab. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), optical microscope (OM), and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were employed to investigate the transformation of the Fe–Cr–C ternary steels from pearlite to austenite. It is found that the values of Ac1 and Ac3 are raised with increase in the content of Cr. In addition, the information on the transformation kinetics was obtained from experiment results and the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov model (JMAK). The obtained austenitic transformation kinetic process has been described in three overlapping steps: site saturation nucleation, diffusion-controlled growth, and impingement correction. The pre-exponential factor for diffusion decreases firstly and then increases. The activation energy for diffusion increases with the Cr content. In addition, Cr strongly affects the effective diffusion distance, the austenite nucleation sites, and the carbon activity gradient during the austenitic transformation kinetic process. - Highlights: • The pearlite-austenite transformation kinetics is researched by DSC. • The transformation kinetics is analyzed by experiment results and the JMAK model. • The activation energy and the diffusion coefficient are discussed